Nick Singleton’s desire to be great stems from his early football success

Nichole Singleton dreaded her son’s first football games in the Mifflin Broncos youth program on Saturday mornings.

It was flag football and it was chaotic. The 6-year-olds didn’t know where to line up or what to do when the ball was snapped.

Nick dreaded them, too. He was quiet and shy around strangers.

She had the task of driving him to the games because her husband, Timmy, worked on those days. They were both ready to pack it in but Timmy asked her to give it a chance.

So she bribed Nick and promised a trip to his favorite fast-food restaurant if he’d go to the games.

“If you get five flags today, I’m going to take you to McDonald’s,“ she would say to him.

“Five flags and I can get McDonald’s?” he would reply with excitement.

That’s how it all began for the Gov. Mifflin football standout who Tuesday was named the Gatorade National Player of the Year and who Wednesday will sign a letter of intent to play at Penn State.

“I had to kind of get him into it,” Nichole Singleton said. “Then he really started getting into it and the competitiveness came out. He’d say, ‘I can do this. I can really do this.’ ”

Nick Singleton’s success at an early age gave him confidence, helped him overcome his shyness and ignited his desire to be great.

“He found something he was really good at, and that became his identity,” Timmy Singleton said. “That became who he was. He just kept wanting to be good. He kept driving and pushing forward.”

Singleton’s four years at Mifflin were historic. He set Berks County records with 6,326 rushing yards and 116 touchdowns in his career as he led the Mustangs to a 32-11 record, three Berks Football League Section 1 titles and a District 3 Class 5A championship.

This season, he ran for 2,059 yards, scored 44 TDs and led the Mustangs to a 10-1 record, a league title and the district final.

“Nick has written the book about what a complete running back is,” Mifflin coach Jeff Lang said. “This kid has size, strength and speed. He’ll run you over. He’ll stiff-arm you to the ground. He’ll run past you and pull away from defenses. He’ll put a move on you or jump over you.

“He is the complete package.”

Long before their son’s high school accomplishments, Timmy and Nichole Singleton each had an epiphany when they realized he might be special.

Timmy, Nick’s coach in youth football, would work out with him during a particularly warm summer when he was 10.

“He wouldn’t quit,” Timmy said. “There were times when we were outside and it was hot. I’d feel bad and say, ‘Yo, you can stop.’ He’d say, ‘No, I’ll do the last rep.’ That’s when I knew he was focused on being good.”

A couple years later, Nick was quarterbacking the Broncos in a tight game at the midget level. During a timeout, his father called a play that Nick didn’t want to run. The play was stopped. The Broncos lost. Nick and Nichole never forgot.

“He was very upset,” Nichole said. “He said, ‘Dad, I can see what’s going on on the field and you can’t. I know what everyone’s going to do. If you had let me do what I wanted to do, we would have won.’

“That’s when I knew. I was like, ‘Wow!’ ”

That same summer, Nick began training at Garage Strength in Richmond Township on the recommendation of Neil George, the father of former Berks Catholic standout and current Pitt football player Brandon George.

“He wanted to be the best,” Nichole said. “If he wanted that, he knew he had to get stronger and be more physical. It’s speed, too. He wanted to do it.”

Dane Miller, a former Schuylkill Valley and Penn State athlete, owns the gym and has trained several Olympians. Even though Singleton said he was sore for a week after his first workout, he never quit.

“Early on it was Nick’s work ethic,” Miller said. “He showed up four days a week without complaining. That’s the biggest thing. Everybody will sit there and say he’s a freak now. No, the freak stuff happened when he was 12, 13, 14 and doing things that most kids his age don’t do.

“He has a willingness to be as good as he possibly can. That’s the part that differentiates him from everybody else.”

D.J. Shuttleworth, another former Schuylkill Valley athlete, was Singleton’s primary trainer during his first four years at Garage Strength.

“He was a skinny little kid when he first got there,” Shuttleworth said. “He was long, but he was weak. He was just a normal kid who committed to lifting four days a week for the last six years.

“He understood the end goal. He knew what he could be.”

These days, Singleton impresses some of the Olympians who train there, such as U.S. discus thrower Sam Mattis, who finished eighth this summer at the Tokyo Games.

“Sam would see Nick every day,” Miller recalled. “Last year there was a point when Nick hit a PR (personal record) in the power clean and benched over 400 pounds.

“Sam said to me, ‘Dude, I’ve seen this kid since he was in eighth grade. Now I’m getting pushed by him in the weight room. This is wild.’ ”

Singleton kept getting bigger and stronger because he’s single-minded on becoming better than everyone else. Outside football, training and school, he has few interests other than watching “Chicago PD” and horror movies.

“He jokes around with his friends,” Lang said. “He’s happy-go-lucky. He doesn’t let any of this stuff go to his head. As a matter of fact, he shies away from it (attention). He’s just an average Joe.”

Except that he isn’t. He’s Nick Singleton, one of the greatest high school football players that Berks County has ever seen. He’s a five-star prospect who’s rated the No. 1 running back in the country by recruiting outlet On3.

He chose Penn State over Notre Dame, Alabama, Wisconsin, Texas A&M and others. He’s drawn attention from across the country. Yet from all accounts, he remains grounded with the help of his parents, his three siblings, his relatives and friends.

“I am proud of him that he’s handled everything well,” Nick’s father said. “He could be a jerk. He could walk through the hallways and say, ‘Look at me.’ That’s not him. Even at home he still empties the dishwasher.”

His mother says he has a silent drive to be great, which is difficult to explain. Dane Miller has seen it inside his gym.

“I can tell you any time he’s going to do a big lift, everybody’s watching him,” Miller said. “I’m laughing internally because I know he’s going to hit it because everybody’s watching him. He thrives in that situation. It’s not like he’s a showboat. I think he’s pretty introverted.

“He sort of basks in the attention internally, though. He likes being the best.”

Source: Berkshire mont