School: Quakertown
Football, Wrestling
Favorite athlete: George St. Pierre (UFC)
Favorite team: Pittsburgh Steelers
Favorite memory competing in sports: Pinning my opponent from Pocono Mountain East in the last 15 seconds while I was down. I won the match for the team and everyone was so excited. I’ve never seen Handel jump so high!
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I was so excited after a football game I gave the player that caught the winning touchdown a peck on the check…everyone saw!
Music on iPod: Alternative and rock
Future plans: Go to a four-year college for engineering. I want to get a great education and would love the chance to play football at that university if I can.
Words to live by: “Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking. Courage is doing the right thing when everyone is looking.”
One goal before turning 30: Have a great family of my own and have a steady job that would provide a secure life for my children.
One thing people don’t know about me: I don’t like confrontations and hate public speaking.
By Alex Frazier
In a recent match against Pocono Mountain East, Quakertown’s Jake Swearingen stepped on the mat for the last bout of the day with his team trailing 33-30.
The Panther heavyweight, who weighs in at about 230 pounds, was facing Pocono’s Michael Bryan who tipped the scales at 275.
The match was a back and forth affair until the last period. Swearingen led Bryan by a point when Bryan reversed to take the lead. With 15 seconds remaining, Swearingen sat out, turned in and rolled Bryan on his back for a fall and a 36-33 team victory.
“He’s all grit and no quit,” said Quakertown wrestling coach Kurt Handel.
That’s just the kind of kid Swearingen is.
Swearingen has been wrestling since third grade. But despite his years of experience, for his first three years in high school he was locked in behind the likes of Panther stalwarts Jon Weibel and Rob Basile, unable to crack the lineup.
How many kids, especially in a grueling sport like wrestling are willing to wait until their last season to step into a varsity role?
“It’s a testament to what Jake’s about,” said Handel. “You start something and you finish it. He’s committed to his teammates. As a coach you want to see Jake do so well because he’s paid his dues. Not many young kids are going to stick it out for three years. You have to pull for a guy like that.”
“It was always tough, but there were always good kids on the team, fun kids to hang around with,” he said. “I just don’t like quitting things. I knew if I worked hard it would pay off sometime.”
Swearingen started football in sixth grade. He played midgets for two years, and then moved up to Milford Middle School for a year. In high school, he played tight end as a freshman and sophomore, but didn’t see much playing time.
In his junior year, former coach John Donnelly moved him to offensive guard and defensive end. Voila! He was named first team all league on offense and third team on defense.
As a senior, Swearingen was a starting right guard and defensive end for a Panther squad that scored more than 20 points in half of its games. Defensively, he had 27 tackles with five of them for a loss.
This year he was named first team offense once again and moved up to second team defense. He was also named the team MVP.
Perhaps his biggest football award came last Thursday when he was recognized as one of 60 recipients of the Mini Maxwell Award, a most prestigious honor bestowed on a player from each high school team for his athletic ability, academic prowess and his community service.
“I didn’t realize it at first, but then my dad and coaches were telling me what a big deal it was,” said Swearingen. “It didn’t hit me until after the ceremony.”
The icing on the cake came when he got to shake hands with former Eagles’ quarterback Ron Jaworski and met former Eagles’ coach Dick Vermeil.
Swearingen is captain of both the football and wrestling teams this year.
“He’s an excellent leader,” said Handel. “He leads by example. He’s a hard worker and the kids listen to him. We as coaches lean on him at times to get things done in the room for us that may not be getting done, working out harder with wrestlers or making sure kids are behaving outside the wrestling room.”
“He doesn’t look for the limelight,” said Banas. “He’s willing to do whatever it takes to make the team better. He’ll sit down and take the time to talk to anybody and be meaningful when he talks to somebody.”
Needless to say, his “never quit” philosophy has been a positive influence on his teammates.
“No matter what it takes, he’s willing to put in the effort and the hard work to do it,” said Banas. “That rubs off on other kids as well. If you’re around a kid like that, you want to do that as well. That definitely happened this year on the football team.”
Swearingen’s athletic ability is only overshadowed by his academic record. He is ranked second in a class of 400 and carries a GPA of 4.62.
This year his curriculum includes five advanced placement courses, one college class and kinesiology.
“He is the definition of student-athlete,” said Handel.
Although he is still undecided about college, Swearingen has already been accepted to Penn State. His other choices include: Lafayette, Bucknell, Lehigh, Rochester Institute of Technology, Renseleer and Drexel.
Quite an impressive list.
He would like to play football in the right situation, depending on where he goes. Wrestling isn’t out of the picture but not a strong possibility.
Swearingen plans on majoring in engineering. He has won awards at the state level in engineering contests. Penn State has already accepted him in its petroleum engineering program, though at this point mechanical engineering his preference.
As an officer in the National Honor Society, Swearingen has given hours of community service to the Quakertown Food Bank. He also helps with Best Buddies, a program that matches volunteers with special needs kids.
“He did everything right, academically and athletically,” said Banas.
In his first year of varsity wrestling, Swearingen is 17-7. He got off to a slow start, losing three of his first seven matches, but since then he has gained some steam.
“He came off football a little out of wrestling shape,” said Handel.
On top of that, wrestling heavyweight is a bit different than other weight classes because there can be a big discrepancy in weight and physical stature.
“You have to game plan differently for the matches,” said Handel. “He’s learning all that. He’s such a coachable kid. We show him things and he turns around and goes out and does it.”
What Swearingen lacks in size (6-0, 230), he makes up for in quickness and athleticism.
“He has no problem cradling a guy that weighs 275 pounds,” said Handel. “You don’t see too many heavyweights going for cradles.”
He has won his last nine matches, seven of them by pin.
He’s pleased with his progress this year, especially having gone 3-2 at the very tough Beast of the East and placing third at the Hurricane Tournament in Bethlehem, a hotbed of wrestling.
“I’m just doing what the coaches taught me,” he said. “Overall it’s been very good.”
Swearingen is hoping to make the best of his first, and last, varsity wrestling season. With some good competition under his belt already, he is setting his goals high.
“I’d love to make it to states, but I don’t know if that’s quite reasonable, maybe make it to regionals,” he said. “That might be more reasonable. I’d be enthralled if I got to states.”
If he doesn’t, it won’t be because he quit.
