This story originally published on Sporting News on April 25, 2018.

Imagine six active NFL players coming from the same 9.74 square-mile patch of land. Welcome to Pickerington, Ohio, population 20,000, a Columbus suburb locals affectionately call “Picktown.” Northwestern safety Godwin Igwebuike will become that sixth active NFL player when he is selected in the 2018 NFL Draft, less than a decade after Ryan Manalac became the first Pickerington native to play in a regular-season NFL game.

How did a small, rural town with a population of 5,000 when a new high school was built in 1991 transform into a football-frenzied hotspot with two powerhouse high schools so fast? It’s a full-scale competition that runs from the youth level to the NFL. This is the blueprint for a modern football factory, and those six active players are proof the Pickerington process works.

The Pickerington Central Tigers supplied Taco Charlton (Cowboys), Roger Lewis Jr. (Giants) and Brian Peters (Texans). The Pickerington North Panthers produced Jake Butt (Broncos), Pat Elflein (Vikings) and Igwebuike.

There will be more NFL players soon. Central and North combined to send 23 players in last year’s senior class to all levels of college football in 2018, and more four-star high school talent is moving up fast.

In 2017, Central quarterback Demeatric Crenshaw rushed for a state championship game-record six touchdowns in a 56-28 victory against Mentor. That gave Central its first ever state title — at Division I, no less, the highest level of Ohio high school football. Crenshaw is one of the top dual-threats in the state heading into his junior year.

Then there’s 15-year-old North defensive end Jack Sawyer, who has scholarship offers from multiple Big Ten schools, including Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Michigan State. He was one of the best players in the area as a freshman in 2017. That might seem like a lot of hype for someone not old enough to get his driver’s license, but Sawyer can get an ego check in his own house.

Sawyer’s mother Michelle was a basketball star at Pickerington High School; her buzzer-beater in the 1990 girls basketball state seminal is still part of the city’s lore. She now teaches at Pickerington North. Sawyer’s father, Lyle, is from Columbus and stays with his son through the early recruiting process, which amped up when Ohio State coach Urban Meyer extended a scholarship offer.

That upbringing shines through in interviews. Sawyer mentions his grades repeatedly before even touching on football or basketball. For a 6-5, 200-pound kid who hasn’t filled out his frame, Sawyer doesn’t shy away from lofty goals. He wants to be the best high school player in Ohio — the country, even — and that does not come from an insincere place.

“The coaches push us each and every day,” Sawyer said. “They get us ready to talk to college coaches. My parents, my Mom and Dad, always have tried to make me a humble kid and not some dude who is going to brag.”

That begins to explain how this NFL wave started. Audrey Hasson, a sports reporter and anchor for the NBC affiliate in Columbus, grew up in Pickerington. She remembers a time when Ohio State Route 256 wasn’t crammed with restaurants, businesses and stop-and-start traffic. She played basketball and softball at the original Pickerington High School.

“It was a farm town with a high school in the middle of a cornfield,” she said. “We knew we were athletic kids. But to me, I would never have imagined this type of talent coming out of here year after year. It’s about great teachers, great coaches and a great school system with a lot of great families. It starts there.”

For Igwebuike and Butt, it started on a pee-wee football field in 2006, when they played with Charlton — all NFL players-to-be — in a memorable Pickerington Youth Athletic Association sixth-grade championship game. Igwebuike and Charlton were on the winning side of that competition.

“We were down by like a TD with a minute left and ended up winning,” Igwebuike said. “I ended up running a 50-yarder to win that game. Me and Taco kind of had a dynasty going on. We were three-time champions.”

Butt laughs about it now, but he still offers one objection: “Taco and Godwin ripped us up. Somehow they got on the same team. I don’t know how in the hell that happened because I know they were both first-round draft picks.”

Butt isn’t talking about the NFL Draft, either — he’s talking about a pee-wee football draft. That’s how seriously Pickerington takes its football. What does he think about now when he realizes Pickerington produced six NFL-caliber players?

“It’s wild, but the best thing we had going for us was each other,” Butt said. “We were playing backyard football with a bunch of college athletes and NFL athletes, which only made us better in the long run. From that standpoint, it isn’t wild at all.”

