Reichard confident his hard work will bring a bright future
PLYMOUTH — Just when you think life is taking you in one direction it leads you in another.
that’s the experience of the male winner of Plymouth’s Noble Kizer Award for outstanding senior athlete Jake Reichard. From a very young age, it seemed Reichard would move on after high school to make his mark on the basketball floor. As it turns out, it will be on the gridiron.
“I thought that was my future for the longest time,” said Reichard. “Ever since I was in the fifth grade all I wanted to do was play college basketball. this is kind of a turn of events. I didn’t really take the recruiting for football seriously until the end of my junior year.”
Headed to Marian to play football next season he has no regrets about the time he spent traveling around the country to play basketball.
“We went everywhere you could think of,” he said. “It was a great experience and it got me ready to play football with that kind of athleticism.”
“I’m not a real big fan of planes but most of the time it was great,” said Reichard. “I got to see a lot of things and places, the whole country really. You see things that you would never see in Indiana. Even the people. A lot of the kids I would meet (and play against) showed me how hard I would have to work to get where I wanted to be.”
“I made a lot of good friends, even on our big rival. One of my best friends is Luke Adamiec at Warsaw,” he said. “He’s a great guy and I’m really glad that I met him through AAU. there are a lot of guys that I keep up with them and have great conversations.”
As is the case most times, it starts at home and family is important to Jake.
“It’s the most important thing to me for sure,” he said. “(Dad Kevin, Mom Jen, and siblings Cole and Hailey) they’ve been there for me for everything the least that I can do is put them first and make sure that they are happy with me and happy with what I’m doing.”
“they got me into sports but they don’t make it a priority,” said Jake. “If I did something else they would be alright with it they’d just want me to keep on track and be successful.”
It doesn’t mean family life was without its bumps and bruises — when it came to competition that is.
“My brother just used to beat me up (playing football),” he said. “(Sister Hailey, 1,000 point scorer for Plymouth Lady Pilgrim basketball) didn’t take it easy on me. We’d play horse in the driveway and she’d just beat up on both of us. I started to catch her about the fifth or sixth grade and from there it was just game on.”
“It was always competitive in my house whether it was just running through the house or playing a sport, no matter what happened we were always going at it,” he said. “(My parents) would try to stop it but every time we would just go right back to it.”
“It’s going to be hard to leave them but I think they’ve prepared me pretty well,” he said of headed for college. “I’m not that far away, I think it will be a smooth transition, but it will be hard to be away from them.”
Jake has around a 3.5
GPA for his high school career and while his college football career may still have some question marks, the classroom is a certainty.
“If you knew my mom you’d know that if my grades aren’t good there will be problems for sure,” said Reichard. “I’ve had a lot of times where she made clear that I need to keep my grades up and stay focused in the classroom.”
“You have to figure out whats most important,” he said. “They (parents) instilled that in me early on that school is going to take you further than anything else. Sports is your second option.”
What to study is a big question, one that doesn’t need to be answered right away.
“I’m just going with a generic business major but I don’t really know exactly what I want to do,” said Jake, “So I’ll use that and just go from there when I figure out what I want to do.”
The questions about his football future at Marian are in his hands to answer.
“They say the best man plays so I’m not one to back down from a challenge,” he said. “If there is somebody ahead of me I’m going to work hard to be in that starting spot. It’s whoever works the hardest and I feel I work very hard so I have a chance of playing.”
“I’ll play anywhere,” he said. “I don’t like sitting on the sidelines. I’ll play both sides of the ball if you need me to. I’ll play kickoff, kickoff return, whatever you need. I don’t like sitting on the sidelines watching something that I can’t control.”
That mentality is part of what he hopes will be the legacy he leaves behind at Plymouth.
“I hope people remember me as a good person,” he said. “Always had a smile on my face. Whenever you needed somebody to do something I was always there. I might not be the best at something but I’ll always give my best to make sure we get that win.”