Staff Report
Coaches love to say this: the best ability is availability.
But perhaps just as important to a winning high school team is versatility. And Jake Blum had that in spades. He could play just about any position on the football field or baseball diamond, and be probably the best player on the team wherever he was.
Blum, the younger brother of former Mainland Regional baseball standout Brady Blum, certainly made a name for himself during his career as a Mustang. He helped lead the football team to a state championship his sophomore year, and this past spring the Mainland baseball team won the Cape-Atlantic League championship.
Those are just two highlights in a career that was full of them. He led the Mainland football team last fall with 520 receiving yards and scored 12 total touchdowns. He also had 44 tackles as a defensive back, leading Mainland to the South Jersey Group 3 championship game, where the Stangs lost in a heartbreaker to eventual state champion Cedar Creek. In that game he had 70 receiving yards, scored two touchdowns, had 122 kickoff return yards, including an 83-yarder for a touchdown, and added a two-point conversion — displaying just about every skill he had on a football field.
“Jake is a phenomenal athlete. We saw that when he first came to mainland. I always referred to him as a Cohen Cook 2.0. He was just like a Swiss Army Knife that could do anything for us,” said Mainland football coach Chuck Smith. “He played so many different positions on our team — safety, corner, offense. He was our backup quarterback — and I’m sure on other teams he would have started at quarterback — split end, slot, running back. I mean, he did it all — punt returner, kick returner; and he did everything great. Just a great athlete, a very smart player, worked hard. He’s got physical gifts and talent, but just really an intelligent football player. He knew where to be and how to play the various positions. It was never an issue of moving him around on offense. He always knew what he needed to do with each position.”
In his three-year varsity football career he had more than 1,800 receiving yards (on a team that was run-heavy) and scored 24 touchdowns. He also had nearly 100 tackles and added six interceptions as a defensive back, and had nearly 400 kickoff return yards as a senior. On the baseball field, he hit .357 for his career despite missing a full season with an injury as a junior, tallying 55 hits, 42 runs scored, 34 RBIs, 30 walks and 26 stolen bases.
Said Smith, “he raises everybody else up because they see how he plays, what he does. A lot of kids (look at him) and see what hard work does, how it pays off. Not only was Jake a great athlete, which are few and far between, but he didn’t just take that for granted and just go out there and play sports. He was in the weight room. He was always working out, doing extra reps, staying after practice — all those little things.”
— Staff Writer Dave O’Sullivan
