As the offseason winds down and the Rutgers football team prepares to check in for training camps this week, most of the Scarlet Knights are back home enjoying their final few days off. For true freshman running back Isaih Pacheco, the break gave him a chance to return to his high school alma mater to visit old teammates as they start their own training camp. After going through a workout with the team, Pacheco spoke to the group.

“He kind of reached out, asked when we were practicing and he took it upon himself to come see the team and work out a little bit,” Vineland (NJ) High head coach Dan Russo told Scarlet Nation. “He was telling them to work hard on and off the field, make sure you’re doing it in the classroom, listen to the coaches and stay positive. He was one of the most positive people I know. He’s always positive, he’s got great body language and handles adversity well. He’s just a winner and a tremendous player.”

It was the second time Pacheco took time out to speak to local football players in his hometown of Vineland. Russo saw Pacheco four days earlier at a youth football practice doing the same thing he did on Monday.

“Thursday night, he went down to the youth football players on his own,” Russo said. “They’re called the blitz, that’s our youth program. He went down and spoke to all the kids and today he wanted to stop by and see his teammates from last year, some of the new guys and talk to them as well … He just told them to stay positive, do your schoolwork, listen to your teachers and your parents and work hard.”

The gesture from Pacheco is something Russo is used to seeing from the running back — who played quarterback for the Fighting Clan — since the two joined Vineland together in 2014.

The message preached by Pacheco to his former teammates is the same Russo gives his team throughout the four seasons they spent together. In that period, they built the program from a 2-8 season at the bottom of the West Jersey League Continental Division to their first conference title-winning season in 35 years — a process Russo says Pacheco played a major factor in.

“It means a lot to me and the staff (for Pacheco to come back and speak),” Russo said. “We took over this program in 2014 and it wasn’t really the best situation and we worked extremely hard to where it is now. My first offseason, he was a major key to our success. He helped change the culture of the program. To get a player like that to commit to our program when we had a vision to sell him, that’s very special. He trusted me, he trusted the staff and the program and it was a great situation for all of us. We built it together.”

Pacheco aims to undergo a similar build in Piscataway, where he committed to play for head coach Chris Ash.

The running back enrolled early at Rutgers and impressed during his first spring camp, both in his play on the field and in how much he grew in the weight room. He gained 18 pounds in his first three months on campus , something which did not surprise Russo.

“He came in I’d say about 135, 140 pounds back in 2014 and he left our program close to 200,” Russo said. “He worked extremely hard in the offseason in the weight room. We start in January and he took total advantage of our new weight room — we got a new weight room in 2014 as well — and he was always in there. He worked so hard and I really feel like he’s going to do everything in his power to help Rutgers be successful in whatever role he ends up playing.”

Pacheco has yet to take a snap in college football, so it is difficult to fully project where his career is headed. But based on what he saw over the past four seasons from Pacheco both on and off the field, in his play and in his character, Russo is confident his former quarterback is on the cusp of something great at Rutgers.

“I really feel like he has the potential to excel at Rutgers and at the next level,” Russo said. “I just feel like he’s such a special player and he’s so dynamic and he works so hard and he just gets everything. The total package, you know what I mean? He gets it physically, mentally, he gives back to the community, gives back to our program and like I said, he’s always positive. That’s contagious. How positive he was, it was contagious with our team. ... If he continues to work hard like he does and works hard in the classroom and listens to his coaches, which I really feel he’ll do, I think he’s going to have a great career with Rutgers and he has the potential to play in the league.”