By ROBERT LINNEHAN
In bad 80’s high school movies you were either a jock or a brain; you couldn’t be both. You could either excel in sports and wear a letterman’s jacket or excel in school and have a pocket protector. Jimmy Cashman, a Haddonfield junior, would not have been cast for any of those movies.
The 6’7, 270-pound junior offensive lineman excels in football. When not trucking over overwhelmed defensive tackles at the line he’s sprinting upfield, looking to plant unsuspecting safeties to help spring his team’s running backs. But when not crushing his opponents on the gridiron he’s carrying around a 4.0 GPA to his classes.
Maybe this is why so many NCAA Division 1 football programs are already courting the services of the young football player.
The University of Maryland, Boston College, University of Central Florida, Vanderbilt, University of Connecticut, N.C. State, Duke University, Tulane University, Rutgers University, and several Ivy league programs have actively recruited Cashman to play for their teams in 2012–2013.
“It’s awesome. The week after we beat West Deptford the University of Central Florida started to talk to me,” Cashman said. “That was the first taste I really had of a big Division 1 recruiting process. It caught me off guard at first but it’s fantastic.”
Cashman of course helped the Bulldogs to their first state championship this past season, providing a key anchoring force on the offensive line. What’s most scary for opponents, said his coach Frank Delano, was that Cashman got better every single game of the season.
It seemed like he started to grow into his body as the season went along, DeLano said, and dominated when he finally realized he was 6’7 and over 270-pounds.
“He’s a coachable kid. He has no ego; everyday when you watch him practice you saw he had that ‘how can I get better today’ mentality. To watch him run block is amazing,” he said. “You watch him close off the line and realize he can be a dominant football player. At the end of the year the majority of his plays were highlight plays, I love how he is a finisher and always looking for someone to hit as the play goes on.”
But perhaps his great asset is his “coachability” and intelligence, Delano said. Not many on the team have a better work ethic than Cashman, he said, and it shows through his effort on the practice field. It also doesn’t hurt to be freakishly athletic when you’re 6’7, he said with a laugh.
For all of the offensive opponents in the Colonial Conference who are relieved they won’t have to go up against Cashman next year, not so fast. Delano said next year he predicted that Cashman will start along the defensive line as well and will have the opportunity to be a dominant two-way player.
“He brings a unique dimension of size, speed and strength to our team. That’s indicative of why he’s getting the attention he deserves from all of these programs,” he said.
With so much attention as a junior, Delano said he is stressing that Cashman enjoy his senior year and not look past his last year of high school football. Cashman said he was on the same page, and anything less than another state championship will be a failure for his senior year.
“It’s not distracting, but it’s something I will look forward to next year. The season we had this year, it makes it even more exciting for next year,” he said. “I really credit my success and the team’s to our great coaching staff. They were able to get us motivated for the season, they told us that we could win the state championship and we started to think the right way. Our team was destined for success.”
