Jacob Adkins brings the brains. And he brings the brawn as well. He's the total package for Stanton College Prep.
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For the last two summers,
Jacob Adkins has spent one week as a counselor at a Muscular Dystrophy Association Summer Camp.
The senior from
Stanton (Jacksonville, Fla.) loves working with the 10- to 18-year-old camp attendees, helping with activities like swimming, arts and crafts and just hanging out with kids their age who have a same affliction.
The best part of Adkins volunteering at the camp? He gets to spend one-on-one time with his 14-year-old brother, Matthew, who at age 5 was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
"It's a week away from home and the parents, so we get to say whatever, talk about whatever we want, really do whatever we want," Adkins said. "It's kind of like a brothers' week. We get our fair share in."
Adkins is very close with his brother. Attending the camp together just adds to their strong sibling bond. Adkins loves to take part in activities with his brother and bring a smile to his face.
MDA Camp is a rewarding experience for Adkins,
one he looks forward to each year.
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"It's honestly one of the greatest things to see, because I don't know how happy I would be," Adkins said.
Working at the camp in Live Oak, Fla., is Adkins' largest volunteer event he works each year. During his four years in high school, he has logged a staggering 288 volunteer hours. Helping others is something the 17-year-old is passionate about.
Aside from being a community leader, he's also smart and a solid athlete. Adkins is a well-rounded student-athlete who knows what he does away from athletic competition and in the classroom are what really count. Still, football is very important, and Adkins serves as a role model as an offensive lineman for the Stanton football team.
"The more you work him, the more he likes it," second-year Stanton football coach Mike Healey said. "He can't seem to get enough."
Football is Adkins' sport, though he has only played it since his freshman year. He's in his third year starting and getting better every year. This year he was named to the all-district team in the highly contested, 33-school area. As a junior, Adkins was named the Stanton Offensive Player of the Year.
In his two years coaching Adkins, Healey has played him at every position on the offensive line.
"What we're really trying to do is move him a lot of times to face their best defensive lineman and neutralize that," Healey said. "He's so smart, he can make all those jumps."
Adkins doesn't ever have a problem moving around at positions instead of being locked in at one spot game after game.
"I have a pretty good knowledge of blocking schemes, so it's usually pretty easy for me to pick up wherever he puts me each week," Adkins said. "I guess that's another reason he moves me around because he knows I can handle the task of playing all the positions."
Learn more about the MaxPreps US Marines program at www.maxpreps.com/marines
Being a cerebral player has its advantages. For the majority of games, Adkins plays center and is in charge of calling all the blocking schemes at the line of scrimmage. He has so much to worry about at the line scrimmage before he snaps the ball, but he's always trying to get the correct read on the defense.
"Sometimes you've got a million things running through your head at once: who's the "Mike" linebacker, who's the weak linebacker, which linebacker are you going to get, so on and so forth. How are you going to block them?" Adkins said.
Healey doesn't have any statistics for his 6-foot-2, 295-pound lineman, but he said Adkins registers about two to three pancakes per game.
"He can do it all and he's a student of the game," Healey said. "He hasn't missed a practice since I've been there. And he just does everything right."
Playing for the Stanton football team for four years hasn't been easy. During Adkins' sophomore year, the Blue Devils didn't win a game. Last year, they captured two wins. This year, the team is 1-8 heading into its regular-season contest.
"The thing that I've learned is the team I play on is unique for one reason. We don't win a lot and nothing comes easy and the wins we do get, we really work for them," Adkins said. "I guess being on a team that you're always losing, it builds character. It makes you stronger as a person. You're used to facing adversity."
The longtime baseball player started out high school on the baseball team as a freshman, but didn't play the next two years to concentrate on football. He's considering getting back on the diamond in his final high school year.
Adkins says he has learned a lot from his team's
lack of victories.
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At Stanton, academics is the top priority. Students are tailored to be sound in the classroom, and if they succeed in sports, that's an added bonus.
"At our school, academics come way before anything else over there," Healey said. "For example, our practices start at 3:10 and I have them off the field at 5:45, because they usually have three or four hours of homework at night."
Adkins' workload during his time at the college prep school has been astounding. He's currently enrolled in six International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement college courses. To hold a 4.45 GPA is pretty impressive considering all that.
"Especially at the No. 1 hardest school in Florida," Adkins said. "It's been a very long four years. It's a hard school. It's No. 6 in the nation."
Adkins has his sights set on playing college football. He's getting recruiting interest from a number of D-I Football Championship Subdivision, D-II and D-III schools. Stetson University is hot on Adkins' tail. He knows wherever he heads it will be difficult to juggle school and football.
"That's the one thing my school is very proud of, they've conditioned all of the students to be ready for that college workload," Adkins said. "I've talked to many students who went to my high school and they said college is just a breeze compared to high school."
Adkins is a member of the National Honor Society, Spanish National Honor Society, Wounded Warrior Project Club, Teenage Republicans Club and a Bible club called Stanton Revives.
His favorite activity outside of the classroom is the MDA summer camp, though.
"It really gives me a chance to connect with people who look up to me as a role model," Adkins said. "Sometimes these kids will talk to me and say, ‘Man, I wish I could play football.' It really gives me a, I wouldn't say a sense of motivation, more of a realistic perspective of how lucky I am."
