Camden linebacker James Heard committed to West Virginia. His eighth-grade brother is next to draw attention.

There’s a running joke between the Heard brothers, James Jr. and Ausar. It’s that Ausar’s eighth-grade Pop Warner football team would have beaten his older brother’s team when James was his age.

“James’ team was phenomenal, though,” said James Sr., their father.

While James Heard Jr. played on the Eastern Junior Vikings in Voorhees, they won the 2018 championship. That meant having your name displayed on the outside of the Foulke Field House, along with the rest of that year’s group.

“I’m getting my name up there,” Ausar said, as he pointed to the clubhouse. Competition is what the two know best, and football has played a large part in it. Ausar wants to follow in his brother’s footsteps — and James has laid out quite the blueprint.

“He’s always been a mentor,” Ausar said. “To me, a big mentor in everything I do.”

James, a senior outside linebacker at Camden High, is committed to West Virginia. He played one season at powerhouse St. Joseph’s Prep before transferring to his hometown school at Camden, which won the Central Jersey Group 3 sectional championship on Saturday.

Ausar has a similar trajectory. He’s planning on attending St. Joe’s Prep next year. But even before high school, the 5-foot-10, 175-pound receiver and defensive back is making his name known.

He too received an offer from West Virginia — and also defending national champion Georgia.

James, Ausar, and their eldest brother, Dante, did just about everything together growing up, whether it was lifting weights in the basement at their home in Parkside, Camden, or working out at a field in the summertime. They credit a large part of their success to their father, who trains them in strength and conditioning.

“It was essential towards my growth,” James said. “He’s just always been there, so no point I felt like slacking, he was always there to give me a boost or something to eat or go lift on a daily basis. He kind of just kept me on track the days I didn’t want to.”

James Sr. actually didn’t want his boys playing football.

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The Heards home-schooled each of their children up until high school. The three brothers first picked up karate. It wasn’t until 8-year-old Ausar and Dante were watching an Eagles-Seahawks game that they asked their mother, Philana, if they could try it out.

She told them “OK, but each of you have to do it,” so they started playing on a Pop Warner team in Glassboro.

“It didn’t take much convincing,” James Sr. said. “It really didn’t matter what they wanted to do, so when they wanted to play football, I just wanted them to know that we weren’t going to mess around. I don’t believe in wasting time, so we weren’t going to mess around with them.”

James Sr. invested most of his time researching trainers in the area — at one point each of them had 10 trainers apiece. He also had them participate in college camps. One summer, he drove to 22 camps that included West Virginia, all while making sure they were getting in top-notch shape and on a strict routine.

After two seasons with Glassboro, Ausar and James went from tripping over their cleats to developing a grasp of the game. They then made the switch to the Eastern Junior Vikings. James, who picked up the sport at age 12, decided to reclassify before heading to Eastern High for two seasons.

“I started to see the separation between my talent and work ethic between my peers,” James said. " My reclass year, I dominated, and then going into high school, I’ve just been straight ahead.”

By the end of his freshman campaign on Eastern High’s varsity team, James was effective coming off the edge and college coaches took notice. The three-star recruit received scholarship offers from Temple, Rutgers, Penn State, West Virginia, and Texas A&M.

While Ausar was looking at St. Joe’s Prep to attend for high school, James decided to transfer into the program because he wanted better competition. By the end of his junior season, James committed to West Virginia because of his connection with defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley and running game coordinator Chad Scott.

His former teammates at the Prep — Josiah Trotter (Class of 2023) and current Camden teammate Richard James Jr. (2024) — have also committed to the Mountaineers program. James’ decision to transfer to Camden stemmed from wanting to graduate early and attend spring practices at West Virginia, which he couldn’t do at St. Joe’s Prep.

Ausar experienced firsthand what his brother’s recruiting process was like. He attended James’ official visit at West Virginia, where he saw for himself what the campus had to offer and talked with the coaches.

Following the visit, James received a call from Scott about giving his brother an offer.

“I had come back from a workout that night and was upstairs,” Ausar said. “Coach called James, and James had called me down to say, ‘You just got an offer,’ I was shocked, I was like, ‘Really, [you’re] not kidding?’

“Once I really understood what just happened, I was so happy. I couldn’t go to sleep until 12 o’clock at night.”

Ausar stepped up his game the summer before eighth grade. He knew he needed to keep working to get more scholarship offers.

In June when he attended a camp called The Show by NextGen in Marietta, Ga., Ausar was one of two 14-year-olds among the other juniors and seniors. He held his own, and even outperformed some of the older players.

Following the seven-on-seven tournament, Georgia defensive backs coach Fran Brown, a Camden native and former assistant coach at Rutgers, reached out to Ausar’s father, letting him know the Bulldogs wanted to give the incoming eighth grader an offer.

“It’s rewarding, it’s exciting, but I’m not surprised,” James Sr. said. “My wife and I, we know that it takes hard work to succeed at whatever it is that you want to do in life, so it’s not surprising that if you discipline yourself in your regimen, if you know how to have self-accountability, if you have integrity, I mean, the possibilities in life are endless.”

While they put in their work, James and Ausar’s camaraderie over the years has made them better. Whether it’s seeing who can bench press more or finish a drill faster, they are always competing.

“I just follow after what he does,” Ausar said, “because I see he’s about to make it.”