St. Joseph’s Prep linebacker Cole Nilles found success as a two-sport athlete

Cole Nilles arrived at St. Joseph’s Prep as a two-sport athlete, playing junior varsity baseball for the Hawks and suiting up for the school’s freshman football team. At the time, Nilles’ passion was baseball, and he focused much of his efforts on the sport.

That changed, however, when the pandemic interrupted Nilles’ freshman baseball season. Without baseball, Nilles decided to commit to his strength and conditioning routine in quarantine. It was during that time that Nilles homed in on a different athletic passion.

“I guess it kind of took off from there, I’d say,” Nilles said. “I just started to enjoy football more and more.”

Though he had a newfound love of football, Nilles still kept to his baseball background and was prepared for sophomore baseball season. With the Hawks possessing a senior-heavy class of 2021, Nilles began the season on the junior varsity team with the potential to be called up later in the season.

Two games into that sophomore year, however, Nilles broke his elbow, derailing not just his baseball season but also his football offseason. Nilles wasn’t able to work through his normal training routine, and he felt unprepared as he entered fall football practices.

“It was a tough six months of coming back, and then I finally came back for football, and I was out of shape, so I had to get back in shape,” Nilles said.

Nilles’ initial concern was securing a starting linebacker spot for his junior season, and, after missing out on training time with his injury, he wasn’t sure if would be starting when the season kicked off. But after committing to conditioning and leaning on his teammates and coaches for help, Nilles won a starting job.

In a season that saw the Hawks reach the PIAA Class 6A championship game in Hershey, Nilles developed into a key presence on defense.

“I thought I got better as the season went on,” Nilles said. “I knew the whole defense by the end of the season, so the game felt pretty easy toward the end. That’s probably why my play picked up. Once I got the starting job, I was content with it, but I just knew I still had to work hard to keep it.”

After Nilles’ season, Hawks baseball coach Anthony Valucci wasn’t sure if the Phoenixville native would be playing that spring. Valucci knew that with a possible Division I future in football, Nilles might stop playing baseball to avoid risking injury.

When Valucci got word that Nilles would be joining the team that spring, he knew it would take time for the 6-foot-2 corner infielder to return to form. With his elbow injury and with football season, Nilles effectively had spent a year without playing baseball.

Valucci also wasn’t sure how Nilles would handle playing first base. Though he is listed as corner infielder, most of Nilles’ game experience had come at third base.

“We knew the bat was going to be there, even if it wasn’t going to be there early,” Valucci said. “At first base, we didn’t know how he was going to be over there at first. But I think you just saw continuously in practice he got better each and every day [with] his instincts on the field.

“The work ethic is there, and it just all came together for him, and he was, I would say, one of the better first basemen in the entire league defensively and by far one of the best offensively.”

It was as Nilles’ junior baseball season was ending that his football recruitment started to pick up. On May 15, Nilles picked up his first Division I offer from Akron. A week later, Nilles got his second offer from the Air Force Academy. Knowing that he wanted to commit before the start of his senior season in August, Nilles immediately began working on making a decision.

“I knew I couldn’t really waste much time,” Nilles said. “I couldn’t play the waiting game because it was pretty late. A lot of kids get their first offers, like, freshman and sophomore year, so I knew I had to kind of make up my mind quickly.”

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In the first week of June, Nilles visited Air Force. Nilles knew that from a football perspective, Air Force was his best offer. He wasn’t sure, though, if a military academy was the right choice for him. It wasn’t until his conversations with the coaching staff that Nilles realized the opportunity that Air Force provided.

“They kind of talked about all the opportunities you get and how everything opens up even after football,” Nilles said. “Even if you don’t make the NFL, this college is going to set you up for a great after-[football] life. I think that’s what sold me — the after football aspect.”

A few weeks after Nilles’ visit, he orally committed to the Falcons. Air Force’s coaches see Nilles playing the mike linebacker spot in the middle of the defense. There, Nilles will be looked to as a downhill, run-first defender.

Committing ahead of his senior season — and this college football season — has given Nilles the opportunity to watch Air Force on TV and envision how he might fit in next season.

“[Watching] their middle linebacker, that could be me in a couple of years,” Nilles said.