J.B. Cook has a plan for his future. College. A career and then, possibly, another.

The young man from Mountain Brook will begin that future on July 10 when he reports to West Point, N.Y., as a new cadet, recruited to be the long snapper on the Army football team. He plans to spend a year, like most freshmen, at USMAPS – the U.S. Military Academy Prep School. After that, it’s four years of football and training to become a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army followed by five years of active duty and three more in the U.S. Army Reserve.

The 3.9 GPA student said he intends to major in American Politics. “Politics is a little rough subject,” he said, “and the reason it’s a little rough subject is why I want to do it. Hopefully, I will run for office some day – maybe back home.”

Why did Cook decide to go through the stringent prerequisites necessary to get an appointment and make the long commitment required at West Point?

“It’s a funny story,” he said, reflecting on the first time he thought about pursuing a career in the military. “My mom grew up in a Navy town. Her friends married Navy guys, a lot them who went to the Naval Academy. She knew the wife of the Navy wrestling coach at the Naval Academy and they took us up there, bought us tickets to an Army-Navy game.

“I was maybe a third- or fourth-grader. I had the whole Navy getup, a hat and sweatshirt going on. I actually cried because I wanted to go Army. A couple of Navy cadets tried to pull me aside and tell me how cool the Navy was.

“I was little, but one of the officers asked me if I’d rather be above the battle or in it. I immediately said, ‘In it!’

“I don’t know if that was foreshadowing, but it’s been an idea for me for a long time.”

Family tradition

Football and being a long snapper has been a part of Cook’s life for a long time, too. His paternal grandfather is the late Dale Cook, who lettered in football for five years at Cullman High from 1953-57 and holds the school record with 12 varsity letters. He played two years for the University of Alabama, including the first season at UA for legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant.

Cook’s father is Jackson, who walked on at Alabama and earned a scholarship from Gene Stallings as the long snapper from 1994-96.

“My dad was a football coach for 36 years in Alabama,” Jackson Cook said, “and he kept telling me if I wanted to play Division I, I could as a long snapper. I played center, but I also snapped. I started at UNA in 1993, but I ended up coming home and in the spring, I told my dad I wanted to walk-on at Alabama. I don’t know if he thought I was crazy or not, but I walked on. My last year was coach Stallings’ retirement game.”

Having a father who played college ball at the highest level could have been enough to inspire a son to follow in his footsteps. But J.B. also got a boost from his dad’s second job – he is a snapping coach for One On One Kicking Camps.

“It’s kind of funny how I got involved,” Jackson said. “They were working at Mountain Brook and I was walking at the track. They just had kickers there and I told [one of the coaches] they needed to get snappers involved, too. He said, ‘That’s a great idea’ and asked if I knew anybody who could coach. I said I might be interested.

“It was two Sunday afternoons a month and before I knew it, I had taken over the Birmingham area and now I’m in charge of Atlanta, too.”

Cook’s son had just started as a snapper at the time.

“It has just kind of worked out,” J.B. said. “When I was little, we’d do it in the house. Dad would have me get down in a stance and snap to him in the hallway.

“Once I was opened up to just how much people need long snappers and how rare the position was, it seemed I had the opportunity to my own little thing no one else could do. I took it and ran with it. About the ninth grade, I wanted to play tight end super bad and long snap along with it.”

Cook was the junior varsity snapper as a sophomore and took the starting job for coach Chris Yeager the next season. “Coach Yeager does a really good job connecting with the ninth-graders,” Cook said. “He knew I snapped and with my sophomore year coming up, he approached me about it. When we would go to practice, we start with kicking and punting. That was it.

“My junior year the snapper had graduated and I had to step up and take it. Stepping up to fill that role was kind of cool. I felt I was meant to do that.”

Ben Fentress, a former D-I coach who is a recruiting consultant and private kicking coach, called Cook the “Best uncommitted LS in America” in September. Cook made his commitment to Army on Dec. 4.

Getting ready

The soon-to-be cadet has had one strong military role model his entire life, his godfather, Chad Fleming. The Tuscaloosa native worked as a deputy sheriff on the midnight shift while attending the University of Alabama. He joined the Army after graduation and eventually was wounded when two grenades landed inside his vehicle. After he exited the vehicle to join in a firefight, he was shot. After multiple surgeries on his left leg, Fleming finally persuaded doctors to perform an amputation. With a prosthetic lower leg, Fleming redeployed five times.

