The Fredonia Hillbillies football team bids farewell this summer to one of its most highly recruited football players in Jake Skinner, as he joins Division-I FCS program Central Connecticut State University. With how low the odds are to see a player make it to the elite level of college football, especially in a small town like Fredonia, one would think that it could be quite some time until another Division-I football player comes along.

Well, that turnover may be a lot shorter than one would think, thanks to sophomore athletic phenom Nick Whitfield Jr. After only his first start for the black and orange, the Fredonia football staff began receiving interest about their sophomore quarterback. Currently, Whitfield has been receiving a lot of interest from teams in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) and it all began after just his first varsity start.

“There is a lot of MAC interest,” stated Fredonia football assistant coach Jordan Sherlock. “He just visited UB, visited practice and athletic facilities prior to the shutdown. He was also scheduled to visit Miami of Ohio before the coronavirus shutdown.”

Jordan Sherlock told the OBSERVER that some teams were so interested in Whitfield, that if there wasn’t a shut down he believed he would have received an offer by the end of the year. But unfortunately, as with everything in life right now, the coronavirus has gotten in the way.

Fredonia quarterback Nick Whitfield Jr. eludes a pass rusher during a Fredonia home football game at the Orange Bowl last season. OBSERVER File Photo

“He was scheduled for a day during the NCAA evaluation period to confirm measurements and do workouts. Vanderbilt, UB, Syracuse were among the teams that wanted to come watch Nick throw after seeing his videos,” added Jordan Sherlock.

Fortunately for Whitfield, it’s not like anyone is getting a leg up on him in the recruitment process, because the social distancing rules have taken their toll on everyone.

“It’s supposed to be a very important time for him, we had between 5-7 FBS schools that wanted to come evaluate him to see if they liked him and wanted to get him on campus,” Jordan Sherlock stated about what should be happening right now. “It has slowed down, it put a big kink in the chain… we had a whole summer lined up.”

Jordan Sherlock told the OBSERVER that the point of the in-person evaluations are so teams can see for themselves if Whitfield is really that rare combination of height and athleticism. He added there are Power 5 schools interested if he’s really 6-foot-5 and runs a 4.60 40 yard dash.

For many people, including Whitfield, it’s unbelievable that a Power 5 school would be interested in a small town sophomore. According to Whitfield, the team that surprised him the most that has expressed interest was the University of Arizona in the PAC-12. Whitfield said that a coach from Arizona sent him comments on his film via Twitter, as advancements in technology has made it easier for these big time programs to find diamonds in the rough.

“Some text me on Twitter, most go through Jordan. It’s either a position coach or the QB coach or has been the scout in the recruiting area we are,” Whitfield said about the recruitment process.

While Whitfield’s measurables and actual ability on the football field are what coaches stay for, he has had a lot of help to get his foot in the door with colleges. That all starts with the Sherlocks. The entire Sherlock family and the rest of the Fredonia football staff go above and beyond for their athletes. Jordan Sherlock acts as a liaison between the Fredonia football players and college recruits.

“All of the Sherlocks are amazing,” stated Whitfield. “Their dedication to the athletes… they help with everyone, they give people rides to football camps, training or wherever you need.”

Jordan Sherlock is the primary contact for college recruiters when reaching out to a Fredonia player and his contact list has grown exponentially starting with Joell Colon then really taking off with Skinner.

“Jake Skinner paved the way and is going to help with recruitment,” Jordan Sherlock said about the players before Whitfield. “Joell Colon opened the doors for Skinner and Skinner blew them open. We have the contacts now, I have over 100 coaches on Twitter. We used to have to fight to get attention for Jake and now we have those numbers, now we can focus on developing Nick rather than getting those contacts.”

As important as it is to get the contacts, you still have to follow through and deliver the goods and throughout Whitfield’s brief high school career he has proven that. On his Twitter page, you will find that the pinned tweet is a 10 minute video of his highlights from the gridiron this season, but if you dig deeper you will see his elite athleticism in everything he does.

When not under center, you can find Whitfield playing center for the Hillbillies basketball team and quickly going through his twitter feed you will notice how athletic he is as there are a slew of videos with Whitfield flying through the air for dunks. Whitfield’s performance on the hardwood earned him OBSERVER Male Player of the Year and if Spring sports are played this year, he will be featured as one of the premier pitchers in the county with the high heat he delivers.

“Nick sticks out because he’s good at everything he does and they want to see that,” Fredonia football head coach Greg Sherlock said about college recruiters. “When kids say they’re a one sport athlete somebody told them something wrong, colleges want to see them in other sports. People that understand athletics, they know you should be in more than one, because one sport helps the next.”

This statement rings true, especially in our grossly under recruited area as it is what got one of the area’s best college athletes ever recruited. College Football Hall of Famer and NFL All-Pro Shane Conlan described himself as a zero star recruit coming out of Frewsburg High School and the only offer he got was from Penn State, but it wasn’t because they came and saw him play in a football game, rather it was a basketball game. Conlan explained in an interview that he didn’t have a good game, but all the scout needed to see was how he ran, jumped and the ferocity he played with to want to make an offer.

While Whitfield doesn’t necessarily have the build to be the next great linebacker from WNY, what he does have is the toolbox to become a rare dynamic quarterback with both size and skill and it is evident in every sport he plays.

“It’s not like we just want him for football, we go to these things to watch our athletes so we can tell recruiters about their other athletic feats,” Greg Sherlock said about watching their athletes play multiple sports.

As we all know and have seen, the athletic tools can only take an athlete so far and the way to become the very best is through dedication and using your brain, especially at the quarterback position. One thing for certain with Whitfield is that the dedication is there and on top of that he’s learning the game from someone who has played it at the highest level.

Whitfield’s dedication to get better at quarterback has found him training and working with James Kubiak. Kubiak, a former pro quarterback and holder of 22 school records with the Naval Academy, could be what takes Whitfield to the next tier of quarterback recruits.

“Since I took my freshman year off, I wanted to get back in the swing of things. I went to a camp of Kubiak’s and did some simple stuff, he then told us he does private sessions and it took off from there,” Whitfield said about training with Kubiak. “It makes things a lot easier seeing the offenses he teaches me and reading defenses and seeing what will work best. We also watch film and he asks questions to see if I read it right.”

The dedication to make Whitfield the best quarterback he can be does not stop there between him and Kubiak. The Fredonia coaches have further made an effort to work with Kubiak too, the Sherlocks told the OBSERVER.

“All the coaches, we have gone up and met with Jim Kubiak,” stated Greg Sherlock. “If Nick knows it (the offense) as well as we do we’ll be successful.”

For now, during the pandemic, Whitfield has to adapt his development and training. His training with Kubiak has now been relegated to Zoom meetings and more X’s and O’s

“It’s different now,” Whitfield added about his training. “Since you can’t go places, I kind of try to do things on my own. I do footwork stuff and physical training too.”

Hopefully things get better sooner than later, and when they do, the young Fredonia quarterback will be ready and set up for what Jordan Sherlock called “a wild junior year.”