‘It Is Just the Beginning of Something Special’: Jaguars Rookie Shaquille Quarterman Set for Hometown Impact
Roughly 18 miles away from TIAA Bank Field stands a pair of football fields in the town of Orange Park. Along those fields sits a metallic banner, honoring one of the greatest youth football teams in the town's history.
The first player's name who appears on that banner? Jacksonville Jaguars rookie linebacker Shaquille Quarterman.
During Quarterman's formative years as a North Florida native, one of the places which helped him find his love for football was at Orange Park Athletic Association. During that period, he learned how to tackle, how to condition and, most importantly, he learned how to win.
Now, he will try to translate these skills to the professional level as he attempts to help his hometown team build on the defensive side of the ball. In a quest to help him reach each of his numerous goals, Quarterman can be seen still training on John R. Davis Memorial Field, the same field in which he and Orage Park Jr. Pee Wee Cyclones placed third in the nation in 2007.
"This is everything," Quarterman told JaguarReport before a training session there on Monday.
"Being able to bring it back to where I started at, it is unparalleled, you know. Having that banner over there as the only standing banner. You know even when they refurbished the park, they [didn't] put new orange on it. It's still the same park. We still used to get our mozzarella sticks from right there and our helmets from right here. It is just a feeling of love."
The sign welcoming athletes, parents, and fans to Orange Park Athletic Association, roughly 18 miles away from the Jaguars' home stadium (Photo by John Shipley).
A few weeks ago, the Jaguars officially brought Quarterman home by selecting him in the fourth round with the No. 140 overall selection. Quarterman played his high school ball at nearby Oakleaf High School, earning the honor of being named Regional Defensive Player of the Year by The Florida Times-Union in his senior season.
Quarterman then went on to have an illustrious career as a four-year starter at the University of Miami, never missing a single start. 52 games, 356 tackles, 46.5 tackles for loss, 12 sacks, and eight turnovers later, Quarterman left the Hurricanes and began to prepare for his NFL career.
One person who has helped Quarterman along the way is trainer Koreen Burch, a former Ball State cornerback who now heads BurchSports and aids athletes in their developments. It didn't take long for Burch to realize early on in meeting Quarterman that he was a player he would want to work with, and he has only seen him grow since their first encounter.
"Man, it's been amazing, you know, just to see him mature. He was always mature before his time. You know that from day one. When I first met him, you just knew he had an aura about him," Burch said. "And one of the things that stood out, and I'm going to see if he remembers this, is was when he was at a camp. He didn't even work out. He came to support his friends that were on his team to get better and to give them a chance to get a scholarship. And a lot of them did."
At OPAA on Monday, Burch led Quarterman through a number of field drills. The field he once tackled dummies on and strapped on his shoulder pads before Pop Warner practice was now his destination for his own workout as he molds himself to contribute to the Jaguars. As Quarterman described, the two make sure they don't leave a stone unturned when it is time to work.
The field in Orange Park in which Shaquille Quarterman started his football journey over 13 years ago. (Photo by John Shipley).
"Anything from speed to footwork to drops to football drills to conditioning. Everything. The whole nine yards," Quarterman said with a smile.
"I mean, we started -- we first connected because we had the same goal, the same mindset. I believe it's really hard to find good people and motivated people, so when I found him and we talked for about the duration of the camp, probably two hours the whole time straight, and we formulated so many plans in just them two hours It's like I gotta stay connected with this guy. And I was just heading off to college, but every time I came back I always called his phone. He will call my phone just to make sure. You know, so good people, man. You can't forget people like that."
Burch felt strongly about Quarterman's prospects entering the 2020 NFL Draft. From youth and high school football in Orange Park to college ball at Miami, Quarterman had excelled and produced, and Burch knew what the next step would be.
"I mean, to be honest, I felt like he was the best one in the damn draft anyway. You can say it is a biased opinion, whatever, but I really felt like that," Burch said.
The accolades and skills Quarterman will bring to Jacksonville are clear, but what about the qualities he is going to bring to the Jaguars as a teammate, person, and overall influence? Burch has a lot of conviction here, too.
"They are getting a guy that's going to come to work with his lunch pail and hardhat every day. They're gonna get a guy that's gonna be a guy that's going to ignite the whole team. It ain't gonna be just oh, the linebacker room. No, he's gonna go ignite that whole defensive side," Burch said.
"He's that guy who is going to lead by example. He don't do much talking. He gonna show you what it's about, you know, so they gonna get a hell of a guy, a better young man, and I know he's gonna do a lot of great things in the community."
Quarterman knows he is going to have to earn his stripes in the Jaguars' locker room as he builds his career in Jacksonville. As he puts it, those already on the team have seen more rookies than he has seen veterans. They know what it is like to be a pro, and Quarterman is determined to show them he does as well.
"My first thing is to be a servant to my team and my elders, you know, come in and show them I'm ready to work," Quarterman said.
"So, you know, I got to come in and show them I'm here to stick around. And once I do that, and they are going to see I can play, and then after that, we in it for the long haul. Let's win some games and rings and whatever comes next."
Quarterman's future will be all about learning how to be the best linebacker and teammate he can be in Jacksonville. But as he develops as a professional, he will be pulling from the lessons he learned in Orange Park and Miami that helped mold him as a player.
"It's a once in a lifetime thing, you know. It's not many guys that get that opportunity to play high school football, Pop Warner football, and come back and play your professional football here in the city that actually helped you grow up," Burch said.
"So what is meant to be is meant. It is just the beginning of something special."
While Quarteman's time in Pop Warner, high school, and college all helped prepare him for the next stop in his football journey, he knows he is entering a league in which very few get a chance to play in. He is at the top of the football world, and he is prepared to take advantage of the opportunity in front of him.
"I am ready to compete at the highest level. You know, to be the best you have to play amongst the best and all that, you know, that's something that my uncle taught me," he said.
"So being at the highest level, I'm ready to see, you know, who really ready."
