Washington's Jonah Coleman is all in
On the coaching staff that recruited him, and on doing what it takes to make it.
Jonah Coleman’s first commitment came at Stribley Community Park, near where his mother lived in his hometown of Stockton, Calif. The adventurous 6-year-old saw four groups of kids doing push-ups, wandered over to the youngest and joined in. Turns out, they were warming up for a football practice.
That sounded good enough to Jonah. That day, he called his dad, Jamon, to ask if he could sign him up and pay the entry fee.
“The first year was like a learning experience for him,” Jamon said. “But when he came out his second year of football and scored 50-plus touchdowns at the Pee Wee level with kids his age … I don’t know. He was just gifted.”
Life is too complex for us to simply draw a straight line from there to Lincoln High to Tucson to Seattle, where a larger, more accomplished, better compensated version of Jonah Coleman will suit up Saturday night for his final season opener in college, doing so as one of the Washington Huskies’ most important players as they begin Year 2 of the Jedd Fisch era against Colorado State.
This year, in a few different ways, represents the culmination of the faith Coleman has placed in the people around him, ever since the day he first chose to exercise for fun.