Andy Close
RUSSELL, Pa. – Jared Beers enjoyed a standout senior season for the Eisenhower Knights last fall, helping lead the team to an unbeaten regular season and a berth in the District 10 Class 1A title game.
Now, Beers is ready to take his talents to the next level, where he will continue his academic and football career at Thiel.
For Beers and his fellow teammates, especially the seniors, it was one heck of a ride filled with lots of memories along the way.
“We were undefeated in the regular season, we were Region champs,” Beers recalled. “We beat West Middlesex in double overtime with a goal line stand to earn a spot in the D-10 championship game. We outscored our opponents by crazy amounts. Essentially, it was a good time.”
Beers put a lot of time into improving his game on the field with his work off the field. It’s about that time he realized that playing football at the collegiate level was a real possibility.
“After my sophomore year I started working hard in the weight room.,” he said. “My junior year I went to prospect camps and realized I had the ability to play at the next level.”
And with that came the college recruiting process. It’s a process can be stressful for high school students, and Beers is no exception. He enjoyed many aspects of it as well, despite the difficulties of COVID-19 that made it so much different for this batch of high school student-athletes, as well as college coaches.
“It was a little stressful at times, but I liked going to the college campuses to meet with the coaches,” he said. “It was much easier to be on campus and talk with them rather than the zoom meetings, phone calls, and emails or texts.”
Thiel likes Beers as a linebacker, and they will be getting a really good one. In 2020, Beers finished second on a loaded Knights’ roster with 62 tackles and 16.5 tackles for loss. His numbers would have been even better, but, along with the rest of the starters, he didn’t play a ton in the second half of most games because Eisenhower had such big leads.
So what makes Thiel, located in Greenville, the right fit for Beers?
“It’s hard to explain,” he said. “I had been on quite a few other recruiting visits, but when I met with coaches Winslow (head coach Mike Winslow) and Geisler (assistant coach Andrew Geisler) at the stadium this winter, I just knew that Thiel was the right program and school for me. Their vision for where the program is headed matched up with what I want to do.”
And while he leaves one chapter of his life behind, having just graduated on Friday, he is excited about the next one with the Tomcats.
“In terms of football, I want to help reestablish a winning culture at Thiel and follow the team’s motto – R.Y.F.P (Reach Your Full Potential).,” he said. “Academically, I am looking forward to getting into a couple Criminal Justice classes to make sure that I’ve chosen the right major.”
Beers excels in the classroom as well, and is excited about his Criminal Justice Major and where that could potentially lead.
“I have interest in working at the federal level, maybe in Homeland Security,” he said.
And, with his high school chapter officially closed, there is plenty he will miss about his time at Eisenhower.
“I’m going to miss making memories on and off the field with the boys,” he said.
That being said, there are many things that he will take with him that he learned at Eisenhower to Thiel, both on and off the field.
“I learned a lot about my strengths and areas of weakness.,” he said. “I learned how to utilize those strengths to overcome where I might struggle. My senior year was a college practice year in a way. I took classes at St. Bonaventure’s dual enrollment and Northern PA Regional College this year. I am hoping to apply what I learned from those schools at Thiel in the fall.”
