Freehold Township’s Nick Reardon Recognized by New York Giants By John Sorce

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP – Freehold Township senior quarterback Nick Reardon was one of five high school football players recognized by the New York Giants during their week six game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Giants partner with USA Football in honoring the “Heart of a Giant” award, which is given out to one high school football player out of the nominees that come from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The grand prize is a $5,000 equipment grant for their high school football program and an on-field award ceremony during a New York Giants home game in December, while the six finalists receive a $1,500 equipment grant for their high school football programs.

The program’s website, usafootball.com/programs/recognition-awards/heartofagiant/, explains the program with the following quote: “USA Football’s Heart of a Giant award program, presented by Hospital for Special Surgery and the New York Giants, aims to recognize tri-state area high school football players who demonstrate unparalleled work ethic and a passion for the game.”

All head coaches of high schools in the tri-state area are allowed to nominate one player from their team to be considered for the award. Freehold Township head coach Cory Davies nominated Reardon, who was chosen as a finalist for week six, and appeared on the video boards at MetLife Stadium during an intermission.

“As a head coach, I nominated him for the award,” Davies said. “The Giants contacted me and wanted to know if I had any players who I felt could be nominated for the position. I felt Nick was a candidate for us who would definitely be able to be nominated because of the things they look for – commitment, character, teamwork, dedication and a will to succeed. From a commitment standpoint, Nick works as hard as any player on our team. He’s a team captain, he really motivates our players and leads by example.”

Those are the exact five qualities that are listed on the Heart of a Giant website. They are looking for student-athletes with commitment, character, teamwork, dedication, and will. Reardon also went through some adversity early in the season that he overcame and handled well.

“There was also a little bit of adversity that was involved and he did a nice job with adverse situations, being a quarterback and having things go well and having things not go well,” Davies said. “We have a sophomore who played some quarterback and that was an adverse situation for Nick, because it took away some of his playing time. It was a difficult time for him and being able to handle the switch at the quarterback position with a younger kid playing a little bit, it can be difficult for a senior to be able to recognize that. But he handled that situation pretty well.”

The switch came after the team’s third game of the season, a 49-22 loss to Manalapan, and Lorenzo Chirichella led the Patriots to an upset victory over Toms River North. But he got injured, and Reardon went right back in the starting role. He is, as Davies described, a “pro-style” quarterback.

“He’s more what they call a ‘pro-style’ quarterback,” Davies said. “He’s more of a throwing quarterback. He does have the ability to run if he needs to, but that wasn’t a part of what we asked him to do. He was more of a drop back passer in our offense. He has a very good arm.”

Reardon, a two-year varsity starter, is also involved in the community, and that is another big thing the Giants look for.

“They want guys who also do some things in the offseason and do things out of school as well,” Davies said. “Nick works with the challenger group and does some other things like that in the offseason, and that’s a big part of it as well.”

As a team, Freehold Township finished the season 5-5, a step back from their 2017 campaign that saw them go 8-3. But there were a few big wins in there, including earning bragging rights for the year in defeating Freehold Boro on a late touchdown pass from Reardon to Kyle Von Nessen.

“From a team standpoint, we had two big wins this year,” Davies said. “We beat a highly ranked Toms River North team in a great last-second victory and we also won the Duke Trophy, which is a game against our rival, Freehold Boro, which has become a big thing. That was another very close, last-second win.”

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