Saquon Barkley: Inside the home and around the town of the Giants draft pick

COPLAY, Pa. — At 10 years old, Jade Alvarez follows select celebrities on Instagram, which seems to be a social media must for many of her fifth grade classmates at Zephyr Elementary School.

Selena Gomez. Justin Bieber. All the Kardashians.

The most famous of them all in these parts is someone Alvarez considers a friend:

Saquon Barkley, star running back from Penn State and most recently the No. 2 pick in the NFL Draft of the New York Giants.

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"I mean, well, he's verified, so – he's got that check," Alvarez said with a wry smile. "He's pretty high [up there on the list]."

So, has it hit Alvarez yet that there are going to be a lot of people her age and older who view Saquon as a celebrity like those she mentioned and the potential of him becoming that kind of star?

"No, not really," she added without hesitation. "When I see him, I think, like, 'He's just a guy from Whitehall.'"

Make no mistake: Saquon Barkley is their guy from Whitehall, and NorthJersey.com spent all day Monday in his hometown talking to friends, former teachers and coaches, administrators and family as they told pride-filled memories of "Say-Say."

We toured the hallways at Whitehall High School, walked the football field where he earned his scholarship to Penn State and visited his home on the invite of his parents, Alibay Barkley and Tonya Johnson, who shared memories as Saquon prepares for the next chapter in his life with the Giants.

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Here are those stories from the place where Saquon developed his game and made the name they love.

The love story begins

Alibay Barkley will never forget what he considers the football awakening of sorts for his son.

Saquon’s eyes widened when Alibay and his family drove past the football field on Front Street for the first time on the way to their newly-purchased house more than a decade ago in this 3,000-plus-person town nestled just north of Allentown.

“When he saw the kids out there playing,” Alibay said, “that’s when the excitement [for football] came, so we put him in there [and signed up for the Hokendauqua Eagles Athletic Association]. And the rest – you know what I’m saying – is history.”

An estimated 5,000 people spilled into this town for Saquon Barkley Day in March.

His face on a wall inside Whitehall High School celebrating the Class of 2015 is hard to miss - especially with Saquon's autograph and a message of "We Are" scribbled in the lower right corner.

His middle school No. 21 jersey hangs on a pipe in the locker room.

There are reminders of Saquon's varsity excellence all over the place, and the love is certainly mutual. On Draft Night, the Whitehall logo and his No. 21 was stitched into the right side of his tuxedo jacket, the Penn State logo and his No. 26 on the left.

"If he was on his last breath and I needed a breath, he would give me his last breath," said Kayla Cunningham, Saquon's close friend who attended the draft among his close circle of friends and family. "He cares so much about his family and friends, and he has such a good heart."

The week that changed Saquon's life began Tuesday with the birth of his daughter Jada Clare and continued 48 hours later when he walked onto the stage inside AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell officially welcomed him to the Giants.

"As much as he excels on the field and he’s this bigger-than-life personality now, going to New York City that’s not going to diminish. But when he comes back here, it’s like he never left," Whitehall athletic director Bob Hartman said of Barkley, who was born in the Bronx. "He doesn’t have that ego on his shoulder to make him do selfish, rude things. His jacket had our logo with his number in it, so that tells you how he feels about this place. Because he feels that way – that’s not contrived, it’s not made up, he likes being here."

A sign on the opposite corner from Saquon's home declares Coplay as "the little town that could."

Inside that home, the spoils of Saquon's remarkable athletic career to this point are on display.

"This is all Saquon," Alibay said with a smile, offering a rundown of trophies, photos and medals tucked into a corner. "It's all part of the journey. Some people ask how he's going to handle the big market like New York, and I think he'll do great. If he makes mistakes, he'll man up for his mistakes. If he does something good, he'll praise everybody and not himself. He's a different kinda kid and it's amazing that the universe blessed us with that."

Whitehall: Saquon is 'ours'

Mike Yadush teaches social studies at Whitehall, where he has also served as the defensive coordinator with the varsity football team for the last 23 years.

Saquon started for Yadush and the Zephyrs at outside linebacker as a sophomore, not the starting running back.

"He missed some tackles, got beat sometimes. And then going into his junior year, he hit the weights so hard, he was so into this," Yadush said. "They should write the book on him on how to be a star, because he’s not faking it. When you’re a star in high school, college and now going into the NFL, behave like him. Work hard, respect other people, respect your coaches.

"Right now, if he came in here, he would go, ‘Yes sir, no sir,’ to a coach."

For nearly three decades, Yadush has also been a Philadelphia Eagles season-ticket holder.

