Football, Wrestling
Favorite athlete: Lolo Jones
Favorite team: Chicago Bulls
Favorite memory competing in sports: Going undefeated my freshman football season and continuing to play football with the same group of guys for another three years…even though my senior football season didn’t go as planned, it was the group of people I played with that made it a season I will never forget.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Some time during my seventh grade basketball season, I had a wide open layup and missed the same shot three times, then when the other team caught up to me, I missed the layup another two times.
Music on iPod: A lot of J.Cole, Tunji Ige, and Kendrick Lamar…some Kenny G when the mood is right.
Future plans: To play football at a D3 4-year university and study business or medicine.
Words to live by: “If you argue with a fool, you become a fool.” L.A. Hilden
One goal before turning 30: Living debt-free in Chicago with a wife that knows how to cook and can give quality back massages.
One thing people don’t know about me: I’m dealthly afraid of cats…and I spend approximately 13 minutes on my hair in the morning.
By GORDON GLANTZ
As the Christmas break approaches, Jason Caso is about as deeply immersed into the world of Wissahickon High School as any student on the Lower Gwynedd campus.
The senior class president and captain of the wrestling team has a lot of excitement ahead in the coming months.
After what he felt was a disappointing season on the football field, as the Trojans went 2-8 and the offensive guard/middle linebacker struggled with a nagging hamstring injury, Caso is looking to reach 20 wins -- he is already halfway there -- on the mats at 220 pounds and reach as far as sectionals.
The spring will not only yield the prom and commencement, but also an internship with HUP’s Gorman Research Group in cardiology, and his college visits and decision.
Carrying a weighted 4.81 grade-point average, his goal is to play Division III football at a school – such as the University of Chicago or Carnegie Mellon -- that meets both his academic and athletic goals.
It’s an exciting time for the Univest Featured Male Athlete of the Week, but it is also a time of serious reflection for a young man who is a deep thinker.
Knowing changes loom on the horizon, he has put his life to this point on rewind and taken a sentimental journey.
He knows he would not be where he is today, looking into a bright future, without a lot of support and inspiration.
“If there is one thing I feel like I haven't done enough in life, it's not thanking the people who have helped me out most,” he said. “Sometimes, people forget just how much they mean to others. I know my parents realize I am thankful for their help and what they've done for me and how they've been always able to provide for me, but I feel as if I lack in letting them know this. My parents have helped me grow and progress into the young man I am, and I owe everything to them.”
It is likely from his respect for his parents – Michael and Jerilynn Caso – that he was open to letting other adults light his path. That includes not only head football coach Jeff Cappa and assistant Larry Cannon, but wrestling coach Anthony “Stags” Stagliano.
“Similarly, I owe a lot to my coaches for their help,” he said. “The three main coaches I am most thankful for are Coach Stags, Coach Cannon, and Coach Cappa. Sports have provided me with a certain backbone and mindset for life and I know I would not be nearly as successful or the same person I am without sports and my Coaches. I will be forevermore grateful for their ability to continue to have faith in me year after year and push me to be the best student, athlete, and person.”
And as The Beatles put it, he has gotten by with a little help – actually a lot of help – from his friends.
“I am friends with a lot of the kids in my class, both on sports teams and in the classroom,” he added. “However, I have a group of four or six guys that I know would take a bullet for me, as I would for them. As kids grow older, I often hear of some leaving groups of friends and changing, but I have been best friends with this specific group of guys since my freshman year.
“The fact that we have been able to remain such a strong group for so long really shows how much we care about each other. Not one of my friends would ever let me slip; we watch out for each other like family because that's what we consider each other.”
“Next year as I go off to college and everything changes, I know I will truly realize how grateful I am for my family, coaches, and friends. I am nervous for next year because nothing will be the same for the first time in my life, but I know the values and characteristics my family, coaches, and friends have instilled in me will keep me prepared for the future.”
Mutual Feeling
At the wrestling banquet last year when Stagliano took to the podium to literally “pass the baton” by naming the captains for the current year, Caso immediately pointed to veteran wrestlers on the squad, predicting they would be tabbed to take the lead.