Sawyer played in the PYAA along with countless others in the school district. For Crenshaw and others who moved to the area later, the NFL has become the new standard to follow.

“Everybody sees them as idols,” Crenshaw said. “We look up to them. We want to be like them.” Of course, those players had their own idols to admire.

Like so many success stories, there were trailblazers who opened the path for others to follow.

*****

The 1991 construction of a new Pickerington High School, a large campus that looked like a factory from a distance, marked a turning point for local athletics. Schools in the area weren’t that big. The Tigers were best known as a girls basketball juggernaut that piled up state championships and a USA Today national championship in 1998-99. The football team made a run to the state semifinals the following season but lost to national powerhouse (and eventual state champion) Cleveland St. Ignatius.

Then Manalac started high school at Pickerington.

Now the defensive coordinator at Ohio Dominican, Manalac said he had something to prove after watching his older brother play for the Tigers.

“Kind of a quote that I always hung my hat on was, ‘Hard work beats talent if talent is not going to work hard,'” Manalac said. “That something was the edge, a chip that I always kept, especially when I started at Pickerington.”

Manalac went on to become a walk-on linebacker at Cincinnati under coach Mark Dantonio, a connection that would pay off later. Manalac worked his way into the starting lineup and led the Bearcats with 83 total tackles in 2008 en route to an Orange Bowl appearance. Manalac said that success warranted just enough attention from NFL teams at Cincinnati’s Pro Day in 2009. The Bills signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2009, and he played in the regular-season finale against the Colts. It was one game, but it was significant for Pickerington.

“We had guys make it to the regular season then get cut,” said current Pickerington Central coach Jay Sharrett. “He was the first player in the history of the school district to play in a NFL game, a regular-season game. I think with him — someone had to be the pioneer. He was the pioneer.”

Sharrett crossed paths with Manalac as part of the split that took Pickerington to that next level. Sharrett took over as head coach at Central when North split from the original Pickerington High in 2003 (the original being renamed Central). Manalac and his teammates were permitted to stay at Central and finish their careers, but district student activities director Mark Aprile said an unorthodox decision that year laid the groundwork for future success.

Pickerington doubled the amount of junior high, freshman and junior varsity football teams.

“The splitting has given more kids a chance to participate, and that’s part of the competitiveness of the kids wanting to outdo each other from one side of the district to the other,” Aprile said.

Manalac and others set a new bar. A.J. Trapasso, who also graduated from Central in 2004, starred at punter for Ohio State and eventually made the Titans’ practice squad. Shane Bowen was a three-year starting linebacker at Georgia Tech and now coaches the position for the Titans after spending the past two seasons with the Texans. Justin, Zach and Jacoby Boren, the sons of former Michigan linebacker Mike Boren, starred at Ohio State and were instrumental in getting attention directed to both schools during that transition period. Manalac would later take a job as a graduate assistant under Dantonio at Michigan State.

Those are the grinders, the pioneers who set up this wave.

While Elflein, Butt and Igwebuike were just starting in the PYAA, Manalac was slamming a freshman named Brian Peters into the wall in full-contact basketball games after school. Peters went to Northwestern and made the Texans as a linebacker and special teams ace.

The split of the schools also led to organization at all levels. Sharrett said the PYAA and junior high programs set the table for high school success, and that double-sided competitiveness fuels it. He said it’s rare to have two high schools separated by fewer than five miles excel in the same sports — especially football.

“By the time they get to us they’re ready for it,” Sharrett said. “They have an instinct for it.”

Instinct is an understatement.  Nate Hillerich, a native of nearby Groveport, took over as Pickerington North head football coach in 2017. This was his “dream job,” which he confirmed the first day he worked out his new team.

“I remember the first day I came to morning workouts,” Hillerich said. “The kids work out at 5:30 a.m. I come in at 5:15, and there are over 50 kids in the weight room. They’re up, they’re disciplined and they understand what it takes to make it to the next level. It’s a special place. The expectation for the parents and the kids is to win.”

