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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Driven To Succeed, Chosen To Lead
November 07, 2007 | Football
Captain and starting linebacker for the 2007 Princeton football team, it looks like Jon Stem has led a purely glorious existence during his time on campus. His teams have yet to experience a losing record, and he was a starter on the 2006 Ivy League championship team.
Must be nice, some would think.
Here is the untold story, the one that makes you admire Stem just a bit more. Before he stepped on campus, he was a somebody. An academic honoree at Greensburg Central Catholic. A state champion baseball player. A recruited football player.
When he stepped on campus, he was just Jon Stem, a guy who wasn't about to get any time on defense anytime soon.
Not so glorious anymore.
His path to the starting lineup, to the 2006 Ivy League title and to his current role as co-captain tells as much, if not more, about Stem than anything you'll see on the field tonight. Although based on his performance in last year's Friday night showdown against Brown, you're likely to see plenty tonight.
At 6-0, 210 pounds, Stem doesn't have the typical big body that you see in linebackers. But there was a time he did weigh too much, and it delayed his football progress.
“I didn't play football before high school,” Stem says. “There was a weight limit to carry the ball before that, and I was too big. I didn't want to play on the line all the time. I played baseball my whole life, and I had thought that was what I'd play in college.”
An outfielder, Stem helped Greensburg Central Catholic to a state title as a sophomore. He hit better than .500 during his senior year and would be invited to play in the WPIAL Class AA All-Star Game that season. Suffice it to say, he could have played baseball in college.
But that wasn't where his heart was at the time. After four years as a varsity linebacker, Stem was developing a love affair with football. It wasn't that he stopped enjoying baseball, but that was like an old toy on Christmas morning; it just wasn't as exciting as the shiny new truck under the tree.
“I was drawn to playing football in college,” said Stem, whose older brother Ted played tight end at Yale. “Having only played the sport for four years, it was still new and fresh.”
Having seen his brother's games, he was well aware of two things concerning Ivy League football. First of all, it was played at a high level, which undoubtedly drew him to a sport he found so exciting. Secondly, there was a precedent for Greensburg Central Catholic players in the Ivy League. Not only did his older brother play, but so did former quarterbacks David (Princeton) and Jeff (Yale) Mroz. They are the older brothers of current Princeton quarterback Greg Mroz, a classmate of Stem's since the first grade.
Stem attended the Princeton football camp prior to his senior year, where he met linebackers coach Don Dobes. Both gained good feelings about the other, and it was Princeton's level of interest that put Old Nassau past all other rivals.
Dobes was still interested in Stem when he arrived in the fall of 2004. He just didn't have much time to show it.
“If you think about it, we work about 330 days for 10 games,” Dobes says. “We don't get enough time with the younger guys during the season. When it gets down to crunch time in the fall, I need to get 8-10 guys ready to play each week.”
Those eight to ten players included the likes of Zak Keasey, Justin Stull and Abi Fadeyi, all of whom became All-Ivy performers.
Stem, the former big fish in the small pond, had hit the ocean.
“It can be a humbling experience,” Dobes says. “These guys were all the quarterbacks and middle linebackers at their high schools, and now they go to a situation where everybody is faster, stronger and knows the defense better. That's a big deal. The younger guys have to react to plays. The veterans can anticipate them. It makes them even faster.”
Stem is far from the only freshman to experience this situation, but his handling of those first two years goes a long way to explaining his success in his last two years.
“They told me coming in that I would have two years to learn the defense,” Stem says. “By my junior year, I needed to know everything and could compete for a spot. I never really questioned it. I wanted to be a part of it, and I knew I needed to work hard.”
He put in the work those first two years, both physical and mental. He needed to get stronger and quicker, but he also needed to learn the intricacies of the 3-4 defense that Princeton went to at the start of the 2004 season. He eventually grasped the schemes so well that he actually learned several positions within the linebacking corps, giving Dobes a variety of options.
“He has become that jack-of-all-trades guy among the linebackers,” Dobes says. “He played nickel linebacker and some [middle] for us last year. He's actually playing [strongside] this year. It's a combination of his versatility of skills and great understanding of the game.”
