SJA’s Cady named VT Gatorade Player of Year

Jake Cady on the football field
December 10, 2018

Story by Michael Beniash, Sports Editor at the Caledonian-Record.

 

December 7, 2018

 

CHICAGO — St. Johnsbury Academy record-breaking quarterback Jake Cady was named Vermont’s 2018 football player of the year, Gatorade announced on Thursday.

 

Cady is the first Hilltopper to win the award, which recognizes not only athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character on and off the field, according to a news release.

 

“I mean it’s an honor,” Cady said. “I’ve worked so hard to get where I am today. And I couldn’t have done it without my team, my coaches and my family.”

 

The 6-foot-3, 185-pound senior compiled 3,995 total yards and 51 TDs this fall, leading the Hilltoppers to the Division I semifinals. The Division I All-Conference QB passed for 3,350 yards and 36 touchdowns and also rushed for 645 yards and 15 scores. As a junior, Cady collected 3,123 total yards and 35 TDs and led the Hiltoppers to their first football title since 1994.

 

Cady finishes his high school career with 64 touchdown passes and 34 rushing TDs. He is close to deciding on a collegiate destination, he said.

 

“Jake Cady is the real deal,” Rice coach Neil Brodeur said. “The kid produced. He was a dangerous player on the field and is a legit next-level player.”

 

Cady has maintained a weighted A-minus average in the classroom, while volunteering locally along with the rest of his family as part of Team Sullycat, which raises money to benefit families with loved ones fighting cancer. He has also donated his time as a member of the student leadership team with St. Johnsbury’s Campus Life group, and as a youth camp counselor.

 

Now a finalist for the Gatorade National Football Player of the Year to be announced in December, Cady joins Tyler Hamilton (2017) of Hartford, Burr and Burton’s Griff Stalcup (2016), Otter Valley’s Carson Leary (2015), Middlebury’s Austin Robinson (2014) and South Burlington’s Tanner Contois (2013) among the state’s list of recent former award winners.

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