Hillerich can thank Elflein for that early-morning lift. Elflein and a few teammates used that window to work out so they could play other sports for the Panthers. Elflein earned 12 varsity letters in football, wrestling and track. That made a huge difference later, he said. Specialization is not the norm at Pickerington North. It’s quite the opposite.

“I did three sports — my football coaches, my wrestling coach helped me a lot and my track coaches always pushed me to be in the weight room,” Elflein said. “It was the all-around program that helped me personally. That is how I look at it.”

Elflein, Butt and Igwebuike were part of a run that helped the Panthers build a successful program that reached the Division I state semifinals in 2012. Now Butt and Igwebuike were competing against Charlton, who had emerged as a standout player at Central.

When Butt reached college, he finally would play on the same team with Charlton.

“Little did I know I was going to be a roommate with Taco in college, and we were going to be arguing constantly about who was better, who would have won this, who would have won that,” Butt said. “We were always arguing. It wasn’t nasty, but it was a true, deep rivalry in that sense.”

While all that unfolded, Sawyer watched as an eager fourth-grader from the sideline. He remembers watching Butt and Igwebuike on the field, but Elflein made the biggest impact in the locker room.

“He kind of taught me how to be a leader,” Sawyer said. “The way he presented himself. He was always at practice on time making sure his grades were good, other players’ grades were good, making sure people were accountable.”

Hillerich can thank Elflein, too. It’s why Sawyer, who also stars on the basketball team, is in the weight room by 5:15 a.m. The competition never sleeps.

*****

A light snow falls outside the Pickerington Central fieldhouse on April 9. The weight room hasn’t changed much inside since it was built more than 20 years ago. Each wall is decorated with framed photos of star players who worked out in that room. Manalac, Peters, Charlton and Lewis Jr. have pictures in each corner.

Around 3 p.m., the varsity team arrives. Crenshaw wears a Superman T-shirt and lifts with a group that includes Sharrett. Assistant coach Lorenzo Styles, a former star linebacker at Ohio State who won a Super Bowl with the St. Louis Rams in 1999, is in another corner with his son Lorenzo, a wide receiver. The elder Styles said football isn’t the only reason Pickerington is a destination now.

“I think it’s more about the work ethic the parents instilled and how that’s carried over in the community,” Styles said. “You see it everywhere.”

Styles moved to Pickerington in 1999, one year before Ryan Daugherty graduated. For Daugherty, Central’s offensive line coach, this is a special time. “Doc” played for the original Pickerington High School, too. He remembers when teammate Lawrence Reid committed to Michigan when the standard was much different.

“It wasn’t that long ago that it was a big deal when you had a kid go to a Big Ten school,” Daugherty said. “That has been surpassed, but this is where that is made possible. The kids come here ready to work.”

More than a handful of players in that weight room have the same dream. Weights slam during the two-hour workout until Sharrett turns down the radio and asks one question: “What’s the only thing that matters?”

“Wendell Phillips,” everyone responds.

Central opens against the Chicago school on Aug. 26. That is a long way from the week of Oct. 12, when signs overwhelm both schools with the only thing that matters.

“Beat Central.”

“Beat North.”

Crenshaw learned that when he arrived in the school system. It can be a culture shock for a teenager, even one whose six-touchdown performance in the state title game will never be forgotten. “When I got here there were so many people that came to the games,” Crenshaw said. “It was like college. It felt like a college game. I really understand the importance of it now.”

*****

Steve Blackledge is in his 33rd year covering high school sports for the Columbus Dispatch. When it comes to Central Ohio high school football, he’s the leading authority. So what does Blackledge think made “Picktown” possible?

“I think it’s just the growth of the city and the diversity of it has really allowed it to go,” Blackledge said. “A lot of folks like to say, ‘What if it was just one high school here?’ A lot of the communities in Columbus could say that right now, but with Pickerington both schools have that.”

Blackledge has been to most of the signature games in the rivalry. Central beat North 38-7 when the schools met for the first time at Crew Stadium in 2008. When asked what it’s like to play in this rivalry, players need a few seconds to compose themselves after laughing, as if to say, “You had to be there.”

Their actual responses were: “It’s top talent across the board.” … “It’s like a small college game.” … “It’s like a smaller Ohio State-Michigan rivalry.” … “It’s all everyone talks about.”