“At Whitehall, he was mine, he was ours,” Yadush added with a laugh. “At Penn State, I’m a Penn State fan, he was ours. And it’s so weird now having him with them when you’re an Eagles season ticket holder. I mean, for him, for Saquon, this is the best. The big lights, New York City, the biggest market – that’s where he belongs. That’s where he belongs.”

Alicia Knauff is the assistant principal at Whitehall, and she has become the go-to person within the school for all things Saquon. Her oldest daughter, Shadimon Navarro, was classmates with Saquon, while her two youngest - Jade and Amaya Alvarez, 13 - are at the front of the line when it comes to the Saquon Barkley Fan Club.

"I always said that I didn’t think, when he was at Penn State, that my kids really realized how big this was. But I think it’s gotten to the point where I can’t even wrap my head around it," Knauff said. "Everywhere I look, he’s there. I can’t even go on social media because he’s blowing up my news feed. Whether it’s Twitter, whether it’s Instagram – I’m at the gym at 4:30 this morning and who’s on the TV as soon as I walk in, and who’s everyone talking about. It’s interesting to hear all the conversation about him regardless of where I go – the gym, the grocery store – everywhere you’re at, he’s either on a magazine cover, on the TV, at the doctor’s office, there’s a magazine and he’s on it. I don’t even think I, as an adult, can even appreciate how big this has gotten so quickly."

When Amaya Alvarez arrives for an interview for this story, she barely can contain her glee. Her classmates had just spent study hall debating the celebrity of Saquon and his new teammate, Giants star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.

"To be honest with you, it’s Saquon and it’s Odell," Amaya said, blushing. "Those are the two guys everyone talks about."

Raise your hand

Saquon Barkley, environmental scientist.

Well, not quite, but had you walked into Justin Kondikoff's classroom back when Saquon was a senior, the star athlete incessantly raising his hand was not feigning interest by any stretch.

"In class, there were times I had to put limits on the number of questions he would ask because he would take up the whole class. He would literally filibuster the entire class because he was so inquisitive. He inquired about everything," said Kondikoff, who coaches wide receivers and special teams at Whitehall. "Now, this was environmental science class, so that’s not his thing. But he was in the class, so he would take advantage of it. ‘What is a carbon footprint?’ He would ask about any topic we discussed and he genuinely wanted to know. He would kind of take over the class, and not on purpose, just – he wanted to know. If you had information, he wanted to know about it. If there was something new he didn’t know about, tell me more.

"And he would ask the same questions in football, too: 'If the D-tackle is in this technique versus this technique, how should I make this step?' It was the same thing that he did in class, he did on the football field. And that’s what makes him special: He’s not afraid to open himself up and ask those questions where a lot of students, a lot of athletes, don’t want to ask those questions. For him, it’s important to him, whether it’s something in environmental science class or how to take the proper step carrying the ball."

Life-changing

Aliyah and Ali Barkley were back at school Monday morning, and all the buzz from the big brother-to-Big Blue news from late last week has yet to wear off.

The 15-year-old twins - Aliyah is a track star and Ali will be the last one to wear Saquon's No. 21 on the football team - admit their reality has changed as well.

"I’m still shocked. I’m like, ‘This is my brother,’ and, ‘Whoa,’” Aliyah said. “I still don’t think I realize the full extent of all this. It’s funny, at track meets, I wear a Whitehall track and field sweatshirt with my last name on it, and I’ll walk past somebody, I’ll hear the whispering and I know they’re talking about me. Yeah, I’m the sister of that Barkley. It doesn’t bother me, but it’s really something I notice."

Ali jokes that Saquon still checks in about his grades - well, he's not joking - and Aliyah reveals that her older brother offers motivation by saying she can achieve everything he has and more, and he believes in her ability and drive.

"With Saquon there is no finish line," Aliyah said.

Homecoming

The culmination of a whirlwind week for Saquon Barkley and those closest to him happened here Monday night.

Alibay returned Sunday to his job as a cook at Chili's, and worked a full shift again Monday. His parents had not met Jada Clare until Monday night when Saquon and girlfriend Anna Congdon arrived for the the planned introduction.

"This is about finishing a chapter," Johnson said. "Once you read one chapter, you've got to go on to the next chapter and then the next chapter. You write your own book. You write your own story."

The next chapter for Saquon will begin in East Rutherford soon enough.

He'll return to the Giants for the start of rookie minicamp next week.

At the end of an emotional experience in which he realized not one but two of the greatest moments in his 21 years, Saquon was finally able to exhale.

Shortly after receiving the draft call from the Giants four days earlier, he whispered with a nod to his parents, almost as if his new reality was finally sinking in: "I'm going back home."

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