Wilson’s Jack Dendall has big ambitions — and the drive to reach the top

Jack Dendall grew up dreaming about playing tight end. As the biggest kid on the team, football coaches always pointed him towards guard or tackle, but he remained determined to get his hands on the ball.

A few years back, playing youth ball in Florida, he dropped 20 pounds and showed he was agile enough enough to run pass routes.

“I played there for three games,” the Wilson junior recalls, “then the coach told me: ‘We need you on the line.’ “

Things haven’t changed since coming to Wilson a few years ago. Take one look at the hulking 6-3, 275-pounder and you can see why.

He’s big as a dump truck and moves linebackers around like a bulldozer rearranging a mound of dirt. He should have ‘Caterpillar’ across the front of his jersey, not Wilson.

It’s no coincidence Dendall moved into the starting lineup last season just about the time the Bulldogs began plowing through their opponents with a vintage smashmouth run game.

They used tailback Jadyn Jones and quarterback Brad Hoffman like battering rams and guys such as Dendall, Jon Ramsey and Jack Durning to carve up anything in front of them.

“We definitely found our style of play,” said Dendall, who started the final five of what became a seven-game winning streak that drove Wilson to the District 3 Class 6A championship game. “We found the run plays worked a lot and we stuck to that.

“We just did our thing,” he said of the offensive line. “We knew we had to destroy the defensive line to win. We knew we had to move them out of the way.”

Dendall planned to be in there a lot sooner. He got some valuable game-time as a freshman in a key win at Manheim Township and showed he could play. The sophomore likely would’ve won a job for the season-opener against Central Dauphin had he not torn a ligament in his left knee on the first day of contact drills last August.

He found himself in a standing-room-only training room forced to endure the pain of back-to-back, 42-14 losses to Gov. Mifflin and Exeter in Weeks 2 and 3.

“It was hard watching that,” he said. “(Those losses) actually motivated me to work as hard as I could (to get back). I told myself I can make a difference on my team. I told myself: ‘I’m gonna come back hard, I’m gonna make a difference, and we’re gonna get some wins.’ “

Dendall, his knee still aching, played in the second half of the loss at Exeter when another lineman went out with an injury.

“It hurt,” he said, “but I had to fight through it. I really wanted to be on that field.”

By Week 8, with the Bulldogs’ season still very much on the line — they were 4-3 and needed to win out to take the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 1 title or to qualify for the district playoffs — Dendall was back on the line for good.

“I had to prove myself again when I got hurt,” he said. “There was a senior ahead of me; I had to fight for that spot. It was a battle, but I worked hard and I got my spot back at about the right time, right before playoffs.”

Dendall helped the Bulldogs pound out tough Section 1 wins over Hempfield and Manheim Township in Weeks 9 and 10 to clinch another league title.

The Bulldogs really cranked things up in the playoffs, rolling over York High 50-32, then knocking off top-seeded Central York 14-11.

The Bulldogs ran the ball 64 times in the Section 1-clinching win over Township and an astouding 69 times at Central York; that was key in keeping the ball out of the hands of Penn State-bound quarterback Beau Pribula.

“There’s no better feeling than that,” Dendall said of the win at Central York. “We knew at practice that if we wanted to win our line had to beat the crap out of the other team. We had to physically and mentally beat them on every play: On the backside, on the playside, try to bury them as far as we can.”

The Bulldogs hogged the ball over their final six games, averaging 49 carries and 306 rushing yards. That style nearly worked against a physical Harrisburg team in the title game; the Bulldogs ran it 41 times but couldn’t crack the end zone enough, falling 14-10.

Dendall’s contribution didn’t go unnoticed. Despite playing roughly half a season he earned a spot on the Section 1 all-league team along with several of his trench mates: Tight end Brady Kline, Durning and Ramsey, who was named Offensive Lineman of the Year.

“(Jack) used his size in the run game to cave the edge on run plays,” said Wilson coach Doug Dahms. “He drove tackles down the field on inside runs and (displayed) good techique in the passing game to protect the quarterback.”

Some feel Dendall was only scratching the surface of his potential. He has big ambitions and went at it hard in the offseason to make strides toward playing at the next level.

He attended several college camps during the summer and picked up tips on improving his blocking techniques. He’s agile enough to play attack in lacrosse — he scored nine goals for the Berks champs in the spring — but he’s still working on improving his footwork and firing off the ball better.

He goes to physical therapy five times a week, does more stretching and wears support braces on each knee to make sure he remains healthy.

Dendall realizes last season he got by mostly on size and strength. Now he feels he’s a smarter, better player.

“This year I’m gonna be a freight train,” he vowed. “I’m gonna move people, put ’em on the ground, make holes for our running backs.”