Jun 25, 2024
Janasia Wilson.Remember the name.Hers will be the one all future New Jersey flag football Players of the Year will be measured against.The improvisational, electric, playmaking phenom from Irvington has set the bar fabulously high for the rapidly evolving sport.A good thrower and an exceptional and elusive runner, Wilson’s finest quality is her ability to make those around her better.Unselfish but ready and willing to take control of a game when it matters most, Wilson has been named Most Valuable Player in both a national and statewide all-star game. There is no more fitting player to be name the first Flag Football Player of the Year by NJ.com.“Janasia is the ultimate playmaker,” said Mickey McDermott, the head coach at rival Ridgewood. “She is the symbol of just how good New Jersey flag football is.“If flag football had national recruiting rankings like the boys do, Janasia would be a top-three-in-the-nation recruit on both offense and defense.”McDermott was on the East coaching staff with Irvington head coach Kyle Steele in the U.S. Army All-American All-Star Game last December.“The West coaches came up after the game as asked ‘you have to play against her every year?’” McDermott said recanting the story. “How do you stop her?”The answer, for anyone who has seen her play is, you don’t.“Her athleticism is out of this world,” McDermott said.“Here’s the thing,” Steele explained, “she is still in her kid body. When she matures into her grown-up body, she is going to do amazing things.“She has already played against the best players in the world,” Steele added. “Last summer, she intercepted a pass thrown by Diana Flores (the quarterback for the Mexican national team). "Wilson’s team lost to the Flores-led team, 21-20, but in what has become her trademark, Wilson rose to the occasion on a big stage. She will take her talents to Keiser University in Fort Lauderdale. Kaiser was a runner-up in the NAIA National Championship game, losing to Ottawa University of Kansas.After she threw four TDs and ran for another in the Phil Simms North-South All-Star game earlier this month, the South head coach, John Tierney from Pinelands, called Wilson “a character is a Madden (video) game.”“She is as gifted an dynamic as any boy I’ve ever seen,” Tierney added.Wilson’s statistics aren’t mind-blowing by any stretch. In 2024, she completed 51 of 85 passes for 606 yards. She threw 12 TD passes and was intercepted only twice. She ran for 329 yards and four scores.Wilson could easily have run for more rushing yardage simply by sending her receivers deep and fleeing the pocket, leaving defenders grasping at air. Instead she chose to involve her teammates showing little regard for her own statistics.“Part of the reason we’ve been so successful is because other girls want to play with her,” Steele said. “A big draw is being her teammate. Her humbleness is refreshing.”Steele remembered a game early on in her career when Irvington was trying to run out the clock.“I told Janasia not to put the ball in the air,” Steele said.But on third down, Wilson dumped a ball off to a teammate who wasn’t know for making plays in big spots.“My heart dropped,” Steele said. “I asked Janasia later if she knew what would have happened if that player dropped the pass. She said ‘I knew she was going to catch it.’“When a star trusts her teammates, that’s what makes a team,” Steele added. “She has zero percent ego.”Wilson is also a stellar, but underrated defender. When Irvington defeated Ridgewood, 21-20, in a game Irvington later forfeited for use of an ineligible player, Wilson single-handedly stopped a Ridgewood drive on the doorstop of the end zone.“She broke 15 yards and made one of the greatest plays I’ve ever seen,” said McDermott a boys football defensive coordinator. “I’ve never seen a boy break like that in my life.”Wilson pulled the flag in the open field in a one-on-one situation.“When it happened in real time I couldn’t image how we didn’t score,” McDermott added. “Most high school cornerbacks never break like that. It was remarkable.”Steele said he isn’t sure Wilson will even be a quarterback at the collegiate level. Keiser has another New Jersey quarterback on its roster — Middletown North grad Valentina Fanetti, a lefty-throwing, rising sophomore.“I don’t think she wants to be a quarterback,” Steele said. “She played quarterback for us because that is where we needed her. At the next level, I can see her playing all over the place.”
