Finding Football: Ashton Jeanty's around-the-world route to the sport he never left behind
By Levi Edwards | Digital Team Reporter
It was a blast heard around Frisco, Texas, that put Ashton Jeanty on the map in the summer of 2019.
Not with the traits that would later define him: the violent stiff‑arm, the glide‑and‑burst out of the backfield, the Halloween Michael Myers pose that would go viral. No, Jeanty's first impression came from the opposite side of the ball as a safety.
It didn't even happen in a regulated game. It was a scrimmage between Lone Star High School and regional rival Mansfield Lake Ridge. Jeanty, a sophomore at the time, had just transferred to the Texas high school by way of Naples, Italy, of all places.
Lone Star Head Coach Jeff Rayburn didn't know much about Jeanty other than the basics. He was a military brat who traveled nearly 6,000 miles to come play football at his school. Rayburn described Jeanty as a "respectful" and "friendly" young man from their first encounter and he was impressed with the tape he'd seen of Jeanty playing overseas.
"But you don't really know the level of competition that he's playing against," Rayburn said. "Obviously he looked really good, but you can look really against not really good players."
As for going up against Mansfield Lake Ridge, the level of competition was high as the team was coming off a 5A State Championship game appearance.
It handed the sophomore his first real chance to baptize himself – and the poor kid running toward him – into the near-religious intensity that is Texas high school football.
"Mansfield Lake Ridge, who's got a lot of fast, big athletes, really good program, and Ashton's playing safety," Rayburn recalled. "And he comes downhill on our sideline and just annihilates the running back. It was one of those hits where everybody in the stands, everybody on the sidelines including theirs was 'oohing' and 'ahhing,' jumping up and down.
"We all kind of looked at each other like, 'Yeah, he is like that.' And kind of the rest was history."
There's a familiar saying, often seen on wall décor in homes across America: "Home is where the heart is."
For Ashton Jeanty, who's never stayed in one place for too long, home is where football is. That's where his heart truly lies.
The Jeanty family has gone to great lengths to make sure football remained a constant in Ashton's life.
Ashton, the second of four children, was born to Harry and Pamela Jeanty while Harry, a Navy officer, was stationed in Jacksonville, Florida. The family soon moved to Chesapeake, Virginia and then Naples, Italy before he was in middle school.
"It was a tough experience," Ashton said. "At times, it was good … I wouldn't say it was bad, but it was just challenging moving around all the time. Always having to pack up and make new friends, leave family behind."
His parents noticed how athletic he was even as a small child, acrobatically flipping around the house with unlimited energy. They initially put him in organized soccer before football, a game his older brother and uncle had already played, caught his attention.
"I remember the first time really playing football, like earliest days," he said. "I was in Virginia. We're living on the base, and just kind of running around, you know, playing against all the kids on the base and, you know, just being crazy out there. From there, I just fell in love with football."
Adjustment quickly became a theme in Ashton's life. He never could have predicted he'd end up across the globe learning the fundamentals of football on a military base.
"I didn't know what to expect," he said. "I didn't even really know where [Italy] was on the map as a young kid. … It was a crazy experience to tell my teammates, my coaches, all my friends that in a month or so I'll be packing up, moving overseas and you'll probably never see me again."
Through it all, Harry made sure his son was able to play the game he loved wherever they went. His military background also paved a way for his son to pick up specialized traits needed to be an elite athlete.
"Hard work and discipline, the military teaches you those things," Harry Jeanty told Raiders.com. "And if you take them with you, you can pass them on. Same thing I've done. I think what speaks volumes about that is the fact that he was able to kind of see me wake up early, doing those things on long days. I believe he learned from that. He operates himself in that way. It pays big dividends."
At Naples Middle School in Gricignano di Aversa, Italy, Jeanty stood out like a sore thumb. But in a way, that wasn't such a bad thing.
His athletic ability quickly made him the one of the best players within the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), excelling as both a football and basketball player.
"He wouldn't go down on the first hit. He was explosive," Ashton's head coach at Naples, John Davis, previously told the Associated Press. "You just felt like you're always sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for him. You know, next touch might be a touchdown."
As Ashton's athletic prowess continued to grow, it became evident he had the potential to play Division I college football. Yet it would be difficult to showcase how good he was while living in Europe. Davis encouraged Jeanty to return to the United States to gain greater exposure and seize the opportunity play against top competition.
"Playing football in Italy was fun. But, you know, it wasn't the most competitive," Ashton said. "Getting to travel and see different aspects of different countries and then going to Germany, going to Spain, going to different places around Italy, it was amazing getting to play the sport I love but also experiencing different cultures and different foods – that's what everybody wants to do."
