It’s easy to miss the town of Wadley if you’re driving down State Highway 22 in east Alabama.

As you cross the highway’s Tallapoosa River bridge, most people will continue straight, maybe stopping for gas or a roadside meal at Stephens Station, a 41-year staple of the area. You’d have to be looking for it to come across the town of less than 1,000 people, but if you do veer right down the main street, it won’t take long to see what those people are proud of.

On a muggy Monday afternoon inside the Wadley High School gym, it was Jaquez Wilkes, the shining star of a football team that means everything to this close-knit community. Monday was Wilkes’ day to make his college commitment, a moment to celebrate the 6-foot-4, 234-pound 1A football cheat code that helped the Wadley Bulldogs bulldoze their way to state championship glory in 2024.

Not only did Wilkes make his college decision, he chose Auburn, the closest Division I school to Wadley’s campus.

“It’s pretty cool to know that my family and friends will always be able to be at the games,” Wilkes said. “If I need anything, they’ll be there.”

It’s hard to spend much time in Wadley without the topic of football coming up. Driving down the town’s main street, you’ll see painted Bulldog paw prints on the road, signs celebrating the school’s 2024 state title and a big football next to the town’s welcome sign.

The main street doesn’t include much. The brightly decorated Maggie Jo’s Diner and the welcoming Red C Cafe are the two main places to eat, and if you turn on to Highland Avenue and go up the hill, you’ll come across the cozy town hall building.

The old railroad town is the type of place to shut down on a Friday night when the local high school football team is playing. It’s the kind of place where you can walk into any of the small handful of businesses downtown, bring up the name Jaquez Wilkes, and hear stories of him, his father and his uncle’s accomplishments on the field.

Wilkes being the athlete to represent Wadley on the national stage is fitting. The son of two city employees, Wilkes’ mother, Nikkie Houston, is the town clerk and his father, Paul Wilkes, works for the town’s utility office, helping run Wadley’s water, gas and sewer systems.

Paul Wilkes also played football at Wadley High School and is the brother of legendary Wadley running back Terrance Wilkes, who was shot and killed eight days after the final game of his storied high school career in 2006. Not only was he a staple at Wadley from 2001-2006, he finished as the state of Alabama’s all-time fourth-leading rusher.

Jaquez carries that legacy by wearing Terrance’s old No. 6. The school hopes to one day retire the number following Jaquez’s career.

The family’s legacy highlights what football means to the town, especially as a tool to bring pride to the people that call the quaint village on the Tallapoosa River home.

“I think if you take football out of Wadley, you’ve got a ghost town,” said Jeremiah Thomas, the school’s assistant principal and assistant football coach. “Of course we try to excel in all the other sports, but football is kind of what runs this community.”

Wadley head coach Dake Rivers has only been at the school since June. His connection to the school and town runs deeper, though. His wife, Hannah, is a graduate of Wadley, meaning he’s visited many times and has had a taste of what Friday night means in this community.

To him, Wilkes’ commitment to Auburn isn’t just a source of pride for the program and the town, but an inspiration to younger players.

“Just looking at it, all kids from any classification can make it to the next level,” Rivers said. “Jaquez is a walking testament to that.”

Given his lineage, Wilkes playing and starring on the football field isn’t much of a surprise. The extent of his dominance and recognition was hard for anyone to see coming.

Houston said Wilkes has been in sports almost his whole life. From football to basketball and baseball, he and many of the same kids Wilkes shares the field with now all played together in Wadley growing up.

By age 12, Wilkes was already standing 6-foot-1 and playing on the varsity team and didn’t look out of place. By the end of his junior year, he stood 6-foot-4 and over 230 pounds, gaining attention from major college football programs across the country.

“He was in fifth grade, and he was already heads taller than everybody else,” former Wadley coach Shenan Motley said after the state championship. “He was so big that they wouldn’t let him run the ball in Pee Wee, so he played on the line. He’s a good blocker, too.”

Larry McGill, an 81-year-old lifetime Wadley resident who attends every game, called Wilkes the best player in school history.

“I’ll watch practice, and he does things I’ve never seen nobody else do,” McGill said.

Few people are trusted to explain the history of the school’s football program more than McGill. Ask someone at Stephens Station a question about an old Wadley football team and they’ll point you in his direction. He filmed the school’s games for 48 years, retiring from that job five years ago due to the risks of climbing into the tall filming stand.

“I’m 81 years old for crying out loud,” McGill said with a smile.

His wife, Gail, is a retired math teacher at Wadley High who, like Larry, has seen generations of kids come through the school. The couple has been married and following the team together for 52 years, including seasons in which the Bulldogs went winless.

Those experiences are part of why Wilkes stands out in school history. He led the program to its first ever official state championship, a feat past greats such as his late uncle and former national championship-winning Auburn wide receiver Terrell Zachery never achieved.

All you have to do is turn on the tape to get an idea of Wilkes’ dominance on the field. During the 2024 state championship season, he rushed for 2,582 yards and 37 touchdowns, while adding 117 tackles, 18 tackles for loss, three blocked punts and two interceptions, according to Wilkes’ X (formerly Twitter) page.

“When you’ve got a kid at 6-4 about 235-240 playing running back in 1A, it’s so easy,” Thomas said.

In the 2024 state championship game, Wilkes rushed for 312 yards and five touchdowns with 10 tackles and an interception, all after injuring his knee early in the game. It’s a testament to the word Rivers and Thomas used to describe Wilkes.

“Dawg.”

On the field he’s just that. Off the field, his family members and friends in the community describe him as a good, hardworking kid. If you spend time around Wilkes and his parents, it’s not hard to see the similarities. He and his parents are a quiet bunch, something you could tell from Monday’s events.

Some college commitment ceremonies can drag. From teachers and coaches giving long speeches, to the athletes themselves building suspense or faking out the crowd, theatrics aren’t uncommon.

That wasn’t the case with Wilkes. A handful of coaches spoke, and after Wilkes read off a few thank yous, he picked up the Auburn hat and the celebration began.

No fakeouts, no suspense, no hat flips, just a straight-to-the point declaration.

“He’s mature, very good young man and respectful,” Wilkes’ father, Paul, said. “Just an all-around good kid.”

The high school chapter of Wilkes’ career isn’t over yet. He has one more season with the Bulldogs and carries with him the goal of repeating as state champions. But Monday was a day for a close-knit community in east Alabama to celebrate arguably the town’s greatest future football export.

And even with the bright lights of the SEC in his future, that pride isn’t lost on Wilkes.

“It means a lot, because this don’t happen much here,” he said. “Young kids, they see that somebody else is doing this and they’ll be able to do the same.”

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m