If you thought Riverhead’s most talented halfback since Miguel Maysonet was going to fade into irrelevance after being ruled academically ineligible for the Long Island Championship – think again.
Jeremiah Cheatom, a fixture in the Blue Wave backfield for the past three seasons, received for the first time in his life, a true wakeup call. His brothers went into battle without him; leaving behind a trail of worries regarding his future as he looked on as a mere spectator. He had nobody to blame but himself.
“Football is life,” Cheatom said. “I’ve been playing since I was six years old. It’s in my blood. Everything I think about is football. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.”
But when football starts to take over your academic ambition, everything you did on the field could be stripped away from you. He had letters from schools all over the nation including Alabama, North Carolina State and Connecticut but with his grades not where they should be, schools didn’t want to take the risk. You need to have a certain GPA and a certain SAT score to be able to play for just about any school willing to invest in you with a scholarship. He needed to make changes in his life; his lifestlye, his mindset, his grind.
“Not being able to play in my last game was heartbreaking,” Cheatom said. “I cried. I cried for weeks. But there’s nothing you can really do about it than learn from it.”
He took it as a challenge. He never backed down from anything on the football field so he just needed to transfer that energy into the classroom.
“Grades come first,” Cheatom said. “In football, you never know what can happen – you could get hurt. You need that education to back you up in life. You have to make school a priority in order to get you where you need to be. Without school, there really is no football.”
But it was more than just grades; he dug deep inside and reevaluated his life.
“I don’t hang out with who I used to hang out with,” Cheatom said. “If you surround yourself with people who work hard and are humble then that’s what you’re going to do. It’s hard to hang out with somebody who is doing the wrong thing and then not do that wrong thing with them. You just have to stand out and be alone. Don’t be a follower, just be your own person.”
Today, he’s on pace to graduate after passing his U.S. history regents and has signed a letter of intent to play for Coach Joe Osovet at Nassau Community College.
For those of you that don’t know, Nassau is a perennial powerhouse football program that’s recognized across the nation for producing some of the most talented junior college products for Division I teams. Nassau is the only junior college program in the nation to be ranked in the top 15 for 20 years straight. Their lifetime win-loss record is 347-86. They’ve been to 18 consecutive bowl games. Each year they sign 18-22 of their players to a major college program and they recruit nationally, not just in the tri-state area.
“We have kids from Alabama, Florida, Missouri, Kentucky, you name it we have kids from there,” Osovet said. “There’s not a major college program in the country that doesn’t come recruit our kids.”
But it’s not just because they have outstanding athletes. It’s also because of how much Ososvet and his staff emphasize academics.
“The majority of our success is because these programs know we get the kids out in regards to getting them graduated,” Osovet said. “They’re provided with all the resources they need to be successful in the classroom and when major college programs come into Nassau, they know that not only are they getting a great football player but they’re getting a kid that will be academically structured in the classroom.”
“If you’re going to give a kid an $80,000 scholarship, they want to make sure the kid is not going to be a liability in the classroom,” he continued. “It does no good to give the money out if the kid isn’t going to be on the field.”
Though Cheatom had his academic struggles, Osovet believes in him. He believes in his play on the field and he believes in his abilities to succeed off the field as well.
“Jeremiah is no different than any other kid we have in the program,” Osovet said. “The majority of the kids we have in the program don’t get the SAT or the GPA and didn’t pass the clearing house because they didn’t get it done the first time in the classroom. So we have academic structures in place to make sure that they’re getting it done in the classroom.”
Nassau has implemented a C.O.R.E program in which all of their football players have to be a part of. C.O.R.E stands for clear, organized, regimented, education. The program establishes direct correspondence with the professor.
“The staff knows exactly how the athlete is doing in class, if he’s completing all his work, if he needs tutors and so on,” Osovet said. “It’s a give-and-take dialogue in regards to making sure the student is successful both from the professor and from our tutors that tutor the football program.”
As far as athletics, according to Osovet, Cheatom has what it takes to land him on a major college program.
“We wouldn’t have been recruiting him if we didn’t think he was an FBS or FCS type of kid,” Osovet said. “Just like I told him when I started the recruiting process, it’s a competitive program. The competition level here for freshman and sophomores is just like how it would be in a SEC, ACC or Big 10. You’re going to have five running backs from all over the country competing with you and you’re going to have to make sure you do diligence in regards to being mentally and physically prepared for camp come August 1st.”
Cheatom was left with only two options because of his grades: either go to Nassau or go to a prep school. The choice was easy. Prep school would have cost a lot of money whereas financial aid could be used at Nassau. And after visiting the campus, meeting with coaches and talking to former players, it was clear – he wanted to join.
“Once I heard they were third in the nation and that they consistently get kids into Division I schools, I was looking forward to becoming a part of the team,” Cheatom said. “I’m confident that I’ll not only come into camp in great physcial shape but also in a strong mental mindset.”
One of last year’s halfbacks, Travis Lock, who ran for over 1,000 yards, received a full scholarship to Western Kentucky University. One of their offensive lineman, Chad Mavety, notched a scholarship from the BCS-championship winning Florida State Seminoles.
Playing time is not a given his first year and he will have to compete against four others for game-time carries. Osovet says the one-running back system is long gone and many programs have two to three running backs shuffling in and out throughout the game.
“We have one running back returning that rushed for about 1,200 yards from Virginia Beach and there’s going to be three other freshman that he’s going to have to compete with for playing time,” Osovet said. “So he’s going to have to come in shape in the best shape possible. We think he’s a damned good running back.”
“But the other four kids we think are good too,” he continued. “So competition will breed success. So with that being said, it’s different than high school where you’re the big guy on campus. Everyone that comes to Nassau is the big guy on campus.”
“My goal is to hit the gym hard everyday,” Cheatom said. “And to be physically and mentally ready.
He quit the basketball team midseason because he wanted to be able to prepare himself for college football. He wanted to focus more on school so he can “live for the future and not in the moment.”
“It starts today,” Cheatom said, referring to being prepared. “Hard work pays off. I know what I can do on the field. Everybody around here knows what I can do on the field. But at the next level, you have to show everybody. Everything I did in high school is erased.”
Osovet, upon seeing Cheatom’s highlight-ridden high school game tape, knew he wanted him on the team.
“He’s a bigger back,” Osovet said. “He can get the tough yards. He runs with great vision. He’s definitely a slasher type of kid. He doesn’t mind getting his nose dirty. We’re a spread no-huddle pistol team so when we need a short-yardage gain, we get our bigger back in there. But it’s not to say that he can’t run on the perimeter as well.”
Cheatom runs a 4.5 forty-yard-dash time.
“He has just enough speed to do that as well.” Osovet said. We believe he’ll be able to flourish in our offense.”
Cheatom can’t wait to step on the football field and will attend Nassau’s spring football game to acclimate himself with his teammates. He says one of his goals before transferring is to get his weight up to 210. The 6’1 halfback said he was around 190 as of this interview.
“I haven’t really been putting on, putting on weight,” Cheatom said. “I had food poisoning two months ago and lost eight pounds so I had to gain that back. I’m also going to start taking whey protein to help me get thicker.”
He urges anybody in the Riverhead football program to stay the course academically if you want to pursue collegiate football.
“You need to stay focused,” Cheatom said. “Don’t make the same mistake I did. If you grow up playing football all your life – yeah everything is football – but what really comes first is school. Without school, you’ll end up like me, not being able to play the last game.”
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