Home Grown: Jack Wohlabaugh Pushed To Be Great Early On To Become Fourth Walsh Jesuit Player Ever Headed To Ohio State

STOW, Ohio — Jack Wohlabaugh sat at a friend's house in December 2014, the giant thighs and calves that bolster his solid frame resting comfortably beneath him. At the moment, he was a lightly recruited junior offensive lineman at Walsh Jesuit High School.

Wohlabaugh's father, Dave, is known in the state of Ohio. He played for the Browns from 1999-2002 at which time he signed a seven-year contract with the expansion franchise to make him the highest paid center in NFL history up to that point. The elder Wohlabaugh also started in Super Bowl XXXI for the New England Patriots.

But Jack Wohlabaugh, a quick-footed big man with exceptional body control for someone blessed with a 6-foot-3, 280-pound frame, had yet to hear from Ohio State and offensive line coach Ed Warinner. In fact, he hadn't heard from Power 5 schools much at all in the recruiting landscape.

So he took action.

"I was the first one to email them. I was at my friend's house and one night, I said, 'You know, I haven't talked to Ohio State. I'm just going to shoot Coach Warinner an email with my highlight and everything,'" Wohlabaugh told Eleven Warriors May 11. "This was when I didn't have any offers. I think it was December of my junior year, right before I was about to get my first offer. I shot him an email and he replied and ended up coming to school to see a workout and kept visiting."

Four months later, Wohlabaugh was a Buckeye — only the fourth ever to hail from Walsh Jesuit High School. He joins Mike Vrabel (class of 1993), Darik Warnke (1996) and Pat O'Neill (1999).

It took Wohlabaugh being a self-starter for his dream school to find out about him, but the highlight tape he showed Warinner and the Buckeyes would not have existed had it not been for his head coach pushing him into the varsity fray as a sophomore.

"We don't historically have a lot of sophomores that start on our varsity," Scott Beigie told Eleven Warriors. "We've been very lucky with the tradition of players that we've had come through here. That's maintained pretty consistently.

"But I'd never seen footwork like his. That was pretty evident that at that point that he was special."

Jack Wohlabaugh committed to Ohio State shortly after the coaching staff extended an offer his way during his visit at the 2014 spring game. A three-star guard and center prospect, the first time he worked out at a Buckeye football camp didn't happen until after he announced his intentions to join the scarlet and gray.

"I think the way I committed made it a lot easier for Ohio State," Wohlabaugh said. "I just got an offer from Michigan like a week before or something, then Ohio State offered and I committed right on the spot. I think if I would have waited a little longer, with Ohio State offering and then Michigan before, it would have got a lot more hectic."

Wohlabaugh went to camps at Maryland, Penn State, Michigan State and others the summer before his junior year, and received his first scholarship from another Big Ten institution: Purdue.

"It was really unexpected," Wohlabaugh said. "I was on scoutingohio.com looking at kids in my grade that had offers to places and I said, 'Wow, it would be really cool to have an offer.'"

Then Purdue rang. Others did too, after Wohlabaugh sent out his tape. In all, 13 scholarship offers came down the pipe, but it only took one from his dream school to end his recruitment.

"It kind of didn't set in until a couple days after that," Wohlabaugh said. "It was kind of all over, but my parents said they noticed a difference (in me). I was a lot more calm after it."

It put Beigie at ease, too. He coached Wohlabaugh his sophomore and junior seasons under former head coach and Jesuit legend Gerry Rardin. When Rardin retired in December 2014 after 35 years and a boatload of victories, Beigie was tabbed as his replacement three months later. He knew Wohlabaugh could follow in the footsteps of former Warriors O'Neill, Warnke and Vrabel and play with the best in the country in Columbus. Wohlabaugh showed it every day on the practice field.