It’s tradition. For Pickerington North running backs coach Mike Rossi, game week means a chance to cook spaghetti and meatballs for the seniors that Monday. It’s a tradition-laden week that engulfs the classrooms at North and Central. The student sections play an unsanctioned game during the week.

It’s everything to the community.

“Since they’re separate, I think it brings out even more intensity,” Rossi said. “It gets them kids so — they want to be so much better than the others. It’s good competition. When you’re at Pick North, you don’t want to hear about Pick Central.”

Two matchups last year added to the intensity of this rivalry. Central beat North 24-21 in the regular season and 31-14 in the Division I regional final. Hillerich remembers taking in the atmosphere for both games.

“It lived up to the hype,” he said. “We were out there for the warm-ups and the student sections for both teams were sprinting to get to the front-row seat. They stopped selling tickets. It’s the only high school game I’ve ever heard of where they quit letting people in.”

Sharrett sees the PYAA bonds that last, even in that moment. “It’s kind of neat after the game because the game’s over, you can tell these guys know each other and they’re friends,” Sharrett said.

“They go on and play the rest of their season and we play ours. It makes for a great night between the schools.”

By the time a player has been through that, he’s ready for the next level — and the one after that.

“It helps you find the routine to get ready for a game like that,” Elflein said. “Whether it’s a high school game or in college games, I had a routine. Now, I have a routine in the NFL. You have to have a routine that gets you ready to play in those games.”

*****

Xavier Henderson is ready now. He was a running back and defensive back for Central’s state championship team in the fall. On April 7, he was on the field to receive the opening kickoff at the Michigan State spring game. He’s expected to contribute in the secondary. Henderson shares the same stories as just about everybody else; he played for his father, Allen, in PYAA and came up through the system with this wave of players.

“Just a good spectrum of athletes,” Henderson said. “We have a really great coaching system and athletic director. It’s not a sports mindset. It’s a competitive mindset.”

Henderson’s answer is about as surprising as Sharrett’s reaction to that early success. The last conversation the coach had with his former player wasn’t about football. It was about classwork. Sharrett is always looking for that next step.

That precedent has been set at both schools. And Rossi and Blackledge both insist Igwebuike would have been a star running back in college.

Said Rossi: “Go watch the St. Charles game.”

Added Blackledge: “I thought he would be a great running back in college. He was one of the best running backs I’ve ever covered. I would put him right there with Ki-Jana Carter and some of the great ones I covered. He could have gone to a larger school than Northwestern, but the academics were very important to his family.”

Pickerington players don’t seem overwhelmed by the spotlight of big-time college football. Hillerich estimated 40 FBS coaches visited the high school during the winter recruiting period, including Meyer, Dantonio and Indiana’s Tom Allen. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh even stopped by for an impromptu math lesson.

“When college coaches come into our building, and we get quite a few during recruiting season, they know they are getting kids that are college-ready,” Sharrett said. “They know he’s going to be able to respond to hard coaching. They know he’s going to be weight-room strong, and they know he’s going to be well-seasoned in big ball games.”

Sharrett knows there’s a standard to live up to there, too. “They don’t go there and sit,” he said. “They go there to contribute.”

*****

Charlton interrupted reporters during an interview with Butt at Michigan’s Pro Day on March 24, 2017. Charlton commandeered a mic, smiled and asked his question.

“Who was the big brother who took care of you throughout this process? The first time and the second time?”

Butt played along.

“I’ve got to give a shout-out to my baby brother Taco,” Butt said. “He really did. He really did. I have to say that.”

Charlton then expressed his gratitude for his parents believing in him. Norman Charlton and Leo Igwebuike coached that PYAA dynasty and stayed involved throughout the entire process. Rob Butt, Jake’s father, still lives in Pickerington. The parents continue to play a huge role in that success.

“I didn’t think about it at the time, but there are some parents that kind of think their kid is the next big deal,” Butt said. “I don’t know about other parents, but I know that was never on their mind here. They were about raising kids that worked hard and did the right things. This was kind of an outtake of that. It was not, ‘This is our end game.'”

