Jeffrey Jacome’s scholastic wrestling career, filled with challenges and adversity, ended the way it commenced.
The South Plainfield High School standout, who twice broke his left elbow, once before the start of his freshman campaign, tore the ulnar collateral ligament in that same elbow toward the end of his senior season.
“That was something we tried to keep under wraps,” South Plainfield wrestling coach Steve Johnston said, noting Jacome battled through the injury for the greater good of the team.
“Unfortunately, that happened right at the beginning of the team state tournament. I think a lot of kids might have had their own individual season in mind, but he knew what a team title would have meant to the program. He was a trooper. That’s why he was one of our leaders and one of our captains.”
The storied South Plainfield program, which earlier in the year recorded its 800th victory, fell short in its bid for a 13th state team title, stumbling in the Group 3 state semifinals to Delsea, against which Jacome stopped a five-bout losing skid in the dual with a decision over a state qualifier.
“That win kind of got us going,” Johnston said. “Unfortunately, we were unable to finish the job.”
Jacome, who placed fourth in the state as a junior, went on to finish among the Top 12 in Atlantic City, culminating his career as a four-year letterwinner with a 60-6 record.
For his performance on the mat, in the community and in the classroom while overcoming adversity, Jacome has been named the recipient of a Marisa Tufaro Foundation Greater Middlesex Conference Student-Athlete Scholarship.
During the 2021-22 season, Jacome organized a donation drive, collecting lightly used and new wrestling shoes and singlets for children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area including Piscataway, South Plainfield, and Plainfield.
“That’s not only a testament to the type of person he is,” Johnston said of the donation drive, “but it also illustrates the fact that he knows what wrestling did for him and he wants to make sure everybody has the same opportunity.”
Undersized as a freshman wrestling 106 pounds and relegated to a backup role in one of the state’s deepest programs the following year, Jacome went on to earn All-Greater Middlesex Conference and All-Area first-team honors each of the next two seasons.
Before the start of his senior campaign, Jacome, who went on to win conference, district, and region titles at 113 pounds, signed a National Letter of Intent to continue his academic and athletic career at Division I Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina.
“He shows you that if you don’t have the success that you want right away, you just don’t put your head down and stop working,” Johnston said of Jacome not breaking into the starting lineup until his junior year.
“He came in his freshman year expecting to be the starter. Unfortunately, things didn’t go his way freshman or sophomore year. I told him, ‘A lot of great wrestlers in our program haven’t started their first two years and went on to achieve great things. Your time is coming. You’ve got to be patient. I know when your time comes, you are going to make the most of it.’”
Jacome also tried to make the most of opportunities to give back to the community, extending his benevolence beyond the sport of wrestling.
“Whenever we had something going on with youth or younger kids, he was always there trying to help out,” Johnston said. “He always made sure he gave back in any way he could.”
A member of the high school’s Passionately Pink Awareness Club that heightens awareness about breast cancer, Jacome also mentored students in grades 1 through 5 as a volunteer summer teacher assistant in Metuchen for Sensational Workshops, assisting with various science experiments and activities and playing games with the children.
Jacome served as a peer tutor, a church volunteer, and gave back to his hometown as a volunteer with the South Plainfield Wrestling Club and volunteer youth soccer referee.
Despite his extracurricular involvement, Jacome possessed the time management skills to excel in the classroom.
“The fact that Jeffrey is able to maintain his grades, generously volunteer his time, work a job and excel at the highest level of his sport is a testament to what a dedicated and hardworking person he is,” one of his teachers said.
“When I think about all the students I have taught … Jeffrey stands out.”