Jake Rendina chooses West Point

Jake Rendina visited a remote area of New York state before Thanksgiving, and it seems he enjoyed the sights.

The 5-foot-11, 235-pound Glacier High football standout committed to the Army Black Knights for 2022, hoping to fit in among a long line of talented fullbacks at West Point.

“It came down to the future,” Rendina said Tuesday. “It came down to looking at what I wanted for the future. Comparing facilities, comparing programs, comparing attitudes and mentalities, and the area, too.

“It’s tucked away in the woods, and the people all had this, ‘Let’s get this done’ mentality. It felt like the best fit, futurewise, in almost every way.”

Rendina leaves Glacier with the school’s career marks for rushing yards (3,754), rushing touchdowns (61), total touchdowns (62), carries (676) and scoring (376 points). In 2020 he set the Wolfpack’s single-game marks with a 276-yard, 7-touchdown performance over Missoula Hellgate.

This past season he was hampered by an ankle sprain; he never got back to 100 percent and he hurt the same ankle in the first half of Glacier’s 42-21 State AA semifinal loss at eventual state champion MIssoula Sentinel.

He still finished with 1,377 yards and 24 touchdowns this fall.

“I’m healthy now,” Rendina said. “I took some time off to relax and be a normal kid. But now I’m back at it, in the weight room.”

Rendina plans to study Kinesiology at West Point, and play fullback.

“It’s basically Fullback University,” he said.

Rendina also took visits to Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, and to Montana State in Bozeman. He committed to Army two days after his visit to West Point, then used the Thanksgiving weekend to inform other interested schools. On Monday he announced his decision via Twitter.

Under seventh-year head coach Jeff Monken, the Black Knights have gone 48-39 and taken the lead in the option offense-heavy service academies.

Army might just be Fullback U: From 2015-18 Darnell Woolfolk and Andy Davidson combined for 4,286 yards and 56 touchdowns. Larry Dixon gained 3,198 yards and 26 touchdowns from 2011-14. Collin Mooney, who rushed for 1,400 yards in 2008, played three years in the NFL.

This past season the duo of 260-pound junior Jakobi Buchanan and 245-pound sophomore Anthony Adkins combined for 761 yards and 16 TDs for the 8-3 Black Knights, who will play the 122nd annual Army-Navy Game Dec. 11.

Not that Rendina needed all that history to make his decision in November.

“I just knew,” he said. “This is the place.”