Instead, after just one year of wrestling, he heard his own name called.
“It took me by surprise,” said Caso. “I was sitting at the banquet and (Stagliano) had two batons. He started giving his speech about co-captains for next year. I was looking around at different guys, saying ‘it’s going to be you, it’s going to be you.’ When he said something about a newcomer, everyone looked at me.”
And Caso is aware that the team is still looking at him in a sport where leadership is more understated than in football.
“It’s about leading by example,” he said. “I thought it could be a good challenge for me to work on setting a serious atmosphere during practices.”
While Caso still says it “shocked” him to be named a captain, the fact that he has seamlessly stepped into the role does not surprise Stagliano.
For all the positive feelings that he had toward the coach that convinced him to come out for wrestling under the guise of getting into better football shape, Stagliano has the same toward his emerging standout.
“I have been coaching for over 30 years, and Jason Caso is one of my favorite wrestlers I have ever coached and it has been an honor to coach him. He’s an amazing young man,” said Stagliano, who thanked Cappa, who doubles at the wrestling team’s strength and conditioning coach, for encouraging football players to wrestle in the winter.
“Jason never wrestled until last year when I convinced him to come out for the team,” Stagliano continued. “I knew he was a good athlete and football player so I thought he could help our team especially since we needed bigger kids. Once he decided to come out, I told him we’re going to keep things basic, and if he learns what we’re teaching, I guaranteed him he would win at least 10 matches and go to Districts.
“He did just that - winning his last match and advancing to Districts. I also saw Jason’s work ethic and leadership skills enough so that I made him team captain. Some thought it was a little odd naming a first year wrestler to be captain, but he was exactly the type of kid that you want as one of your leaders - and he has not let me or the team down as not only is he winning on the mat, he has been a great leader as well.
“Jason still has a lot to improve on so he should only keep getting better as the year goes along. We hadn’t set particular goals for him this year, but with his great start to the season, I think 20 wins and a trip to Regionals is not out of the question.”
Setting a ‘President’
Despite being involved in student government – as well as the National Honor Society, Spanish Honors Society, student tutoring (calculus, accounting and Spanish), FANS Club and Wiss Pals (working with mentally challenged students) – Caso was also a little surprised when he won the election for class president.
“In my freshman and sophomore years, I was on student council,” said Caso, who is eyeing careers in business, accounting or medicine. “I was a junior class officer. I had a lot of experience, and I guess the student body knew that, but I was pretty surprised (to be elected).
“It’s been a challenge at times, but it’s been worthwhile. I like the position I’m in. It has been a learning process for me and has helped me with my social skills. I have learned that you can’t please everyone. I have to accept that I can’t make everyone happy.”
It was in middle school that Caso first realized that he needed to make himself happy. He tore his meniscus and pretty much ended his basketball career.
“It took me out a while, and I stopped played altogether,” he said, adding that football became his primary focus.
“I definitely knew I wanted to play football in college one day. I wanted to use football to put me over the top. I want to find an academically challenging school and also play football.”
And because he has the academics in order – along with the impressive list of school activities – he has put himself in a position to walk through doors of Division III schools that fit the description.
“The schools I’m targeting are challenging,” said Caso, who has taken five AP classes over the last two years. “For me, they are good fits.”
But that is not his only motivation.
That is not who Jason Caso is, or what he is all about.
He is about the summer spent working out with the football team during the day and with the wrestling team at night.
He is about spending, by his estimation, 59 hours per week at school, which he says can be “hard to balance” but has “learned to make it work,” in large part because of coaches who “understand my situation and are willing to work with me.”
He is about passing the baton – and to one person in particular, his younger brother, Tyler, a future student-athlete at Wissahickon who is going to come onto campus as “Jason Caso’s younger brother.”
Caso, who has two older sisters – Christine and Susan – wants to blaze a trail that will help him find his way.
“I do a lot of this to set an example for my younger brother,” said Caso. “That’s why I conduct myself with good manners. He can see someone he can base himself on, because he is going to face a lot of the same adversities. Hopefully, I can set a good example.”
