Nick Singleton’s unrelenting ability to put in the work might be a key piece in Penn State’s football puzzle

Nick Singleton was in sixth grade when he first joined Garage Strength Gym in Fleetwood, Pa.

Located in the middle of nowhere on a long road, Garage Strength is a 10,000-square-foot warehouse — adjacent to a cornfield, sitting in the foreground of a massive farm.

It gets unbearably hot in the summer. And in the winter, the only heat sources are coal or wood stoves. Nick’s father, Tim, likens it to the austere nature of Rocky IV.

“I think that the attractiveness that we’ve always had is [that] it’s hard,” said Dane Miller, Nick’s longtime personal trainer. “It’s raw. ... Dude, you walk in the door and you’re like this is not normal. You literally walk in the door and you’re like, ‘This place is special.’”

Nick entered the gym as a shy, skinny middle schooler but now credits much of the work put in there as a path to becoming a Gatorade National Player of the Year, a two-time Berks County MVP from Governor Mifflin High School, and now Penn State’s highly touted freshman running back.

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Tim Singleton first learned about Miller through Neil George, his high school friend and the father of Pittsburgh senior linebacker Brandon George.

Miller was a two-time Berks County lineman of the year and state champion shot putter. Miller, who also is a Penn State graduate, today works closely with dozens of world-class athletes, most recently at the 2021 Olympic Games coaching representatives from the United States, Canada, Samoa, and Nigeria.

Singleton, now a 6-foot, 219-pound running back, started training in some capacity from an early age. He played Pop Warner ball for the Cobbs Creek Cats in Philadelphia, he participated in seven-on-seven workouts with Roman Catholic coach Rick Prete, and sought out various speed training programs.

“Dane is probably the only one that I wouldn’t give up,” Tim Singleton said. “I just think it has helped Nicholas’ confidence to get stronger. ... You have an 11-year-old coming in there; they were really good with him. They pushed him but they didn’t kill him.”

When Singleton first showed up, Miller primarily focused on mobility and plyometrics. Six to eight months were spent focusing on only his form.

By seventh grade, Singleton could bench-press 225 pounds for repetitions (405 in high school). He could single-leg squat 300 for reps and back-squat 405. A year later, he cleaned 300 pounds for the first time.

“That’s legit,” Miller said. “[Cleaning 300 is] the number a lot of high school seniors want to hit and this kid is toying with it in eighth grade. ... He doesn’t appear to be big and he doesn’t move like he’s big because he’s so fast and explosive from all the work we did early on.”

As their relationship developed, Miller learned how to get the most out of his prodigy. He knew what buttons to push and what made him tick.

Miller would promise to post a video of Singleton on Garage Strength’s YouTube channel for 250,000 subscribers if he hit a personal best. Or he’d “hang the carrot out in front of him,” asking Singleton if he saw former Nittany Lion Saquon Barkley’s latest feat.

Then he put reps into perspective, explaining that hitting a certain maximum weight tangibly translates to specific football situations.

Singleton now holds two county records with 6,326 rushing yards and 116 touchdowns. Governor Mifflin won the District 5A title with an 8-1 record in his junior year and the Berks Football League Section 1 title, going 10-1 in his senior year.

Miller recognized early on that Nick wasn’t like his peers.

He spent summer nights running hills in his backyard, ignoring his father’s pleas for him to take a break. During quarantine, he was on Zoom with Miller four days a week, lifting in his garage.

“If he knows I’m going to be there, he’s going to be there,” Miller said. “The biggest thing with Nick is he doesn’t want to let people down. He has no interest in letting anyone down. He feels that weight and that’s what he values.”

Singleton took five official visits: Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Alabama, and Penn State. He nearly committed to Notre Dame but was ultimately sold on being close to home and the family environment Penn State coach James Franklin preached, committing on July 6, 2021.

“I think with Coach Franklin and the staff, and I mean the whole staff from the recruiting coordinator down to the janitor, it honestly felt like they were going to take care of your kid,” Tim Singleton said. “I would assume any weight room that he got into, it wouldn’t be any different from Garage. Like he wasn’t shell-shocked going to Penn State. I think that helped his college transition.”

Garage Strength classifies athletes into three categories.

Type one is the “zen style,” a rare breed who “does what needs to be done” without flinching. “Social athletes” are type two. Miller says they can get distracted divulging life’s problems throughout the workout. And type three is a “meathead,” who only wants to throw around the heaviest weights.

Miller thinks the Nittany Lions are getting the quintessential type one athlete.

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“Zen athletes are able to control their aggression, they’re able to control their anxiety and control all these things within reason. Everybody’s going to have struggles here and there,” Miller said. “That’s a tough quality to teach.

“He’s going to be the kid that, it’s fourth-and-1 with the Big Ten championship on the line, 100 times out of 100, I’m giving him the ball because he won’t be fazed by the situation.”