Penns Grove football: Red Devils have impact freshman, an all-name All-American and a budding entrepreneur on the roster

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNS GROVE – The game is coming at Ka’Ron Caesar fast. Really fast. But he’s confident in his abilities and ready to take it head on.

Last year around this time the Penns Grove freshman was getting ready to play another season of youth football. This week he was out on the field with the high school varsity preparing to play a big role in the Red Devils’ run for a West Jersey Football League Diamond Division title.

It’s not unusual for a freshman to play, but you have to go back a ways to find one at the positions Caesar will play – running back, wide receiver, corner and safety – having this big an impact this early. 

He’s already ticketed to be the Red Devils’ first opening day freshman skill position starter since Aaron Hayward in 2005. Hayward starred for the Red Devils for four years, then took his talent to Rutgers.

“He’s that high up on the board,” PG coach John Emel said. “We’ve had freshmen start by the end of the year, but we’ve never had a freshman this high on the depth chart. That’s a credit to where he’s at and the work he’s put in. 

“I think he’s a D-I scholarship player. He’s on that pace at a high level. A lot of times when you’re a freshman going somewhere you’re at the bottom because the other guys have been there more, but he’s been there as much as anybody. He’s prepared his way. He’s ready to go. I have no doubt.

“And he has six more weeks to train. He’ll be really ready by August, believe me.”

The freshman isn’t nervous about making the jump at all. He would watch the Red Devils play and remembers thinking “I can hang with them.”

“It’s not really like pressure,” he said. “I love this sport and I know what I can do. I’m ready.”

He showed it last week at a 7-on-7 camp where Emel said confidently the youngster had one of the top performances of the day with several catches and interceptions.

“If you ask me why I think he’s ahead of the curve it’s because a lot of guys will come in and aren’t as physically ready, but he’s physically ready,” Emel said. “He’s fast, put work in the weight room and he’s getting stronger. On top of that, he’s a good football player.

“A lot of guys come in and they have the football stuff down but they don’t have the speed and physicality. To me, he’s physically ahead of other freshmen you have come in and that’s what’s given him an opportunity to go right in.”

Caesar isn’t the only player who has benefitted from his time in the Red Devils’ expanded weight room. Designed by Emel with the support of athletics director Anwar Golden, the room more than doubled in size from a cramped 1,500 square feet to a cavernous 3,500 with a full array of apparatus and weights. It was completed in September.

Knowledge is power

If there’s one thing sportswriters have a lot of at this time of year it’s time on their hands. And that’s the fuel to create all kinds of clever offerings.

A lot of them has to do with the quirky things one can discover putting together the rosters of the high school football teams for the season ahead.

One of the more popular pursuits when time is aplenty is coming up with an all-name team, a compilation of the most intriguing names in the game.

Penns Grove has a player who definitely qualifies as a first-round all-name pick, a veritable all-name All-American – Knowledge Young.

His full name is equally unique – “the longest one in America” one of his teammates said overhearing the interview: Knowledge Born Reality Young.

Now if that’s not a name for the ages. And just when you thought the name game couldn’t get any better, his siblings have names just as interesting – Messiah, Savior and Precise.

People ask the Red Devils’ junior receiver/safety “all the time” the origin of his name. It’s actually a family legacy and rooted in, well, the book of knowledge.

“My name came from my dad; he actually has the same name as me,” Young said. “It’s his studies. He gets most of our names from that. All of our names come from his studies. He likes to be in books a lot.”

Don’t get the idea Knowledge is just another name on the Penns Grove roster. He’s an impact player, a returning all-conference pick capable of making something happen every time he touches the ball.

He caught 27 passes for a team-leading 337 yards and two touchdowns last season, had 600 all-purpose yards and made 48 tackles – fifth on the team and tops among DBs – with a fumble recovery and an interception.

“He’s got a good name because he’s a smart kid,” Red Devils coach John Emel said. “A good name like Knowledge, you’ve got to do well in school and have your head on straight.”

“You’ve got to hold up to it,” Knowledge agreed. “I prioritize school. You have to be a student first over an athlete, so I always have to keep my grades up. Four-point-oh. Gotta keep straight A’s.”

He’ll be in action Saturday when Penns Grove plays in the Coach Larry Ginsburg 7-on-7 Classic at Eastern High School. The Red Devils are one of four Salem County teams in the field.

The Iceman cometh

It didn’t take long for Jameel Clark to find a summer job after school let out.

He created one.

Two weeks ago, the Penns Grove freshman wide receiver/defensive back started a water ice business – PG Ice – with his cousin Julian King out of their house on Penn Street. He saw it as an enterprise to bring something positive to the neighborhood, create some jobs and put a little spending money in his pocket.

“Our main thing is to bring more positivity to the community,” he said. “When I first moved here (from Southwest Philadelphia), I never saw any kids outside and when I did they were just going into the house or going to the store. There really was nothing fun to do.”

They’re not just a couple guys moving some water ice out of the house like some sidewalk lemonade stand. Clark says they have activities outside for the kids and they have a business license. 

Right now the business is working with about seven flavors they get from a distributor in Philadelphia, but in time they’d like to double the menu. Clark admitted he was nervous about launching at first because he was uncertain how the business would be received in his small town, but then he remembered what his grandmother told him – “Don’t ever be scared to try” – and he quickly warmed to the idea.

Their water ice has hit the spot. The icemen already have reordered three times to keep up with demand. Mango and strawberry lemonade seem to be the most popular flavors.

There’s a lot of competition in the water ice business, but these entrepreneurs aren’t frozen by the challenge of the establishment.

“We did say that,” Clark said. “We were going to be the next Rita’s.”

Red Devils coach John Emel only learned about his player’s business a couple days ago and has yet to sample their wares. But he’s all for his players embracing the entrepreneurial spirit. 

“I want them work,” he said. “That’s why we try to do workouts in the morning so they can work and we can give them off on the weekend so they can make some money because there’s so much they have to take care of on their own.”

A big cup of water ice sure is a nice treat to have after a hot day of August practice. He just might make some available. He isn’t sure if he’ll charge.

After all, he is a business man.