By Joseph Staszewski
This Buckeye bucked the trend.
Erasmus Hall defensive powerhouse Jahsen Wint signed a National Letter of Intent to play football for Ohio State. The gridiron Goliath will be one of few who rise from the gritty Brooklyn neighborhoods he’s proud to represent, he said.
“From where I am from, people don’t actually make it,” said Wint, who was raised in Crown Heights and now lives in Brownsville. “For me to make it and do it for Brooklyn — it just feels good.”
Mother Claudette Ramos-McKoy and an aunt kept him busy with sports and out of trouble coming up in the hardscrabble neighborhoods. First was karate — but Wint took to it too quickly, and his family scrambled to find something else to occupy his time.
“His aunt was actually the one that came up and said, ‘Let’s put him in football,’ ” said Wint’s mother. “That way he gets to go every week and keeps him busy.”
At 9 years old, Wint joined the Brooklyn Renegades youth program. He fell in love with the sport — it was an outlet.
“I was just a little angry kid, so I had to find something that I could do that I could hit people legally,” Wint said with a smile.
Nearly a decade later, that hard-nosed style caught Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer’s eye — enough to net Wint his first scholarship offer from a Bowl Championship Series program. The recognition was enough to get Wint to de-commit from Philly’s Temple in favor of Columbus and the Buckeyes, where he will join former Dutchman Curtis Samuel.
Then again, Wint always had reservations about Temple.
“Going to different camps and seeing how I matched up with some of the great athletes, I saw I could compete with [Temple], so deep down I knew I deserved more for myself,” he said.
Wint is one of New York City’s top players and Courier Life’s All-Brooklyn First Team selection. He made 69 tackles during the regular season and had two fumble recoveries and an interception to help Erasmus reach its second-straight Public School Athletic League City conference title game. He runs a 4.6-second 40-yard dash and won a city championship in 2012. Erasmus has sent 11 players to Division-I schools since 2009 (expect a dozen when Darren Wesley heads to Rhode Island or Eastern Illinois soon).
The 5-foot-11, 187-pound Wint played linebacker in high school, but Ohio State is considering moving him to strong safety to fill a spot, he said.
Poor performance nearly limited him to junior college, but Wint buckled down, his coach said.
“The magnitude of the jump was incredible,” said coach Danny Landberg. “That is a tribute to his work ethic. I didn’t expect him to change the way he changed. This time last year we didn’t have any offers.”
And playing college ball while earning a degree isn’t the end for Wint — it’s the beginning.
“I wanted to do better for my family,” he said. “Get them out of Brooklyn.”
