BROOMFIELD — A former, self-described “butterball” once decided to hit the weights.
He grew to become a strapping 6-foot-4, 260 pounds by his senior year in high school, transforming into a two-way tackle whose play required attention — lots of it. His grades hardly are a problem, either, and he won’t turn 18 until next fall.
Prospect city for all of those pesky recruiters out there, right?
Well, yes. And no.
Maybe.
Fact is, Jefferson Elliot Singleton, The Denver Post 1992 Gold Helmet winner, likes football well enough. It’s just that The Post’s 42nd top senior football player/student/citizen likes nuclear engineering a whole lot more.
“I really do it for fun,” Singleton said of football and any other athletic endeavor. “I never had a dream of playing in the pros. That’s just not how it was for me. I never had to deal with that.”
For quite some time now, Singleton has been thinking less about football and splitting double teams than places like the University of Chicago and splitting atoms.
“That’s really what I’m looking for in college,” he said. “to play football at one with nuclear engineering.”
That narrows the field — and options — considerably.
Said Singleton: “Really, if I can find a way to pay on my own and go without football to dedicate my time to academic stuff, I would. That’s not to say football coaches purposely make the athlete not study, but the person not doing it has a lot more time to study.”
A shy, always composed Singleton won’t let on if he has made a decision or if the process is starting to gnaw away at him.
He remains his quiet, patient self.
He knows he has time.
Singleton on the football field.
George Trbovich, Broomfield athletic director, is convinced.
“Look at the films,” Trbovich said. “When he hit people, it was like a Looney Tunes cartoon. BAM! Their feet and hands, their limbs, would really go everywhere.
“He’s a player.”
Singleton was a three-year starter on offense, and has played both since the last game of his junior year. Some Skyline Conference opposition altered their tendencies to avoid him.
“He’s the best lineman we’ve had in Broomfield for sure in my five years, and I would say the best in my career, 13 years,” Eagles coach Gary Davies, who also has been at Sierra, said.
“He has intelligence and, obviously, size. You explain something once and he goes out and does it. Our schemes are fairly intricate, but knowing what he’s doing allows him to be aggressive.”
“I wasn’t great,” Singleton said, “but I was good.”
A two-time team captain, Singleton can squat 500 pounds. He bench presses 300 pounds, but claims “my arms are really weak for a big guy (Theodore Roosevelt Singleton II). He is a big, big guy. He weighs like 270 now. He never lifted but he has humongous arms.”
“Maybe the biggest thing about Jeff,” Davies Said, “is he really has fun playing football. It’s not something that’s totally serious to him. I mean he goes out and plays it like it’s a game.”
He also was second in the Class 5A discus — he had the best throw of the season at 169-7 in districts — and Davies thinks “he could play two sports in college.”
“I guess it will be signing day,” Singleton said of when he must make a stand. “I don’t want to sign with somebody, then say ‘sorry I won’t play football.'”
Singleton in the classroom.
Every school has at least one individual like Singleton. They seem to have their homework done before school is dismissed and he has to peek at a textbook once to get a perfect score on a test.
“Picking up stuff in the classroom,” Singleton said, “hasn’t been a problem.”
In 3½ years of high-school mar ing periods, Singleton has received a grade lower than an A just twice. The culprits: freshman English and weight training.
Weight training? “I couldn’t believe it,” said his mom, aurel.
“I wou dn’t study for the test,” Sing eton said. “I just wanted to ift.”
His grade-point average is 3.94. He ran s fifth in his class. He has completed several honors classes and too another (Calculus III) at the University of Colorado because Broomfield didn’t offer it.
He has been the best Algebra II student; best Elementary functions student; best all-around Math and Science student; best Spanish I and II student, and a member of Broomfield’s ½ nowledge Bowl team.
“The first time I met him,” Davies said, “was when he was in eighth grade. But he started schoo ear y and his age shou d have made him a seventh-grader.
“He was in my honors geometry c ass, and he came up from midd e schoo and just aces this c ass no prob em.”
Sing eton, shou d he decide to remain on the side ine in co ege, scored 1,400 on his SAT test, enhancing his chances of obtaining an academic scho arship.
The fascination with nuclear engineering began in the final week of a chemistry class when he was a sophomore. Since then, football recruiters at places like Notre Dame and ichigan have been told he’s not interested. Now, it’s the universities of New exico and Chicago.
A standout citizen.
Quick, name a person you know who never has been involved in a fight.
Singleton hasn’t.
For one thing, Davies said, consider his size: “It wouldn’t be a wise thing to do.”
Fact is, this kid has control.
“Partly, it’s physical,” Singleton said, “but everybody knows I’m pretty easy about things.”
He’s the big kid working the Denver Broncos players parking lot on game days at Mile High Stadium. “Nice cars,” he said.
He also worked for the city of Broomfield Recreation Department, and taught little kids in programs designed to help them compete in track and field.
Singleton also plays several instruments, including trombone, tuba, piano and bass guitar. He and friends have formed a band (Basement) that can blurt out the likes of Megadeath and Van Halen. He has also played in jazz band.
Joining classmates in aiding the disadvantaged, Singleton has helped gather food and toys for organizations that distribute them anonymously: “I bring little dinner rolls. I’m the roll man.”
He’s also just a man. It seems Singleton and little brother Kevin are the siblings of a mom who is white and a dad who is black. Residing in a predominately white area, Singleton, whose father has not lived and home for six years and recently moved to California, is aware of racial whispers.
No matter, he says: “I’ve just heard some stuff, parents telling their kids about it. Being a very small minority around here it kind of makes me maybe singled out but there’s not hate or anything.
“I don’t know. I don’t claim membership to any ethnic group.”
“His dad has been very supportive and his mom’s a tremendous lady,” Davies said. “The kids look at him as not black or white. It’s Jeff.”
Some day, it may be Jeff Singleton, nuclear engineer.
“It’s one of those things that you have to make it completely safe and acceptable to the public,” Singleton said of his future research.
“Nuclear energy really scares the public, especially the way they were introduced to it — in the form of a bomb.”
“Most kids would be drooling to be in Jeff’s shoes as a player,” Davies said. “I’ve told a lot of schools he’s not interested, big-name schools.
“But he realized in his freshman year that he could go anywhere he wanted to if he lifted, and in his life he’ll make as much money as he wants to. He’ll get his education paid for and he understood that as a 14-year-old kid.
“It’s been great to watch him grow up because he had to grow up more than most kids because he was so young in his group.”
“I’ll miss Broomfield,” Singleton said.
“But I’m kind of eager to see what’s out there.”