The retired captain was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, two Bronze Stars with Valor and three Purple Hearts.

“Growing up around him,” Cook said, “I thought he was so cool. He lost a leg in the service and when I was little, I called him a Transformer. I realize that was insensitive now. I thought he was the coolest and just gravitated toward him. I have asked him about being in the military.”

West Point tries to let its incoming students know something about what is awaiting them. There are medical checks necessary and besides getting recommendations from members of Congress – both Sen. Tommy Tuberville and U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer nominated Cook – there are essays to write, transcripts and test scores to be scrutinized. Then, there is the physical component.

“He had to do a special test that included sit-ups and push-ups and running a mile-and-a-half,” Jackson Cook said. “We had to videotape all of that.”

The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Cook said long-distance running was a shock to his training regime. “Football players don’t usually run a mile,” he said. “I didn’t know when I started months ago it was going to be that hard running a mile when all you’ve been doing is sprints – but I’ve warmed up to it.

“They don’t give you a required number of sit-ups or push-ups, they just want you to do your best. Obviously, there’s a minimum [required], but nobody knows what it is. Push-ups are the hardest for me. I’ve got a super-long wingspan, gifted that by my dad. Push-ups and bench presses have always been hard for me.”

Cook trains every day except Saturday with a lot of stretching and recovery work on Sundays.

Recruiting and preparation

While the younger Cook is gung-ho about his upcoming experiences, he knows that it might be difficult for his family.

“I think my mom [Catherine] is pretty freaked out more than she lets me know,” he said. “When we went on a visit, she loved that. Dad is very good about telling me, ‘Hey, if you need to talk about it, we can talk about it. If you don’t, we can take a night off.’

“It’s a big commitment and they have done an excellent job supporting me through it.”

Jackson Cook said his wife has started preparing for her son’s move. “There are support groups for the moms,” he said. “She has already reached out to the group and they check in on each other. It’s going to be an interesting challenge. The month of July is going to be interesting for us.”

Harper Cook, J.B.’s 23-year-old sister, played Division I volleyball at Fairleigh Dickinson in Teaneck, N.J., and is completing her master’s degree at Alabama this summer. “She’s getting ready for law school,” Jackson said, “so we’ll have law school and West Point all in the same year.”

Cook said his coaches at Mountain Brook had nothing but praise for his decision. “My coaches were all very excited about it,” he said. “They said, ‘J.B., you will not regret this at all. This will be, seriously, one of the best decisions you’ll ever make.’”

In his role with One On One Kicking, the elder Cook has helped several players land scholarships, including Clemson’s Holden Caspersen, Jack Ronilo of Oak Mountain High at Duke, UAB’s Caleb Moser and Coaches All-SEC first-team snapper Kneeland Hibbett of Florence at Alabama.

“I’ve got them all over,” he said, “at Marshall, Georgia State, Presbyterian, one at Indiana. There are about 14 kids who are playing that I have trained and helped find a place.”

While working to train players in his specialty, Jackson Cook said he didn’t put any pressure on J.B. to take up the position. “I did everything I could to talk him out of it,” he said. “I explained to him that long snappers don’t get a lot of attention and the only time they want to talk to you is when you snap one bad. You can have a little more normal life than some of the other players, but if you get press, it’s usually negative and then you don’t have a job.”

The young snapper excelled at that job, though. He attracted some recruiting attention, but most came after he’d already decided to follow his heart to West Point – and football was just a means to an end for him.

“The main reason I want to join the Army is thinking about my family and friends,” he said. “We have something worth fighting for. Mine are, at least. I know we live in a dangerous and unfair world. The greatest honor I can think of is to fight for them.

“I did think about going to other schools. I was thinking about going to another school and getting in an ROTC program, but Army reached out to me and I thought this might be the perfect scenario. It’s exactly what I wanted and exactly what I need. I feel I’d be doing myself a disservice not taking this opportunity. I’d rather go and not make it than have an opportunity and not take it and always wonder about it.

“My friends think I’m crazy,” Cook said. “Them thinking I’m a little nuts is something I can live with. Some are like, ‘I’d totally take that opportunity,’ and some people might say ‘You’re out of your mind.’ Maybe I am. It’s just so important to me, I want to do it. I need to do it.”