"It was pretty evident early on that Jack was a special sophomore," Beigie said. "Frankly, one of the things I noticed with him was his footwork. It was ridiculous. I just hadn't seen footwork like that and I had been working with the O-line I think for four or five years ultimately before Jack got up to the varsity level."

Wohlabaugh credits his nimble feet to his days spent in his formative years as a hockey player. He started early, falling in love with the game while his dad closed out his professional career in St. Louis with the Rams. He ultimately gave up the sport before his sophomore year, instead choosing another option that allowed him to use his size and aggression.

"Can you imagine someone that big playing hockey?" Beigie said. "Crazy."

Wohlabaugh gained between 30 and 35 pounds between his sophomore and junior years, necessary weight to become an integral part of Walsh Jesuit's offensive line. And even though he didn't check in at anything more than 250 pounds during his sophomore campaign, Beigie forced Wohlabaugh into action because he saw promise.

"Coach Beigie, sophomore year — I was a small sophomore," Wohlabaugh said. "He didn't have to start me. I'm sure there were some kids that could have done a better job, but he saw potential in me. He put me in there and I struggled, but it definitely help prepare me for the future."

Wohlabaugh called his first year as a starter "a struggle" since he felt a tad undersized to play on the interior offensive line. Then Warriors went 7-3 that year and narrowly missed the playoffs.

Wohlabaugh credited then-senior Alex Conley — now at Duquesne — for helping mold his fundamentals. Beigie and Rardin deserve credit too, both for the latter's connections in the coaching profession and the former's belief that Wohlabaugh could play big-time Division I football. Wohlabaugh and Walsh Jesuit made the playoffs his junior year after a 7-3 regular season and even though a 3-7 record in 2015 wasn't what anyone wanted, the future Buckeye knows he's ready for what comes next in Columbus.

"I had a good group of guys around me," Wohlabaugh said. "I feel like the prepared me. They couldn't have done it in any better way."

Not even 100 yards from the Ricco Fieldhouse on Walsh Jesuit's 100-acre campus sits its football stadium, dedicated to Gerry Rardin, a man 22nd on Ohio's all-time wins list with 252.

The school laid new field turf in 2013. That happened two years after the Warriors finished 8-1 in the regular season to earn the top seed in Region 5 of the Division II Ohio state playoffs. Walsh's record secured it a home playoff game, but field conditions prevented the Warriors from playing one more game there that season.

Other updates to the stadium are hopefully on their way too, in the form of new bleachers and concession stands. A smaller turf field for practice and developmental purposes is going in soon at Ricco. Growth is everywhere.

MAC schools pluck talent from Walsh Jesuit with some consistency, Beigie said, a 2005 graduate now in his fifth year as the school's guidance counselor. The school also named him assistant athletic director in 2013.

Walsh has a "strong history" of sending football players to the Division I level, but obviously a player like Wohlabaugh is on a different level.

"I would say we get a decent amount that end up going," Beigie said. "This is different. This is unique. Ohio State is a different caliber in some regards, no doubt."

But the hope is an upgrade to facilities and operations will lead to more self starters like Jack Wohlabaugh who continue their academic and athletic careers at Division I institutions like Ohio State.

Beigie's had plenty of students and prospective college athletes come through his office — an old bedroom for Jesuit priests — to get help at taking that next step. The numbers continue to rise in what is a growing community.

"When I went here and graduated we had 800 in the building and now we're up to 1,100," Beigie said. "Things are going great from that perspective."

They are great from Wohlabaugh's point of view too, who spends his time this spring interning with a local trainer as part of his senior experience. He might want to be a trainer whenever his playing career comes to a close, or take a dive into sports marketing.

When he isn't at senior experience, Wohlabaugh lifts weights and keeps his footwork sharp up on the new turf field. He did that minutes after the completion of this interview.

"I've got 25 or something days left," Wohlabaugh said. "I can't wait."

Wohlabaugh reports to Ohio State the first weekend of June. He no longer needs to send out his highlight tape — the Buckeyes know all about him now.