Football Meet Jake Ballard By John Porentas
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Jake Ballard
Photo by Jim Davidson [/FONT]
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Don't look for Jake Ballard in the library.
It's not that Ballard doesn't hit the books when he has to. He graduated from high school with just-over a 3.5 GPA, but Ballard simply is not one to spend his time sitting in front of book unless its required.
"The only way I'm spending my time reading a book is if it's an assignment," Ballard said.
As a matter of fact, just sitting is something that appeals to Ballard about as much a as a root canal, whether it is in front of a book or anything else.
"I'm not a real big TV guy. I don't watch a lot of TV unless its sports. I'm not like every night watching a TV show," Ballard said.
Ballard is the kind of guy that likes to be doing something, so it's no surprise that his idea of rest and relaxation involve getting out and getting involved in something, usually something competitive, even when he's not on the football field.
"I like competing in anything. I play basketball. I play golf," said Ballard.
Ballard was a good enough basketball player to have had Division I interest as a power forward, and last summer was about a three handicap golfer. For him, its all about staying active and the competition. Ballard takes that to the extreme even with something as mundane as tossing around a frisbee.
"I play ultimate frisbee," he said. "It's just really different. It doesn't have a ball and it's really continuous. The play doesn't stop," Ballard said.
You get the impression that that suits Ballard just fine, that play stoppages kind of go against the grain for Ballard, and that ultimate frisbee is the perfect fit for him. Even his down-time is planned activity. This week Ballard is at Norse Lake in Tennessee with the family of friends, but laying around in the sun is not part of the planned routine on the trip.
"We're planning on a lot of tubing and skiing," Ballard said.
Ballard's competitive nature is common among football players, but was probably honed somewhat by the fact that he has a twin brother, Josh. And is usually true with twins, the two tend to compete more-than just a little.
"We definitely compete at just about everything we do," he said.
That was true for the Ballard boys until it came time to play high school football and they were teammates and competing on the same side. Jake, however, is bigger than Josh, and played tight end and on the defensive line while Josh played linebacker. When they finished their high school careers, both were recruited to play football at the Division I level but at different Ohio Schools, Jake at Ohio State and Josh at Ohio University. Though they will now go their separate ways, there are no regrets among the Ballard boys over their college enrollment decisions.
"We knew we probably wouldn't be able to go to the same school, so we were both just happy with each other," said Ballard.
"We've gotten closer as we've gotten older. We've hung out more together as we've gotten older.
"It's kind of strange because you won't see him as much as you usually do, but we'll still talk a lot," Ballard said.
Ballard is a big tight end that is a very effective blocker. In the North-South game he was the only player on the South squad that had much luck slowing down North defensive end Robert Rose. That led some observers to speculate that Ballard's future might be on the offensive line, but Ballard said that being an offensive lineman does not really appeal to him.
"If you like it and you've played it all your life there's nothing wrong with it. If you're used to going out in pass patterns and catching the ball and being more active than just blocking, it seems kind of boring to me," said Ballard.
The grind of the offensive line just doesn't appeal to Ballard. He doesn't see it as where the action is, and he is an action guy. What would not bother him, however, is looking at the defensive side of the ball where even as a down lineman or defensive end, he would be in a position to make things happen.
"If they asked me to play defensive line, that would be a split second decision, no problem. But if they asked me to play (offensive) tackle I'd have to think about it," said Ballard.
"I played defense all through high school, defensive end and defensive tackle. One of the defensive coaches at Ohio State was kind of joking around with me and said I would look good coming off the end," Ballard said.
Even a dynamo like Ballard needs some down time from sports. When Ballard does take time off from competition he moves on to another hands-on activity that some would find surprising for a football player, sculpting.
"I took about six art classes in high school. I like sculpture and working with my hands in clay," he said.
His interest in art is genuine, but as you might expect, he is more interested in being a participant than an observer. While he enjoys sculpting, you are about as likely to catch him standing around in an art museum just to look at sculpture as you are sitting in a library reading a book.
"If there was a field trip in school I would go, but not on my free time," he said.
For Ballard, the appeal of art is much the same of that of sports, the challenge of doing something.
"It's like a challenge for me to make something as real-looking as I can," he said.
"I sculpt clay that gets fired when I'm done. I do pottery stuff too like on pottery wheels," said Ballard.
Before you start getting the idea that Ballard is sitting around trying to sculpt butterflies, little lambs, and other little dainty little objects, put that notion away. Ballard tends toward subjects that hint at action, not pastoral serenity.
"Animals and living creatures, but bigger animals like bears or gorillas," said Ballard describing the type of subject he selects for his sculpture. "I've done some of those and I've some abominable snowman type things," he said.
