GREEN COVE SPRINGS – One of many trophy cases at Clay High is just a few steps inside the main entrance. Inside is a photograph of the U.S. Olympic swim team and a pair of goggles worn by one of the school’s prominent graduates, Caeleb Dressel.

Scribbled on the photo is the simple message: “To Clay High. Thanks for everything. Once a Blue Devil, always a Blue Devil!”

Once an Olympic gold medal winner, always an Olympic gold medal winner.

Dressel isn’t the exception to the high school’s exceptional success. Its Wall of Fame boasts a Super Bowl champion, a pair of World Series champions, an NCAA national wrestling champion, five county sheriffs, former NFL and Major League baseball players, a prominent local attorney and the man who invented the Smartphone.

“You want to go where people care about you, where you get support,” said Vice Principal Matt Lewis. “People here take pride in their school. They work harder. They want to achieve.”

Dane Dunning is another Blue Devils graduate with historic credentials. He left Clay High in 2013 after a standout baseball career. Last week, he helped the Texas Rangers win the organization’s first World Series title.

And in the process, he joined brother Jake Dunning – another Clay High graduate – as one of only 10 sets of brothers in Major League Baseball history to win a World Series. According to Baseball Almanac, there have been 20,533 players in MLB history dating back to the first game in 1876.

Jake won in 2014 with the San Francisco Giants.

Both brothers have the same tattoo of their parents, John and Misu Dunning, and their Korean heritage.

“Every time I see my tattoo, it just makes me think of my family and brings a little bit of home with me,” Dane said.

Frank Canova grew up in Green Cove Springs and graduated from Clay High in 1974. He earned his college electrical engineering degree at the Florida Institute of Technology.

In 1992, he invented the IBM Simon, a cordless portable phone. IBM put it on the market two years later. We’ve come to know it as the Smartphone. Now, just about everyone has a cellphone.

“I enjoy rolling up my sleeves since I’m still a software and hardware engineer at heart,” he said. “I love building technology. I also feel fortunate in my career to have created several industry ‘firsts.’”

Dressel graduated in 2014. Two years later, he represented the United States at Rio de Janeiro. He won gold medals in 4x100 freestyle and medley relays.

At the 2020 Games in Tokyo, Dressel won five more golds, which put him in a tie with swimmers Matt Biondi, Mark Spitz and Michael Phelps and speed skater Eric Heiden as the only American to win five golds at a single Olympic Games since 1970.

Dressel said he wasn’t driven by winning.

“It’s about achieving what I feel like my potential is,” he said.

Cy Wainwright won two state wrestling championships while at Clay, and he followed that up by winning the Division II NCAA heavyweight national championship in 2009 for Newberry College after winning all 36 of his matches.

He also was selected as an All-American before being hired as the head wrestling coach at Coker University. He returned to Newberry to lead the team to a second-place team finish in 2021. He’s now a professor in the Department of Sports Professions and an assistant athletics director.

“Green Cove is such a unique area,” Wainwright said. “People in Green Cove were born here. They grew up here. We’re used to things being a little tougher, a little harder, and we work a little harder. The community gets behind everything. There’s so much support. Clay is a very special place.”

A 2004 graduate, Cliff Avril was a four-sport star in football, track and field, weightlifting and basketball, but he decided to commit to football. That move landed him a spot on the Seattle Seahawks defense. He set a Super Bowl record in 2014 by scoring just 12 seconds into the game by tackling Denver's Knowshown Moreno for a safety.

Defensive back Nolan Carroll Jr. and offensive lineman Will Holden also played in the NFL, while Kyle Bird was a pitcher who had a brief stint with the Rangers.

Clay High also was home to five people who eventually became sheriffs in their counties. Rick Beseler, Jennings Murrhee, Scott Lancaster, and Michelle Cook have all served Clay County, while Wayne Ivey ran the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.

Former Florida Sen. Rob Bradley and attorney Renee Harrell are also Clay High alums.

Lewis has been at the school for 24 years. He doesn’t know how other schools operate and doesn’t want to know.

“It’s the only place I’ve been,” he said. “I don’t want to go anywhere else.”

He said he still talks to many of the people on the school’s Wall of Fame. He said they all shared a common trait – they excelled in the classroom.

“Every one of them, you could see them stand out as ninth graders,” he said. “We hold kids to a higher standard here. I can’t say we’re unique because I haven’t been anywhere else.”

Once a Blue Devil, always a Blue Devil.