Blue White Illustrated

they remembered his father, Curt Warner, an All-America tailback on the Nittany Lions' 1982 national champi- onship team. But the younger Warner is more than capable of holding his own. He had 48 receptions for 715 yards and 11 touch- downs his senior year, bursting onto the scene following a junior season in which he split time. The improvements he made as a sen- ior played a big part in Penn State's de- cision to offer him a scholarship, but he noted that it was a mental charac- teristic that may have helped him the most. "Just being confident – that was a big improvement for me between my jun- ior and senior year," he said. "Just go- ing up and getting the ball. I faced a lot of double-teams this year, so just having that confidence that I'm going to come down with it was an important improvement. It helped me a lot dur- ing the season." After helping lead Camas High to the Class AAA state semifinals, Warner was named All-League and All-Region by The Columbian and won first- team All-Area recognition from Wash- ingtonPreps.com. Now it's on to Penn State, where he hopes to create his own legacy. "It's great that people recognize my dad as a Penn Stater," he said. "But in a few years when I get on the field, I want people to recognize me for who I am and what I hope to accomplish." PHIL'S ANALYSIS After growing two inch- es and adding 20 pounds following his junior year, Warner had a breakout senior season. He has 4.5-second 40- yard speed and good hands and comes from an athletic family, as Penn State fans well know. He will most likely red- shirt his freshman year. Nyeem WARTMAN LB, 6-3, 225 Archbald, Pa. Valley View High Wartman was one of nine players to verbally commit to Penn State before the start of the 2011 high school sea- son. While he never actually rescind- ed that commitment, he thought about W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M U P C L O S E & P E R S O N A L BY RYAN SNYDER Blue White Illustrated athlete growing up. It was on the hardwood that he first L thrived, playing basketball on a trav- el squad during elementary school. Around the time he entered third grade, his father, New Hampton Prep head football coach Ed Kiley, signed him up for a local Pop Warner foot- ball squad. From that point on, Ki- ley had two sports that he began to excel in. Then the time came to choose which high school he would attend. He eventually picked New Hampton Prep – not because his father became the head coach during Kiley's fresh- man year, but because of the school's nationally recognized basketball pro- gram. Of course, Kiley always planned to play football for his father, too, but basketball was what he wanted to play in high school, and possibly beyond. "When I first decided to go there, basketball was definitely my main sport," Kiley said. "In middle school, I actually averaged something like 28 points a game. I was always going to play football, but basketball was my main sport. "At New Hampton, you play basket- ball all year, so going into my junior year, I had to make the decision. If I did both, I would have had to go to basketball practice right after football. It would have been crazy, so that's when I just decided to do football." That's when Kiley's future became a bit clearer. He had a breakout sea- son playing both quarterback and cornerback on his father's squad. Multisport standout Jake Kiley looks to find a home in the Lions' secondary THE KILEY FILE THE NATURAL ike most members of Penn State's incoming class, Jake Kiley of New Hampton, N.H., was a two-sport S T A T I S T I C S Intercepted 17 passes and had 127 tackles in 35 career games. ... Finished his career with 29 passing touchdowns and 29 rushing touchdowns. ... Also had five receiving touchdowns. H O N O R S Was named 2011 Gatorade Player of the Year in New Hampshire. ... A three-time All-New England selection. ... Was a two-time Evergreen League MVP and the All-New England NEPSAC Player of the Year. Photo courtesy of Kiley family Kiley's heady play at quarterback was a key element in the Huskies' drive to reach a NEPSAC Bowl Game during his sophomore year. But it was his play on defense – he had 20 tack- les, seven interceptions and one sack – that convinced observers he could potentially play at the next level. "His sophomore year was really im- pressive," Ed Kiley said. "I think he may have had around seven or eight interceptions playing cornerback that year. My defensive coordinator at the time kept telling me that Jake had the potential to be a Division I cornerback, and at the time he was 15 years old." Two years later, Kiley is one of the most decorated athletes to ever come out of New Hampton. His father said Jake's maturity and willingness to learn about the game have helped the most, but the elder Kiley also cred- its others who helped his son grow as an athlete and person over the years, including his former teammates. "I told Coach [Bill] O'Brien just the other day, being a coach's son, he's really just a student of the game," Ed Kiley said. "At our school, we also have some postgraduate students, so he was always playing with guys old- er than him, and that definitely helped when he was younger. That definitely helped make him a tougher player, not that he wasn't ever tough or anything, but playing with bigger, stronger guys made him put in his time, and I think it's really shown over this past year." New Hampshire isn't known for its high school athletics, which is a primary reason why Kiley was only given a two-star rating by Rivals.com. As Kiley learned, however, determi- nation will help you go far, and that's exactly what he sought to do. During the summer before his sen- ior year, Kiley visited multiple sum- mer camps. In fact, it was his per- formance at the Penn State camp that landed him a scholarship offer. "The coaches told me he had an ex- cellent camp," said Ed Kiley, who helped work the camp. "The camps are what really helped get his name out there. I sent his film to Penn State after his sophomore year and again after his junior year, but in my opin- ion, it was his performance at the Penn State camp his junior year that got him the Penn State offer. "After camp, he also had a great in- terview with the coaches, mainly Tom Bradley. They really picked up on his maturity and who he is as a person as well, and that went a long way." M A R C H 2 , 2 0 1 2 19

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