Central Columbia now has a first round NFL draft pick, Jared Verse was picked at #19 by the L.A. Rams
Tagged under: District 4, News
Billy Splain | April 26, 2024
One fall Friday evening back in 2018, Julian Fleming, Cal Haladay, Gaige Garcia, Stone Hollenbach, Preston Zachman and Max Tillet stepped on the field at Central Columbia high school. All 6 would go on to be members of one of the most prolific Southern Columbia teams in history and all would eventually land at Division one schools. Little did they, or anyone there that night, know that they’d have been standing on a field with greatness. Former Blue Jay Jared Verse was taken by the L.A. Rams with the 19th pick of the 2023 NFL draft. He became the first player from an area with monster teams like Berwick, Mt. Carmel, Southern Columbia to be chosen in the first round of the NFL draft.
Jared had one college offer as a senior. He accepted it and redshirted his first year at Albany, then only played four games the next year due to covid. He wasn’t even an All-State selection. Verse had 15 catches at tight end and 14 tackles as a senior. “He wasn’t really a star at that point in high school” said Dave Fegley of the Black Diamond Sports Network who called that game on the radio. “He was just learning how to play football at that point.”
“Its awesome, I’m so proud of him” said current Central Columbia head coach EJ Smith. “I’ve been in close contact with him since he left high school. He’s earned it. Changed his body. Put in some hard work. Garret Carter, Xander Bradley, there was some serious talent on that field that night of that game with the Tigers. There are many kids from that game that went on with scholarships and several that chose other avenues in life that could have played. I’m a Berwick guy, and even with all the talent that they had over the years, Jared is the first ever first round draft pick from our area. I played with some amazing guys at Berwick. They had Ron Powlus, Bo Orlando, Jake Kelchner, you got Brett Veach from Mt Carmel. All the great players from our area and Jared has surpassed all of them with his first round pick. This was all him, no high school coach can take credit for this. We were texting during the draft. He’s still him. He’s humble. The Rams actually sent someone here to talk to me and asked about him in high school and they actually texted me last night, the Rams! It’s just amazing!”
Jared went on to play for Albany, then transferred to Florida State where he excelled. During college career at Albany and FSU, he’s recorded 164 tackles, 31.5 sacks, three pass deflections, and three forced fumbles over 39 games. He’s recorded at least nine sacks in his last three seasons. This past season for FSU he recorded 41 tackles, nine sacks, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and two pass breakups. Verse is known for his speed off the edge and strength to get to opposing quarterbacks. Speed was never missing for Verse. He was a member of the state champion 4×400 track team at Central Columbia.
In a recent interview with Fox Sports Verse had this to say: “”At the end of the day, I was never supposed to be in this position,” he said, talking to reporters at the combine. “I wasn’t supposed to be at Florida State, was never supposed to be standing here in front of you today. If you asked anybody in high school, I’m not supposed to be here.” Now the 6-foot-4, 250 pound defender is a first round draft pick.
During his media interview last night, he talked a little about his high school days. “I was undersized in high school. There was no doubt about it. I was like 200 pounds, 6-3. I was no monstrous force, you know. You look at me in high school and you look at me today and you’d be like what’s up? During my time off with covid I just took my bearings, I worked out all the time and that’s all I did”.
We’ve been talking to the kids about what was going to happen Thursday night” said Central Columbia Athletic Director Kevin Brown. “Just the excitement that a player from small Central Columbia going in the first round, it’s amazing”. Brown recently visited his home town and school. “The transformation he made with his body is just amazing” said Brown. Speaking on that day with Southern Columbia he said “We actually had the lead in that game, but Southern stormed back for the win” . There is so much talent that comes out of Columbia County, hopefully those others will be drafted too. But to have Jared be the first. It just shows how much effort they all put in”.
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