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Gettysburg Middle School football player makes splash on national scene

Gettysburg, Adams County:   To make a splash on the national football prospect scene, you need a combination of skills and measurables.  Gettysburg`s Jaceb Dick...
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Gettysburg, Adams County:   To make a splash on the national football prospect scene, you need a combination of skills and measurables.  Gettysburg`s Jaceb Dickerson has both. Standing at 6'1" 185 pounds, the soon to be eighth grader's profile is jumping out at camps.

"You got to be excited because there's always the chance you get accepted,  but at the same time you got to stay determined and you got to be hungry to eat," says Dickerson.

This summer he was one hungry player on the camp circuit competing with over four thousand kids at USA Football's regional camps hoping to earn a call to Canton, Ohio for the USA Middle School Bowl Game held at the NFL Hall of Fame.

Dickerson relieved when the moment came . "I was upstairs sitting in my room on my phone and I heard my mom call me from downstairs. I was thinking, it actually was on my mind, did I get accepted? I walk down the steps, she's like good news, and she shows me her phone. I see the email and I was just like yes."

Jaceb, one of 80 seventh graders to get the call to Canton for the June game. And to those closest to him on the gridiron, his success comes as no surprise.

"His work ethic, he is very coach-able, very humble. He is good but he doesn`t throw it in your face, he will help his teammates out 100 percent," says Matt Sentz his line coach at Gettysburg Midget Football.

In Ohio on the Hall of Fame field, Dickerson showed off his skills on the biggest of stages.

"Some of those plays I beat the offensive lineman off the ball, I would blow up the A- gap and hit the running back as he was taking the hand off. You know taking him down it is really exciting, teammates are there you get hyped.  You get pumped up, just have fun and go a hundred miles an hour."

Excitement in Canton, and also back home in Gettysburg as Jake turns a 300 mile trip into an MVP performance. Coach Sentz could not contain himself while watching the game.

"It was incredible, and to be texting his mom during the game,  it was great. I could here his mom screaming, over the computer when they announced he was MVP," says Sentz

Dickerson added, "MVP was a complete surprise with the talent that was there."

"Some of those kids were phenomenal athletes! You could here my mom screaming in the box, that is how loud she was, so that was definitely ecstatic mom mode there," he said blushing.

As for what is next for Dickerson, back to grind and get ready for the dog days ahead next season.

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