Heisman Trophy candidate Ashton Jeanty’s football roots go back to a Navy base in Italy

GRICIGNANO DI AVERSA, Italy (AP) — The soccer field is immediately noticeable to visitors driving on an overpass approaching the U.S. Navy Support Site outside Naples.

An American football field in the middle of southern Italy.

Skip past the local pothole-ridden streets, go through the security gate and the unkempt Italian roads are replaced by perfectly paved ones. Home to more than 500 families, the Naval Base is true Heisman Trophy candidate Ashton Jeanty learned to play football.

Now a junior running back for Ranked 15th Boise State and a unanimous selection The Associated Press midseason All-America teamJeanty’s talents were first noticed by Naples High School football coach Jim Davis when he was in seventh grade.

But not on the football field. That’s because tackle football wasn’t an option for high schoolers.

It was on the basketball court during lunch in high school.

“He goes for a layup and he gets so big that I think this kid is about to dunk the ball,” said Davis, who also teaches physical education at the school. “As a seventh grader, you can imagine how small he is. He is now 5-9, 5-10. So he was probably closer to 5-4 or 5-5. And it’s like, ‘Wow, look at the power this kid has at such a young age.’

Davis had to wait two years to unleash that power on his team when Jeanty was a freshman in high school in 2018.

And it wasn’t until coach moved Jeanty from quarterback two games into the season that he really started to take off.

“I realized he had to be the running back. I could get anyone to hand the ball to him,” Davis told the AP during an interview at the military base this week.

In the remaining four games of Naples’ season, Jeanty ran for over 1,200 yards on fewer than 100 carries and scored 17 touchdowns.

“I’d be lying to you if I told you (I thought) he would be a Heisman candidate,” Davis said. “The only person who probably really felt this way was himself. But I knew he could play at the next level, so I knew he had to get out here and get the exposure.”

So Davis encouraged Jeanty to return to the US for his last three years of high school. And that’s what Jeanty did by enrolling at Lone Star High School in Frisco, Texas. Now he leads the nation with 1,376 yards in seven games for Boise State and is considered the top running back in the NFL draft.

Naples’s biggest competitor is a 9-hour bus ride away

Jeanty’s one year of football in Italy was unlike anything most American athletes experience in high school.

Naples’ closest competitor will be on a similar base in Vicenza in northern Italy in nine hours. During Jeanty’s season, the team also played games in Germany, Belgium and Spain. The match in Germany required an 18-hour bus ride.

Current Naples quarterback Camden Kasparek was the ball boy when Jeanty played on the team.

“On those long bus trips you have a lot of team bonding, a lot of cool opportunities, a lot of fun outings with the team,” Kasparek said, adding that Jeanty still keeps in touch with him on social media and follows the school. results.

The Navy Support Site is a home away from home

With a movie theater, a bowling alley and a supermarket full of American goods, the naval base is a home away from home for the children who live there.

“We have Popeyes and Wendy’s and Subway, and they can buy American clothes and they can now buy Skippy peanut butter and Halloween candy, and soon they’ll be going trick or treating here,” Davis said. “So yeah, it’s very much like small-town America.”

Naples plays some of its games in a volcano

Because the naval support base’s field has no lights, some of the team’s games are played at the Carney Park military recreation facility inside a dormant volcano in nearby Pozzuoli.

The rec site is linked to a relationship between the American military community and Naples dating back to World War II.

“It’s pretty neat,” Davis said. “You see the crater all around you.”

Michael Strahan and Shaquille O’Neal also attended military schools abroad

Growing up in a military family helped shape who Jeanty is.

“The sense of discipline, order. You work until the job is done, not just because the time is up,” Davis said. “He has that work ethic.”

Other athletes have followed Jeanty’s path before, from overseas bases to the elite level, such as George Teague, Michael Strahan, Alejandro Villanueva – and Shaquille O’Neal in basketball.

Military life translates well to football.

“It’s all about teamwork, discipline and respecting the chain of command: not having to like the person next to you, but respecting them to complete the mission,” Davis said.

Jeanty was already a difficult task as a freshman in high school

Davis now often wakes up in the middle of the night to watch Jeanty play. What he sees isn’t much different from what the coach saw firsthand six years ago.

‘He wouldn’t go down on the first hit. He was explosive. You just felt like you were always on the edge of your seat waiting for him. You know, the next touch could be a touchdown,” Davis said.

“Most of our matches were high-scoring, like 45-42, 38-35. Most of the time we were lucky to have the ball last. So we were never out of it, as long as we gave it to number 2.”

___

Receive poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 all season long. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll And https://apnews.com/hub/college-football