When Jahlil Reynolds first enrolled at St. Anthony High School a little more than three years ago, he was certain that he was destined for basketball greatness.
After all, isn’t that what most young men dream about when they head to St. Anthony? They want to play for legendary Hall of Fame coach Bob Hurley and move on to the college ranks with a free ride in their back pockets.
So that was Reynolds’ goal, to become the latest in a long line of scholarship basketball players coming out of St. Anthony.
Reynolds did play basketball for the Friars for four years, but never got a chance to shine on the hardwood.
“I hoped it would come in basketball,” Reynolds said. “But it never happened.”
When Reynolds was a youngster, he had played football for the Jersey City Recreation program, but did not play football at all since he was about 8 years old.
“It had been a very long time,” Reynolds said. “I was afraid to play because I thought I might get hurt.”
As he entered his first year as the head football coach at St. Anthony, Matt Gallo was looking all over for prospective players. He inherited the program after his former coach at Hoboken Ed Stinson stepped down, taking over a team that had only 16 returning players.
So Gallo approached Reynolds to see if he would be willing to play football for the 2015 season.
“It took me a while to get acclimated to the game again,” Reynolds said. “As I got back into it again, I realized that I liked the sport.”
Gallo made Reynolds into a running back on offense and outside linebacker on defense. Gallo capitalized on Reynolds’ size (6-foot-3 and 220 pounds) and speed and inserted him right in the Friars’ backfield.
“I saw the size and speed and knew he was a complete package,” Gallo said. “I also saw the determination he had to be a great athlete. I saw the ability he had running with the ball and I knew that he was just scratching the surface as a football player.”
Jermaine Rodgers-Speaks was another athlete who headed to St. Anthony to be a basketball player, but Speaks played football for his entire career at the downtown Jersey City school.
“It was like half and half,” Speaks said. “Half basketball, half football. I played football throughout. I liked playing both sports.”
Speaks’ father, Jermaine Sr., was a dominant athlete during his high school days in the late 1980s at Ferris, earning All-Hudson County honors in both football and basketball, so the diversity was in the younger Speaks’ blood.
“He was always there for me,” Speaks said of his father. “He’s been my No. 1 supporter.”
Speaks is also blessed with great size, standing 6-foot-3 and weighing 290 pounds as a two-way lineman.
“He learned that the team concept is similar to family,” the elder Speaks said. “It taught him how to interact with people and deal with adversity. I’m very proud of him. His hard work didn’t stop in either sport. He had to work hard.”
Both Reynolds and Speaks were on the Friars’ basketball squad that posted a 32-0 record and recently captured the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions title as the top team in New Jersey and ranked No. 4 in the entire country.
But neither played much all season. They were reserve players and were not going to gain much attention from college recruiters.
However, Reynolds’ football highlight film on YouTube drew some late interest from some Division I schools.
“We sent out Jahlil’s tape all over the place and didn’t hear much,” Gallo said. “Then, out of nowhere, the offer came.”
Bryant University in Rhode Island found Reynolds and quickly made an offer.
“It was just three weeks ago when they first contacted us,” Gallo said. “They saw the ability and the potential. It was a no-brainer, a home run.”
Reynolds took a visit to Bryant and immediately realized that the school was for him. Kids from Jersey City don’t get a chance to go to schools like Bryant, but Reynolds owned a 3.3 grade point average and a score of 24 on the American College Testing (ACT) that some schools use for admission purposes.
“I was very impressed,” Reynolds said. “It had a very competitive type of environment, which I liked. The coaching staff stressed academics to me, which I also liked.”
And incredibly, Reynolds, the former basketball player, instantly became an NCAA Division I football player.
“It’s something that I just don’t believe happened,” Reynolds said. “I didn’t believe it after I signed the letter. When it actually happens, you’re amazed. I thought I was going to college to play basketball, but I learned how to play football quickly and that’s my sport now.”
Speaks also earned a scholarship, gaining the attention from NCAA Division II school Cheyney University in Pennsylvania, the same school that signed former North Bergen standout quarterback Dominick Trautz of North Bergen last year.
So imagine that. St. Anthony, the basketball factory, actually had two college scholarship signees last week in another sport.
“I think it speaks volumes on the school’s behalf,” Gallo said. “They’re now going to college for free. It’s what every kid dreams about. They were perhaps unsure of where they would end up, but it shows that St. Anthony prepares kids to go to college. We didn’t have a great season, so it’s even more of a testament to school. Jahlil serves as an ambassador to the school and has done that for the last three years.”
Reynolds, who was also recruited by Pace, West Liberty, and Central Connecticut, will more than likely play outside linebacker in college. He will major in marketing and hopes to pursue a Master’s in business administration down the road.
“This is a very good day,” Reynolds said. “It’s a very proud day.”
Speaks will be a lineman. It doesn’t matter that the scholarship didn’t come from basketball as anticipated.
“It feels amazing,” said Speaks, who was also recruited by Central Connecticut. “It’s pretty rewarding that we’re both getting a chance to play college football. No one would have ever thought that would happen.”
It marks the first time since St. Anthony instituted football in 2008 as a varsity sport that the school had more than one college signee in the same year. And they both came from a different sport.
“I have to be honest,” Reynolds said. “I definitely hoped it would be basketball. After I didn’t play that much, I thought my chances for college were over. If I didn’t get this chance, I probably would have gone to West Liberty to play football. How this all happened is really hard to believe.”
But the national letter of intent was indeed in Reynolds’ hand last week, along with the pen that enabled him to sign his name. Believe it or not, Jahlil Reynolds is a Division I football player. If you believe, great things could happen. He’s living proof to that.
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com. You can also read Jim’s blog at www.jimhaguesports.blogspot.com.