Jamie Plenkovich saw what he thought was the weak link of the Ferndale High School defense.

It was a thin, wiry, 14-year old freshman starting cornerback, whose helmet looked too big for his head. The kid’s name was Jake Locker.

Plenkovich, then the varsity coach at Sehome, a rival high school, had hopes of picking on Locker by lining his all-league receiver up against the young cornerback.

‘I just thought he was not going to be able to be physical and tackle,’ Plenkovich said, ‘and I wanted our guy, who was a good receiver, to go one-on-one with him and challenge him in the first quarter.’

Bad idea.

The first time Sehome threw Locker’s way, he nearly picked off the pass. The next time, Locker made a sure tackle on the spot. After two or three more throws to Locker’s side of the field, Plenkovich avoided throwing his direction the rest of the game.

After the season, Locker was voted an all-league cornerback. As a sophomore, he moved to the other side of the ball and became Ferndale’s starting varsity quarterback. Plenkovich, who had once coached against Locker, took over as the varsity head coach at Ferndale a year later, as Locker progressed into an all-state quarterback as a junior and senior.

‘He just scared the living daylights out of me (as an opponent),’ Plenkovich said. ‘So I knew when I came to Ferndale, we had to make sure we really exploited his athleticism and his gifts as a weapon on offense.’

And Plenkovich did just that. Locker was the ‘weapon’ Ferndale used to capture a Washington State Championship title in his senior year before moving on to play collegiately at Washington.

In his first career start for the Huskies in 2007, Locker torched the Syracuse defense by throwing for 142 yards and rushing for 83 yards and two touchdowns in a 42-12 rout at the Carrier Dome. Now, as a senior Heisman Trophy candidate, Locker will see the Orange for the second time on Saturday in Seattle (Fox Sports Northwest, 7 p.m.).

This time, the attention is all on Locker. He’s projected as a Top 10 pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, and many believe he has the prototypical body of an NFL quarterback. But what many don’t know is that he hasn’t forgotten his small-town roots and values.

He still abides by the values with which he was raised. He made that evident in his decision to come back to Washington for his senior season, rather than entering the 2010 NFL Draft.

‘I saw down and talked to (my parents) about it,’ Locker said in a teleconference on Aug. 30. ‘Got a chance to talk to my dad. He said, ‘Jake, you know, make a decision that when you’re my age, you’ll look back on and you won’t regret.’

‘It was easy for me to come back.’

Locker was born into a family full of athletes. His father, Scott, and three uncles were all running backs for Ferndale. His uncle Pat went on to rush for 4,049 yards at Western Washington. His grandfather was also a football player, and mother Anita won a state volleyball championship at Ferndale.

But Jake was different. He was even better. A football and baseball player, Locker was the buzz of Ferndale right from that game against Sehome. People knew the Locker family and their athletic accomplishments, but they also knew the youngest Locker was special.

Locker’s greatest leaps and bounds as a football player came once he was in high school. He would go to Ferndale High before school started to do a sprinter’s workout with one of the track coaches and then go to baseball practice after school. He would work out in his garage each day, determined to get bigger and stronger.

The thin and wiry kid became a long and strong man.

‘We used to make fun of him because we thought he ate dumbbells for breakfast,’ said Rocki Sandusky, one of Locker’s childhood friends and his current roommate in Seattle. ‘The kid just blew up when he got to high school. He got huge. His work ethic definitely changed how he looks.’

His work ethic paid off for the rest of the team, too, as it now had one of the best quarterbacks in the state at its disposal. Ferndale lost in the state final his junior season, but made it back and blew out Prosser, 47-12, in his senior season — defeating another Heisman candidate, Boise State’s Kellen Moore.

The effect Locker has had on the town of Ferndale is perhaps even more impressive. The small town of less than 9,000 people has latched on to Locker. He is their hero. Locker’s parents have yet to miss a game he’s played for the Huskies, no matter how far away they have to travel. Many others Ferndale residents make the 90-minute trek to Seattle.

He’s mesmerized an entire community.

Jake Locker, the person, is a key reason why Ferndale is so attached to him. Both Plenkovich and UW head coach Steve Sarkisian say he’s a better human being than he is a football player. There’s much more to Locker than his football accolades.

For those close to Locker, he’s not only the ultimate athlete, but the ultimate person as well. For example, he once shaved his head as a fundraiser for a Ferndale athlete who was battling cancer.

‘People sometimes are looking for heroes, and they really like their heroes to be tall and handsome and nice and polite, and to not get in trouble,’ said Ferndale mayor Gary Jensen, who also employs Jake’s mother as the business manager of his plumbing company. ‘Those are sometimes just fantasies of the book. Here, you got Jake, and you’re going, ‘Man, he’s the real deal.”

All of that isn’t to say that Locker’s play on the field hasn’t amazed the town of Ferndale as well. In a game against Sehome during Locker’s senior year, Sehome’s quarterback attempted to throw the ball away out of bounds. But out of nowhere came Locker, leaping up to pick off the pass and take it back for six.

It’s not all athletic ability, either. Locker has that high football IQ. He reads plays and picks up schemes with ease. He might as well have been in the offensive huddle in a game against Vancouver Collegiate in his senior year.

‘He was like, ‘Listen, they’re going to run a sweep around the end,” said Sandusky, who played safety alongside Locker in the Ferndale secondary. ‘He came around and made the tackle. Next play, he goes, ‘Rocki, they’re going to throw a hitch to this guy here. I’m going to pick it and take it back for six.”

He took it back for six.

Though it has been more than four years since that state title game, Plenkovich still keeps in touch with Locker. The old coach talks to his former star every few weeks, whether it is about Ferndale’s season or what’s going on in Locker’s life. Plenkovich knows Washington’s struggles over the past couple of seasons bother Locker immensely. The quarterback once apologized to his coach after a loss.

And Plenkovich knows those humble, small-town values will keep Locker grounded, even when he’s getting paid to scare the living daylights out of NFL coaches.

‘He’ll remain true to his values, and that’s going to help him have success as well,’ Plenkovich said. ‘He does not get star-struck or caught up in the accolades he receives.

‘He’s a better guy off the field than on the field, and he’s really special on the field.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on September 8, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr