Jake Cook is refusing to let an ankle injury keep him on the sideline in his final season at Westerville North High School.
The Ohio State commit suffered the injury in Westerville North’s second game of the season when a defender landed on the back of his right ankle. While doctors told him he’d need four to five weeks to recover from the injury, Cook sat out just one game before returning to action.
Cook got rolled up on again in his first game back, making the injury worse. But Cook has kept on playing because he doesn’t want to let his team down in his senior year – and because he knows he has to be physically and mentally tough as he prepares to begin his Ohio State career in January.
“That's just my mentality. Coach Day even preaches it: You gotta be tough at Ohio State,” Cook told Eleven Warriors on Friday after Westerville North’s 35-24 win over Worthington Kilbourne. “And I wanna be with my team, with all the guys that I've been playing with the past four years, so I just wanna finish this out with them.”
Stanley Jackson, the former Ohio State quarterback who is now in his second year as the head coach at Westerville North, lauded Cook’s toughness and the impact Cook has made on his team despite the injury.
“He shouldn't be playing,” Jackson told Eleven Warriors. “And what happens is as you play on an ankle, it doesn't get any better. And you're in the trench, so you know it's going to get banged up. And I think he's just showing elite toughness. And he's a leader. We kind of need him out there at times, because he leads the charge. We want to run the ball behind Jake, we're always getting positive yards.”
Cook’s willingness to fight through adversity played a big part in his opportunity to become a Buckeye next year. He camped at Ohio State repeatedly over the last few years in hopes of landing an offer, and he left OSU without an offer twice this summer after participating in the Buckeyes’ first high school football camp of June and returning for a one-on-one workout with Justin Frye a couple of weeks later. His perseverance finally paid off, however, when he received an offer from Ohio State on June 15; he decommitted from Louisville three days later and committed to the Buckeyes eight days later.
Jackson, who knows what it takes to be a Buckeye having played for Ohio State from 1993-97, says he’s seen a major transformation in Cook since he became Westerville North’s coach before the 2023 season.
“I love it for a kid like Jake because he works,” Jackson said. “When we got the job two years ago, Jake was overweight. He was over 300 pounds because he thought that's what it took to be a big-time lineman. Everything we've asked this kid to do, he has done. He has embraced it wholeheartedly, he got better, he cut the weight, he's moving better, he can play anywhere from tackle down to center at the next level, and so I think he's made himself more versatile.”
While Cook was noticeably limping between plays during Friday night’s game, he still made plenty of effective blocks to help lead his team to victory. The biggest thing that stood out about Cook’s play against Worthington Kilbourne was his physicality, as he planted his opponent in the ground on multiple occasions and demonstrated an aggressive blocking mindset despite his injury.
Cook, who plays left tackle for Westerville North even though he’s expected to be a center at Ohio State, says his physicality is the biggest part of his game that he prides himself on.
“You hear a lot of, especially on the inside, like those guards/centers, that's what you want is just a physical dude,” said Cook, who’s 6-foot-5 and 295 pounds. “So I kinda take pride in it being a Midwest, Ohio kid. I think that just should be known that we're tough.”
Cook knows there are more eyes on him as a Central Ohio high school football player this season now that he’s committed to the Buckeyes. But he embraces the pressure that comes with that and says he’s playing with increased confidence knowing that Ohio State believes in him.
“Like Coach Day says, pressure is a privilege,” Cook said. “So it means a lot. It makes me just wanna work hard and be the best I can be.”
“He shouldn’t be playing ... he's just showing elite toughness.”– Stanley Jackson on Jake Cook playing through an ankle injury
Cook has been a repeated visitor at Ohio State’s home games this season and has been impressed with the improvements the Buckeyes’ offensive line has made from last season. He says he speaks regularly with Ohio State’s offensive linemen and that they have taught him about the importance of playing with proper technique.
“You just gotta be tough and just be sound,” Cook says of what he’s learned from Ohio State’s offensive line. “A lot of guys just wanna go out and just hit someone. You gotta play sound and you gotta go 100% in everything you do and you gotta make sure you're doing it right.”
Cook is currently one of only three offensive linemen in Ohio State’s 2025 recruiting class along with fellow in-state prospect Carter Lowe and Maryland four-star prospect Jayvon McFadden. But he says he’s been talking to Alabama offensive tackle commit Micah DeBose and Georgia Tech offensive tackle commit Damola Ajidahun as the Buckeyes work on trying to flip them to add to their offensive line class.
“Keep eyes on Micah,” Cook said. “I talk with Micah probably, this season, probably once every week, once every two weeks.”
Cook says he’ll be about one of 20 players in Ohio State’s 2025 recruiting class to enroll early and join the team in January. For now, however, Cook is focused on trying to finish his Westerville North career strong.
The Warriors have had an up-and-down season, but Jackson believes his team is capable of being better than its 5-4 record indicates. All four of their losses have come to teams that are either 8-1 or 9-0 this season, but Jackson says his team has to learn how to beat opponents of that caliber as it prepares for the start of the playoffs in two weeks.
“It's been a rollercoaster,” Jackson said. “You look at our season, last year we went 8-2, won a playoff game the first time since 1985. This year we beat Westerville South and Westerville Central for the first time in school history, but at the same time we’ve got four losses. And if you look at those combined losses, the record going into this week for those four teams was 29-3. They all were number one in their region, so all of a sudden our schedule got really difficult. And I think we have to figure out how to beat good teams. And a part of it is just that we're a little undisciplined, we turn the ball over too much; even tonight, we've got turnovers. I think if we can clean those things up, we can compete with anybody in the state.”
