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Mike Naples is one of
those athletes who has always been one of the best at whatever sport he
played.
“He's always been the
biggest kid on his team and he's always pretty much been the best
player, whether it was football, baseball or basketball. Everybody knew
who Mike Naples was long before he got to the high school,'' said Greg
Arakelian, a long-time assistant and now head football coach at
Somerville (NJ) High School.
A central New Jersey town,
Somerville is located near the main campus of Rutgers University.
For the past three
seasons, Naples has starred for both the Somerville football and
basketball squads. A 6-foot-4, 220-pounder with 4.6-second speed in the
40-yard dash, he caught 35 passes and scored eight touchdowns to earn
third-team All-Somerset County honors on the gridiron as a junior.
Naples also averaged 15 points and 10 rebounds for the basketball squad.
It was the talent Naples
displayed in both sports that caught the attention of East Carolina
defensive ends coach and special teams coordinator Vernon Hargreaves,
who would eventually extend a scholarship offer. Naples was so excited
about the offer that he took an unofficial visit to Greenville to check
out the school during the Easter break in April.
Upon his return to
Somerville, Naples told Arakelian he was ready make a verbal commitment
to ECU. Arakelian told him to wait.
“My advice to him was that
it's early, wait and see what else happens,'' Arakelian said. “But you
could tell he loved it. At least once a week after he got back he'd come
to school with an East Carolina T-shirt on.''
So Naples waited. And
while he waited other offers came in from Akron, Army, Cincinnati,
Purdue and Vanderbilt.
Despite the additional
attention, Naples knew he wanted to become a Pirate. So after watching
ECU knock off nationally-ranked Virginia Tech and West Virginia to start
the 2008 season, Naples decided to pull the trigger.
“Was he swayed (by early
wins)? I don't know,'' Arakelian said. “He liked East Carolina before
the season started. But the fact they've done so well only helped.''
Naples has begun his third
season on the Somerville varsity and caught a 26-yard touchdown pass in
the season opener.
He started as a wideout on
the varsity as a sophomore when Arakelian was just an assistant under
Kevin Carty, Sr., whose son, Kevin Jr., played collegiately at North
Carolina before finishing his career at William & Mary.
“We knew right away Mike
was going to be a special player,'' Arakelian said. “He was raw, but he
could play the game.''
Arakelian took over as
head coach last season and he planned to use Naples at receiver and
linebacker on defense, but those plans didn't work out.
“In the summer of 2007 he
broke his finger playing AAU basketball in Virginia,'' Arakelian said.
“He was able to play the entire season with us, but he wasn't cleared to
play until opening night. That was his first time in full gear. So we
kept him off defense the entire year.
“But last Friday in our
opener he was on the field 90 percent of the time. He had a good game at
linebacker – he was our leading tackler – and he caught a touchdown as a
tight end on offense.''
Arakelian said Naples
isn't a traditional tight end or college wideout, which is why the
Pirates plan to play him at a hybrid or H-back position where he can use
his height and strength to his advantage.
“We have a play called 93
jump, which is exactly what he does on the play,'' Arakelian said. “The
quarterback puts air under the ball in the corner of the end zone and
they rely on Mike's athletic ability to go up and get it.
“I actually have a whole
list of Mike Naples plays where we isolate him on the defender.''
Led by Naples, Somerville
is hoping to improve on the 3-7 record it posted last season.
“We've got more of a
veteran team this year,'' Arakelian said. “And Mike is our go-to guy.''
