Football, Baseball
Favorite athlete: Kevin Durant
Favorite team: Texas Longhorns
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning our (first) state baseball game. We came back in the bottom of the seventh inning to win the game and move on. That game was probably the most intense and exciting game I’ve ever been a part of.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I was batting in a scrimmage last year for our baseball team, and the kid pitching threw a curveball at me, and it made me get so off balance I fell to the ground and then it was called a strike.
Music on iPod: Country and Hop-Hop
Future plans: Going to Penn State Abington next year for college then hopefully transfer to Penn State main after two years.
Words to live by: “Do the best, be the best, being second is not motivating.”
One goal before turning 30: Go skydiving
By Mary Jane Souder
Jason Adelman, according to coach Ernie Rehr, is the epitome of a team player.
“He’s not our first, second or third guy on the mound,” the Upper Moreland baseball coach said of his senior pitcher. “We have three really solid pitchers, and he just happens to be that fourth kid, but he’s always doing whatever he possibly can for the team.
“He’s just a fantastic, fantastic young man. We always talk about what a great teammate he is.”
Rehr goes on to recount how Adelman was scheduled to work when the team was holding a recent practice.
“You never know when we’re going to play at this point, and he said, ‘Coach, I can’t make practice. I tried to get out of work, but I can’t,’” the Golden Bears’ coach said. “He ended up showing up at practice on time.
“I said, ‘I thought you had to work.’ He said, ‘Yeah, it was kind of slow, so I begged them to get out so I could be at practice.’ Here’s a kid who knows he’s not really going to play but is coming out to practice and basically getting out of work to be there.”
Adelman is one of those special athletes who not only understands his role but uses it as motivation.
“It just makes me work even harder every day,” he said. “I just want to pitch, I just want to play, and it just makes me practice even harder.
“Even though I don’t always get in, it just drives me to work harder.”
When he’s not on the field, Adelman can be found next to Rehr and assistant coach Ken Irwin.
“When they’re not out on the field coaching, I’m usually right beside them, listening to whatever they say,” Adelman said. “They talk about situations in the game. I listen, I learn.”
It’s the kind of attitude that has made Adelman – affectionately known as Jiggs - such a valued member of a Golden Bears squad that captured the SOL American Conference title and recently won its opening round state playoff game after finishing second in the District One Class AAA Tournament.
“When we had offseason workouts, he would show up for the workouts,” Rehr said. “He’s always a hard worker.
“You’re not going to walk into the weight room and say, ‘Look at those numbers,’ but he’s giving you what he can. He’s the epitome of a great teammate. He keeps the team loose. You look at Jiggs and you smile, and that is what high school sports are all about.”
Adelman has been playing baseball for as long as he can remember.
“I have an older brother, and he played baseball his whole life,” he said. “He went to Penn State, and he played there, and he really got me into it. He played every day, and he even coached my teams when he was younger.
“Even if I don’t play a whole lot, it’s just the love of the game.”
Adelman also played basketball and hockey but gave those up in middle school.
“I played seventh and eighth grade football,” he said. “I started as a center, and right after that, I was done. I said I didn’t want to play football again in high school.
“I didn’t feel like putting the time in during the summer, and I had baseball in the summer.”
But at 6-0 and weighing in at 250, Adelman began getting pressure from his friends to come out for the football team last year.
“They all played football, and they were trying to tell me they needed linemen, they needed a left tackle,” Adelman said. “They said, ‘Come and lift and see if you like it.’ So I went and loved it. Hung out with my friends. I was there with them every second of the day. I wasn’t just sitting at home while they were out actually being active and all that.”
Although he enjoyed the lifting, Adelman wasn’t sure he wanted to make a commitment to play football.
“I remember talking to him on the cell phone trying to convince him to come out, and he had a flat tire,” former football coach Dave Heying said. “He said that Pat Duff, our starting center, was coming out to help him.
“I said, ‘Duff won’t help you out unless you play football for us.’”
Adelman attended the football team’s mini-camp in June after baseball.
“I made sure to ask him how he was doing and reinforce to him that it wasn’t too hard playing football and to make sure he was having fun,” Heying said.
When preseason rolled around in August, Adelman was there, and he earned a starting spot at left offensive tackle.
“For never playing before, he really helped us out a lot,” Heying said. “As he progressed, we felt more and more comfortable running behind him.
“He also played scout squad offense every practice, so he got extra reps and got to go against our very best defensive players which only made him and the team overall better. He was a great team player. He was fun to coach given how hard he worked and how he was willing to do anything to make the team better.”
Adelman admits there were ups and downs, and he recalls his toughest game against conference champion Plymouth Whitemarsh when the Golden Bears were without Chris Kitchen.
“The kid I was going against was beating me all game,” he said. “I was trying my best not to let Charlie Hooker just get wrecked back there.
“I started out a little shaky in the beginning, but by the end of the year, I felt right in place with everybody else that’s been playing their whole high school career. I just kept learning every day from my coaches. If I was going to play, I was going to learn and try my hardest.”
According to Adelman, the team’s DJ, there was nothing quite like Friday night football.
“That was definitely an experience,” he said. “You can’t compare middle school to high school football at all. It’s a completely different feeling. You’re playing under the lights. It’s against bigger and better people.
“I was always in the stands. It’s a completely different feeling being on the field. Everybody is watching you. You mess up and everybody sees it, but when you make a great play, everybody sees that, and they’ll talk about it the next day at school. It’s a crazy feeling. There no other feeling like playing under those lights in the football stadium and having the whole town watching you.”
Still, baseball remains his passion. Adelman plans to play this summer for several teams and is looking to continue his career at Penn State Abington next year.
“When he uses his body and keeps the ball down, he’s got a very, very effective fastball, sneaky fast, and his curveball can be unhittable,” Rehr said. “His problem a lot of times is his mechanics – not being able to drive with the bottom half and sometimes he leaves the ball up. When he’s keeping the ball down, he can be very, very good.
“He’s really looking forward to getting another chance to play baseball.”
For now, Adelman is enjoying his final days with his high school squad.
“I didn’t play a lot, but when I get my chances, I don’t take them for granted,” he said. “It was a great team to be part of this year.”
A team that was better, according to Rehr, because Adelman was a part of it.
“He’s just an all around good kid,” the Golden Bears’ coach said.
