St. Joseph’s Prep football has 3 receivers committed to FBS programs. They’re also the best of friends.

St. Joseph’s Prep receivers David Washington Jr., Elijah Jones, and Brandon Rehmann stepped on the football field as freshmen and had the chance to learn from three stars, without realizing that someday they would be the ones filling their shoes.

Those standouts were Marvin Harrison Jr., now a Heisman Trophy candidate for Ohio State, Duke’s Sahmir Hagans, and Malik Cooper, who played a season for Temple.

“Without them, I don’t think any of us would be the receivers we are right now,” Jones said Tuesday at the school. “We were all able to watch them — their practice habits, their game habits, going through drills — like them actually telling us what to do, teaching us stuff that influenced us a lot.”

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Watching them led Washington, Jones, and Rehmann to their own conclusion: “We want to be better.” It was that mentality that drove them to be closer, working together rather than individually focused.

Fast-forward three years, and each of them had a different journey in developing as a player and extending his career to the FBS level, from position-group changes to their recruiting process. But along the way, they’ve helped each other get better and formed a lifelong friendship.

“They’re each other’s biggest fans, they’re like brothers,” St. Joseph’s Prep receivers coach Ryne Morrison said. “When they’re down, they pick each other up, and when one of them’s too high, they’ll humble each other real quick.

“They bring out the best in one another. That was the culture of the receiver room that they walked into. They carried that on and took it as a badge of honor.”

After winning a state championship last season, the challenge for them this season is taking their game to the next level, Morrison said. The trio is prepared to make that the focus. It starts Saturday night, when the Hawks will take on nationally ranked IMG Academy at Ocean City High School.

“This year we’re trying to make a statement nationwide,” Jones said. “We’re trying to solidify this team as the greatest team in Prep history. That’s our goal, that’s our mindset, and we’re here to be the best.”

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Jones will be joining quarterback Samaj Jones at Cincinnati. Washington is heading to the SEC to play for Kentucky, and Rehmann has committed to West Virginia, where he plans to reconnect with former Hawks linebacker Josiah Trotter.

But with three star receivers in one room, what does that look like on the field?

“We all run routes for each other,” Rehmann said, who transitioned from running back to receiver his sophomore year. “We just all eat. If one of us gets a touchdown early, we try to get another person a touchdown for another game. We try to get all three of us at least one touchdown.”

The three are undoubtedly competitive in practice, but on game day, it’s about being unselfish. They finished the last season with a different number of receptions and yards, but in the playoffs, all three of them had the same number of touchdowns, Morrison said.

It was the first thing he would tell college coaches who were recruiting them.

“There will never be a game where Brandon has 12 catches for 200 yards and three touchdowns, then Elijah has one for 5 yards,” Morrison said. “No matter what kind of game we call, they won’t let it happen. They will make sure that each of them are having opportunities. Samaj makes sure that all three of them are taken care of.”

Part of the urge to play selfless stems from the 2021 season. The three were sophomores at the time and fell to Mount Lebanon in the state playoffs. It crushed them, and they made a vow afterward that they had to better together. That made the 2022 state crown that much more special.

“We had to play for each other,” Washington said. “You could really see that everything that we did, every route, every blocking assignment, like it just clicked.”

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In practice, the three also get to line up against one of the best cornerbacks in the class of 2024, Omillio Agard, who’s committed to Wisconsin. During his freshman year, the 5-foot-10 Agard would always go against Harrison, and then it became Washington to fill that role.

Now, each of them takes reps against Agard to better himself.

The trio has different skills that complement another on the field. Washington is the shifty one who can play the ball well in the air. Rehmann is the speedster who can be relied on for a long third down, and Jones is a student of the game.

“He’s super smart,” Rehmann said. “I listen to pretty much everything he says.”

Added Jones: “They’re like my little brothers. I do try to take care of them. Brandon off the field, he’s a goofball. That knucklehead can get into trouble. I got to keep an eye on him. Dave — he’s a little bit better, but he still does some dumb stuff here and there.”

As the three laughed about hearing each other’s response, they pondered the next question: Have they succeeded in being better than the receivers before them?

Rehmann had the answer: “The only way we know that is if we beat these cats coming up on Saturday, and then we do some bigger tours in the year. That’s the only way we know. But as of right now, we’re working to get there.”