Navy's Foley blazes trail for his younger brother
It's not that Jordan Foley despises losing.
It's more like he can't remember it.
Foley, a Meridian resident and sophomore on the Naval Academy's Sprint football team, has won 27 consecutive games as a football player.
He played on Shady Side Academy's team that finished 5-5 his senior year, winning its final three games. He then played for Case Western Reserve's 10-0 team in 2007.
Navy's Sprint football team has gone 7-0 in both of Foley's two seasons there.
"I've had a lot of fun with it, but I'm hoping to walk on and make Navy's team in the spring as a punt returner," Foley said. "That seems to be the niche I've found as a player."
Sprint football is a league in which players can't weigh more than 172 pounds. Foley broke the Navy Sprint team's single-game punt return yardage record with a 140-yard performance against Princeton last year.
This season, he broke the program's career punt return yardage record. The previous mark was 292 yards. Foley has 358. He had 426 all-purpose yards and led the team with four rushing touchdowns.
If he fails to make Navy's varsity team as a walk-on, Foley said he will return to the Sprint team next season.
"I love playing football, period," he said. "The linemen clearly aren't as big in the Sprint league, but they're quicker and faster. Once you get past the first five yards, it's regular football in terms of player size."
Mansfield, Princeton, Penn, Cornell and Army join Navy in forming the Sprint league. Navy also played Division III schools St. Vincent and Salisbury State to complete its seven-game schedule.
"Last year was the first year they said they overrecruited," Foley said of Navy's varsity team. "They didn't take any walk-ons. The main punt returner is graduating now, so I feel like I've got a real shot."
Foley is carrying a 4.0 grade-point average and is ranked No. 1 out of 1,120 students in his class. The Naval Academy appointed him to speak to area high schools about the potential of applying to the Academy.Foley is speaking at Shady Side Academy, Butler, Pine-Richland and North Allegheny.One student who will be paying particular attention to what Foley has to say is younger brother Grant, a junior at Shady Side Academy.Like Jordan was, Grant is a three-sport athlete at Shady Side, playing football, baseball and competing as a 160-pound wrestler."I've kinda followed in his footsteps," Grant said. "Jordan played three sports, so I wanted to. He's having a lot of success in the Navy and I love being on the water.""Go to a service academy; it's a scholarship paid by the American taxpayer," Jordan said. "And the education is top of the line."He poked fun at his little brother, though, saying "Grant won't want to come to the Naval Academy because I'd be a senior when he's a plebe (freshman) and he's not going to want me kicking his butt for a year. I got used to doing that at home."Grant Foley admitted to a "healthy" sibling rivalry between the two."I've always wanted to beat him in everything," he said.Grant's not having a bad athletic career himself. He hit .300 as a varsity infielder last spring and plays guard and outside linebacker in football. He's wrestling for the first time this winter.Shady Side's football team was co-section champion this year and reached the WPIAL semifinals last year, losing to Aliquippa."I want to get to Heinz Field before I'm through here," Grant said. "We've come so close."Jordan Foley wants to get a commission in the Navy as a doctor in the Medical Corps and attend medical school. His second choice is to become a Navy pilot."Getting into the Medical Corps is tougher than making the Navy SEALS, but I'm going for it," Foley said.
