Sports and writing are two of my passions. This isn’t my full-time job … yet. But I like to think it already is though I still go to college and scrub golf carts at Laytonsville Golf Course in Gaithersburg, MD, to pay the bills.
I freelance for my hometown newspaper, The Frederick News-Post, when I can. Away from work, I serve as a youth leader to a group of freshmen boys at Damascus Road Community Church every Wednesday and Sunday.
I’ve now been a journalist as long as I have been a believer and youth leader: two years. Graduating high school with a 2.4 unweighted GPA, I had nothing to really show for. Or at least, I thought I did.
I was not financially stable enough to be in college. I had no job leads in sports journalism, let alone opportunities to write. Thinking I could eventually land a job — freelance or more — in the journalism field that would at least cover the bills was appearing unlikely. Besides, I took four years of merit English classes in high school.
But I had one thing: a sturdy support system and sphere of influences that backed my dreams. So many divine moments have fueled a vision to keep propelling forward. Last Christmas will go down as one of those divine moments I’ll never forget.
I had received a text that afternoon while working at Laytonsville Golf Course from my pastor, Jaymz Drury, that read, “Hey man, I have an idea, but it involves Jake Funk.”
“I’m about to go bring presents to a kid who is 11 years old that lives in Damascus Gardens. His dream is to be a (running back) at (Damascus High School) and beat all of Jake Funk’s records. He’s not getting any presents for Christmas and his family doesn’t even have a tree. Would Jake be willing to meet me at the Gardens to hand these gifts to him? I think it would mean a lot.”
There I was, staring over the message during my shift at work, the middleman of a request that could make a family’s Christmas.
I’ve gotten to know Jake through many interviews for articles published on this site (once used for Maryland Sports Access, a media outlet I co-ran from 2015-18). His half-brother, Josh Funk, owns Rehab 2 Perform and partners with us.
Before the formation of MSA, I had not personally known Jake or Josh. But our paths divinely crossed for good reason.
Josh was the first person outside of my family that believed in what we were trying to do. He threw us funding before he shook my hand for the first time.
Jake, meanwhile, shut down the small town of Damascus every Friday night. There wasn’t a Friday night where Damascus’s home bleachers had an empty seat. Popular songs on Fridays in Damascus were George Clinton’s “We Want The Funk” as well as Mark Ronson’s and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk.”
I’ve truly never seen a high school athlete impact one community like Jake does.
In 14 games his senior year in 2015, he ran for 2,866 yards on the ground — 13 yards short of NFL running back Ben Tate’s all-time mark from ’04. Jake also willed his way for a state-record 57 touchdowns. Most games, he was out at halftime.
Jake is now at the University of Maryland, where he enrolled early to compete for a starting position at running back as a true freshman.
Still glaring at the text that glowed on my phone screen, I badly wanted to make this Funk Christmas request happen. All I needed to do was send one text to Jake. He was all in.
Jaymz called the mother of the the 11-year-old we were surprising to let her know we’d be there at 8 p.m. with the presents, along with Jake. She screamed so loudly through the telephone it jolted my heart.
That night, Jaymz, Jake, and I met in Damascus’s Safeway parking lot before we departed to the Gardens just down the street. Julian Kinard — Damascus’s quarterback — tagged along, too. There, Jake signed a football that read, “Merry Christmas from Jake Funk”.
When we arrived at the 11-year old boy’s door with the presents and his hometown hero, he answered with a priceless reaction: jaw dropped, eyes bulging upward — fixed on Jake — like he’s finally come face-to-face with his favorite celebrity.
The mother sat on the couch and laughed: “Who is that?” she asked her son.
“Is that … is that … Jake Funk?!?” the 11-year old boy blurted.
At that moment, we stepped into their small living room. And all I did was watch. The 11-year old gushed with excitement. He showed everyone his football highlight tape and rambled on how he was going to grow up and be like Jake one day. Most notably, he wants to break all his records.
“Go for it,” Jake said through a laugh. “It’s yours.”
Jake followed that with a lesson by saying grades and schoolwork come first over football, and what you pour into the community as a person is what you get out on the football field. The kids listened intently.
The parents explained how they could hear the echoes and cheers from Damascus High’s stadium every Friday night. High school football games were not in their budget.
That Christmas taught me an enduring lesson. That if you have a roof over your head, food on the table, clothes on your back, a sphere of influences to fuel your dreams, a family that endlessly supports, and a God to lead the way, then no dream is too small.
Don’t take those things for granted. Cherish them. Embrace them. Hold them dear to your heart. Because there’s someone out there who has less than you do.
