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Jake Merklinger acknowledged it was different returning to his old high school on Monday.

After all, he was a senior at Calvary Day School last month before completing his studies, and here it was, early January, and he was attending a morning assembly.

“It feels pretty cool but also a little weird that all of my classmates and teammates are in school right now, and I’m kind of done with it,” said Merklinger, who starts classes this month at the University of Tennessee, where he has signed a football scholarship. “It’s pretty surreal.”

Merklinger was back on campus to be honored for an excellent senior football season in 2023 as part of an extraordinary career with Cavaliers athletics. Merklinger received the trophy as co-winner of the 43rd Michael Finocchiaro Memorial Outstanding Football Player Award.

The quarterback shares the award with New Hampstead junior quarterback RaShawn Truell as the top high school player in Savannah, as voted by head coaches from Chatham County teams and local media. The co-winners were announced in November, with voting based on regular-season performances.

“I have never seen this much talent in Chatham County,” said Michael Finocchiaro, nephew of the award’s late namesake, who started recognizing the city’s outstanding players in 1976. “If you won the award this year, you are the best of the best.”

PHOTO (l-r): Mike Finocchiaro (Family Rep), Jake Merklinger, Karl DeMasi (Finocchiaro Award Chairman)

For his senior season, Merklinger completed 163 of 226 passes (71.1 percent) for 3,028 yards, 38 touchdowns, two interceptions and a 150.2 QB rating in 13 games, an average of 232.9 yards per game.

He also rushed 67 times for 439 yards and 11 touchdowns for the Cavaliers, who went 13-1 (including one win by forfeit) and advanced to the GHSA Class 3A semifinals.

Calvary’s past winners of the award are Demarcus Dobbs (2005) and Craig Thomas (1999).

Longtime coach Karl DeMasi, who helped the Finocchiaro family continue the awards after a hiatus from 2010-15, noted that Merkling is one of nine to earn this honor as well as the annual Ashley Dearing Award as most versatile high school male athlete in Savannah. One of those nine was Calvary’s Dobbs (2006). Merklinger won as a junior in playing the required football and basketball seasons as well as a spring sport, in his case, lacrosse.

After the ceremony, Merklinger called both awards very prestigious and said, “I don’t really have to talk for the awards; they talk for themselves.”

He was happy to have the awards ceremony during a school assembly, in front of “people that care about me,” and thanked his coaches and teammates.

“They’ve been everything,” Merklinger said to reporters after the ceremony. “There would be no me without my teammates and my coaches.

“An unbelievable offensive line this year, great receivers, great running backs. Our coaches did a really good job preparing us all year.”

A four-year starter, Merklinger finished his career with 9,635 yards passing, 113 touchdowns and 24 interceptions after completing 68.7 percent of his passes in 51 games. He also rushed 238 times for 1,129 yards and 31 TDs.

He credits his coaches for how far he came over four seasons.

“Freshman Jake was skinny and fragile and had to have big guys in front of him,” Merklinger said. “We ran a very different offense. I’ve seen a lot of progression. I think that’s credit to the coaches who developed me here.”

Cavaliers head coach Mark Stroud spoke at the ceremony and lauded Merklinger as an outstanding person, student and athlete of great character who represented Calvary Day very well.

Photo Credit (l-r): Calvary Head Football Coach Mark Stroud & Jake Merklinger

Stroud noted the “hype” that Merklinger received as one of the top 10 senior quarterback prospects in the country, according to national recruiting websites. Others may fall short under that pressure, failing to produce. Not Merklinger.

“Boy, he was lights out,” Stroud said. “He was an outstanding player this year.”

Merklinger said he dealt with the attention by not worrying about what others think.

“Play for an audience of one, play for an audience of God only,” he said. “I think that helps me a lot when it comes to pressure, or a lot of ‘hype.’ In a respectful way, not caring about the hype, not caring about the pressure, because I’m playing for an audience of one.”

His next team already has gotten a look at him in person. Merklinger spent time in December with the Volunteers in Knoxville, Tenn., and was allowed to practice with them leading up to the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1 in Orlando. As he is not yet a student at the university, he was ineligible to play in the game, which Tennessee won 35-0 over Iowa.

“We won, which was the main thing,” Merklinger said. 

He got to participate in bowl week activities such as visiting Universal Studios Florida, and he was quarterback on the scout team at practice, which he said was cool and fun. 

He also received shirts, hooded sweatshirts, shorts, pants and shoes from the football team and more gear from the bowl committee with the Cheez-It Citrus logo.

“I have a whole wardrobe of Tennessee stuff now,” he said.

Merklinger has one more game to play before spring football in Knoxville. He was selected for the Polynesian Bowl, a high school all-star game on Jan. 19 in Honolulu, Hawaii, shown on the NFL Network. 

Photo Credit - Calvary Day School - Production And Social Media Manager Liza Youmans

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