Playing at Covington High 31 years ago, Kevin Finfrock — a small, hard-nosed runner just like his son — rushed for 1,574 yards. He ended up in the school’s athletics hall of fame and then did the same at Defiance College.
This past season, Jake — running behind an accomplished offensive line and a bruising fullback in Tyler Brown — ran for 1,636 yards. He helped lift the team from a 4-6 record last year to an 8-2 mark and a berth in the playoffs. And because of all that he is a first-team selection on the Dayton Daily News’ Division III/IV All-Area Football Team.
After Finfrock graduates this spring, he’s putting commitment to the test again when he leaves June 14 for Marine Corps boot camp.
“Sure it’s going to be a little scary and I’m a little nervous, but I think football will have helped prepare me for it,” he said. “Most of all, I’m just excited to go. I’m ready to be a Marine.”
First, though, comes what may be the toughest commitment of all. Instead of June 14, it’s Jan. 14 that looms large on Finfrock’s horizon.
That’s the first time — in what’s to be a total of five competitions before the school year ends — that he’s supposed to step onto the stage and perform with the Milton-Union show choir.
Jake’s twin sister, Jessie, “really rocks” as a singer, said school choir director Kellie Mahaney. Football coach Bret Pearce gives a similar assessment of Jake, though he’s only heard him singing around the dressing room and practice field.
Diana Finfrock, Jake’s mom, was of the same mind, and that got the wheels rolling when she happened to talk to Mahaney at one of the Bulldogs’ football games this season.
“I told his mom, ‘Oh my gosh, I have a great role for Jake in our play,’ ” Mahaney said. “And she told me, ‘Great, I’ll volunteer him.’ ”
With a shake of the head, Jake picked up the story: “I didn’t know my mom had done any of this until Miss Mahaney called me out of class the next day and told me in front of the whole show choir. I’m really not into that, but I was on the spot so I said I probably could do it.
“Then the new show choir shirts came out and on the back it had my name listed with the other kids who are taking part. Now I feel obligated. I usually am a man of my word. And, in this case, I’m probably gonna have to be a man of my mom’s word, too.”
Tough to tackle
The Finfrocks are one of their area’s better-known sports families.
Before she married Kevin, Diana Brumbaugh — now a flight attendant for Delta Airlines — was a standout multisport athlete at Milton-Union. She won the state title as part of the 1,600-meter relay team and is now in the school’s athletics hall of fame.
Initially a walk-on at Defiance, Kevin ended up a two-time All-American there and later became the successful head coach at Covington.
He held that job until four years ago, when he got into a halftime altercation with a man who he said was taunting his girl with obscenities at her basketball game. After that he gave up his coaching position.
As for that daughter, Kaci, she holds most of the girls basketball records at Milton-Union and now plays for Ashland University.
At 5-foot-6 and 155 pounds, Jake is a mirror image of his dad on the football field. But Pearce said there were some concerns about his durability after a season-ending injury his freshman year.
Kevin was there the day his son went down.
“They were playing Carroll and Jake had a couple of nice runs and then, all of a sudden, he goes down without being touched. I went over to him when he came off the field and he said, ‘Dad, I can hardly walk I’m in so much pain.’ ”
Doctors determined he had a stress fracture in his lower back. The way he handled the rehab and came back made Pearce a true believer: “He earns everything he gets because he pushes his body to the limit. He’s just such a hard worker. I’ve seen him bench press 100 pounds, 75 times in a row. For someone his size that’s remarkable.
“On the field this season, Jake was our offense. We gave him the ball 50 percent of our plays this year. He’s great at getting those tough three yards when you need them, but he also can stick it in the end zone from anyplace on the field.
“With his size, he gets behind some of our big linemen and he’s tough to see. To a lot of linebackers he just became a blur as he ran past them.”
Along with the single-season rushing mark at Milton-Union, he set the mark for all-purpose yards and return yards.
When Finfrock broke the rushing record against Northridge, the game was stopped and Pearce gave him the game ball and a hug. Jake then tucked the football in his arm and ran to the end zone where his dad stands at each game.
As he remembered that moment, Kevin’s voice softened: “Watching him this season gave me great joy and pride. I’m really going to miss No. 32 out there on the football field.”
Pearce said Finfrock definitely could have played college football, and Jake said he drew some interest from NCAA Division III schools, but nothing from D-I programs. That’s one reason he said he chose the Marines.
“I guess the D-I schools thought I was too small, but I think they missed something important. I don’t think you can ever judge somebody’s heart.”
‘Patriotic guy’
Jake said he doesn’t remember a lot about the Sept. 11 attacks of 2001.
“I was like in second grade and I remember coming home from school and my parents were real worried. I didn’t realize until later — when we studied it in school — what the terrorists had done and that really bugged me.”
When he and his sister were 10, he said his mom and grandparents took them to New York City. “We saw the sights. There’s a lot to see in Chinatown, and we went to the Empire State Building and a couple of Broadway shows — though that’s not really me.
“But we went to Ground Zero, too, and that really had an impact. I wanted to do something to help stop the bad guys before they hurt more people. I guess I’m a pretty patriotic guy, I don’t like anybody messin’ with the U.S., really. ... That’s when I started thinking about being in the military.”
When Finfrock played freshman football, Patrick Thoele — the son of assistant coach Larry Thoele — was a varsity player who went on to the Marines, became an honor grad, did a tour of Afghanistan, became part of the special forces and is someone Jake now emulates.
Although Diana initially tried to convince her husband to talk their son out of his military plans, Kevin said he refused.
“I wasn’t going to squash his dream,” he said.
After talking to their son’s recruiter, Diana got on board, and she and Kevin signed the consent papers last year for Jake, who was then 17.
Since then, two other guys in Jake’s class at school — Josh Cottrell and fellow football player Trey Eustache — have signed up for the Marines, too.
“I know a lot of kids our age don’t think about the soldiers fighting for their freedom, but somebody has to do the job, and I want to do my part,” Finfrock said.
Pearce thinks he’ll handle military service with the same resolve and character he showed on the football field.
“He’s very honest, he’s loyal and he’s hard-working. I can’t think of three better traits to describe a person who is going into the service.
“Sometimes the general public thinks kids who go into the service can’t do anything else, and that’s really not the case. When you see someone like Jake — a good kid with a lot of options who just makes the choice to serve our country — it kind of makes you proud.
“I’m really thankful for a kid like Jake Finfrock.”
On this Thanksgiving Day, everyone can be.
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