By Joseph Staszewski
Jordan Fuchs still isn’t exactly sure how he got to this point — accepting a full scholarship to play football at UConn.
It was a little more than two years ago that the Christ the King tight end had not played competitive football since his days with the Baldwin Bombers youth team growing up. Then at the behest of his teammates and fueled by the excitement of watching NFL games, the Royals basketball star decided to return to the gridiron.
“If you would have asked me two, even three years ago, I would have never predicted this,” Fuchs said. “This is where I want to be now.”
He gave a host of reasons for choosing the Huskies and Coach Paul Pasqualoni over Rutgers and Buffalo and a host of basketball offers. There were the facilities and the closeness to home.
What it really came down to was he believed UConn was the best place for him to grow as player. The staff will be patient with him. Pasqualoni was also a tight ends coach with the Dallas Cowboys.
“You have people who have been around people at my position that know what they are doing,” Fuchs said.
The 6-foot-5, 210-pound Fuchs will put his basketball career on hold for at least one season after trying to lead the Royals to a State Federation Class AA title. He said he won’t play basketball his freshman year at UConn, but didn’t rule it out in the future. His focus is on football and being a student athlete. Fuchs knows there will be a lot to learn joining a UConn team that went 5-7 and 2-5 in the Big East.
“I’ve only played football for two years,” he said. “At that level people have played their whole lives.”
Fuchs, an all-Queens first team selection by TimesLedger Newspapers, has done plenty in a short period of time. He has a breakout junior year where he had 15 catches for 286 yards and league-leading five touchdowns. Fuchs followed that up by posting 27 catches for 374 yards and five touchdowns to help the Royals reach the CHSFL Class A title game last season.
Just two years ago he wouldn’t have thought of any of that, let alone a football scholarship was possible.
“At first it was just to help me with basketball,” Fuchs said. “It just turned into something I wouldn’t have expected.”
