IN 2018, JIM DAVIS had no choice but to go against his beliefs. As the football coach for Naples Middle/High School, a school for military dependents in Gricignano di Aversa, Campania, Italy, he had never started a freshman on offense.
He had had freshmen on the roster; sometimes five to six that rarely saw the field unless the game was out of hand.
But 14-year-old Ashton Jeanty forced Davis to think differently.
Jeanty had been in Italy since he was 12 because his father, Harry, was a commanding officer on the naval support base in Aversa, a small town near Naples.