Understanding the game is one thing. Playing it is another, and he finally got that chance as a starting linebacker when 2006 began.
Stem's first start on defense came at Lehigh, an annual power in the Patriot League. The game took place in Bethlehem, where Princeton hadn't won since 1992. One quarter into the game, the Mountain Hawks led 10-0 and appeared headed to a ninth straight win in the series.
But the defense, which featured four new starting linebackers, began to take control. These were more than Stem's teammates, though. They were his close friends, who together worked tirelessly to take over when the likes of Stull and Fadeyi graduated.
“We were a tight-knit group going in,” Stem says. “It's great to be able to play with your best friends. You know how to play off each other. Being a competitor, you always want to play, but in the same regard, we're all pulling for each other. We knew we were a team defense.”
That team defense didn't allow another Lehigh point in an eventual 14-10 Princeton win. Stem had three tackles in the game, including a big sack on speedy Mountain Hawk quarterback Sedale Threatt. He had another big performance four weeks later, when Brown came to town for a Friday night showdown on ESPNU. He recorded five tackles, including two solo stops, and added another sack as Princeton kept the 2005 Ivy League champions out of the end zone in a 17-3 win.
The 2006 title went down to the wire, and a win at Yale was a necessity. The first half was ugly, as current Ivy League rushing leader Mike McLeod ran for four touchdowns. The Bulldogs went in with a 28-14 lead, but Stem never saw any doubt in the locker room. He saw determination and confidence, both of which were on display as Princeton rallied to win a 34-31 thriller in New Haven. One week later, Stem had four tackles in a 27-17 win over Dartmouth that brought the league title back to Princeton for the first time since 1995.
Don't get him wrong, Stem is excited about that title. His joy and pride will only grow as time goes on. But the culture within the Princeton football program is not one of resting on laurels. Stem fits, and he quickly began to work towards 2007.
“In the offseason, his work ethic is second to none,” defensive coordinator Steve Verbit says. “His energy in workouts is exceptional. He carries it on to the practice field as well. You know you will always get a great effort from Jon Stem.”
Teammates tend to rally around that. Despite being a starter for only 10 games, Stem was honored prior to the spring game by being named a 2007 co-captain along with All-Ivy wideout Brendan Circle.
“It is a huge honor,” Stem says, “when your teammates think of you as somebody to follow.”
Sometimes, stats make it easy to understand a captain's selection. On this Princeton defense, most of the numbers were fairly close. There had to be other factors, and Dobes believes it is that character of the linebacker he believed in four years earlier that tipped the scales in his favor.
“He is who he is,” Dobes says. “He is confident, but isn't cocky. He's tough and excitable, but isn't a showboat. I think the guys saw him as somebody they could follow, or somebody they'd want in a foxhole with them.”
Following a season-opening loss to Lehigh, Princeton traveled to nationally-ranked Lafayette with something to prove. The Leopards were defending Patriot League champions and competitors in the 2006 NCAA championships. They also led in the third quarter, a scenario Princeton had grown quite accustomed to in the previous season. A 10-play, 69-yard drive that ended with a one-yard touchdown run by R.C. Lagomarsino gave the Tigers a 20-14 lead late in the third quarter and a temporary grasp of momentum.
It was time for the captain, who prefers to lead by example but is willing to get vocal, to make sure that grasp grew a little tighter.
A 56-yard kickoff return set Lafayette up in Princeton territory as the Leopards began their next drive. On the first play, Lafayette quarterback Mike DiPaola dropped back and looked for another big chunk of yardage. Instead, he was dropped be Stem, whose 10-yard sack ended both the third quarter and any Leopard progress built on the big return. Lafayette would eventually punt and never scored again in a 20-14 Tiger win.
With four games left in the season, Stem knows that Princeton will count on more big plays from him. He counts on himself to make them. His eight-year journey, including his two-year apprenticeship when his greatest asset was tireless self-motivation, has put Stem in position to get the job done.
Princeton is in a foxhole now. Do you think the Tigers are happy to have Stem with them?
They've already answered that.
by Craig Sachson