At this point, he knows the game doesn’t end on the field — at any level — with the bonds that have been formed with the players.

“I know the Pick North kids are real tight,” he said. “I don’t know how many other places have it like this.”

Butt and Igwebuike participate with a few other former teammates in a weekly online prayer group. It includes Dylan Weigel, another North grad who led East Tennessee State in tackles in 2017, and Kody Kasey, who played at Georgetown College before suffering a gruesome injury in a game that eventually resulted in the amputation of his leg.

At Pro Day, Butt talked at length about why Kasey — who, by the way, played on that PYAA championship team, too — was an inspiration.

This group stuck together through all that.

“Creating those bonds at a young age, these guys are some of your best friends now,” Igwebuike said. “Being able to reach out to some of those guys now is priceless.”

It’s still not the end game. Charlton, Butt and Elflein played in one of the most memorable Michigan-Ohio State games of all time — a 30-27 double-overtime thriller in 2016. Elflein played in the NFC championship game last season. Igwebuike will join that group in the NFL, and the Central-North bragging rights will continue to be a topic of discussion.

“I look back at high school, and I didn’t want to get strong for the sake of being strong,” Butt said. “I didn’t just want to run all day and win gassers for the sake of winning gassers. I wanted to get strong so I could be a good football player, so I could beat my friends, so I could beat Taco. It was that young mindset.”

*****

That NFL success has not corrupted the prevailing grind-it-out mentality at either school. Sharrett still lifts with the players. Hillerich still shows up at 5:15 a.m. It has enhanced the competition at every level.

“It’s just pride for the school,” Hillerich said. “Our starting point guard is going to Toledo for football. I think three of the starting basketball players played football. There aren’t a lot of schools like that anymore. That’s the mindset in Pickerington.”

Henderson is part of the class that will form the next wave in college and beyond. Central’s 2018 class also sent Trenton Gillison to Michigan State, Alex Morgan to Toledo and Jeremiah Wood to Ohio. North sent Red Potts (Ball State) and Ty Wiley (Toledo) to the MAC. Quarterback Jimmy Weirick will play at FCS Wofford. North also made a splash in that cycle when defensive end Alex Williams committed to Ohio State.

“When (Williams) committed to Ohio State there was a buzz coming through my phone,” Elflein said. “People were saying, ‘Hey another kid from North is coming to Ohio State.’ There is talent all over the place at those schools.”

The schools are split, and the allegiances are tested. But the Pickerington mindset has not changed. This NFL factory keeps expanding. “I was thinking about it before I even got here, especially with Godwin, Taco and Jake, all them,” Henderson said. “I was thinking, ‘They’re really doing it, but we’re kind of doing it too.'”

Said Crenshaw: “It just really makes me want to be the next guy. It makes everybody in the program want to be the next guy.”

And Sawyer: “I have to do what I have to do to make that happen. It’s not going to be just on talent.”

Maybe one day Sawyer and Crenshaw will have the same dynamic that Butt and Charlton had in college. But Crenshaw might have one objection.

“That’s tough,” Crenshaw said. “A defensive player? Across the ball? That would be tough.”

Notice Crenshaw does not have a problem rooming with a North player. That’s because of the mutual respect that has been there since North opened 15 years ago. For the most part, they root for each other — except when they play each other. Hasson sees it that way from the sideline now.

“A lot of people that stay in Pickerington that either played in Pickerington or came back to Pickerington were top athletes from when I went there,” Hasson said. “Everybody kind of makes this a great community. … That stands as the key, or the heart, to what makes these two teams good.”

It’s Igwebuike’s turn to take the NFL step, and more will follow. Everyone sees it — on NFL Sundays, college football Saturdays and, of course, on Friday in the Central-North rivalry. Igwebuike, however, takes one more rewind back to the PYAA days, that first competition that mattered the most. That is what “Picktown” is all about.

“It’s one of those things that at the time you didn’t realize how much talent you were playing with,” Igwebuike said. “Pickerington has always been competitive in football and sports in general, but that wave of guys I was growing up with didn’t know how special we were.”

They know now. And there’s a lot more where that came from.