Milpitas football star Jason Scrempos doesn't just have a hunger to succeed -- he's hungry in general.
Tonight he'll lead the Trojans into a key SCVAL-De Anza game at Wilcox and one can bet he'll be well-fueled for the battle. The 3-star University of Washington commit stands 6-foot-6 and weighs between 250 and 255 pounds -- depending on how many plates of spaghetti or tacos he and his eighth-grade brother Justin (6-7, 280) might have inhaled this past week.
"When my mom shops, she comes home with just about the whole grocery store," Jason said with a laugh. "She buys 5-6 gallons of milk and tons of food and has it all separated around the kitchen by meal -- breakfast, lunch and dinner. For dinner she'll make a big old pot of food and we'll eat it all up. It's just gone."
Jason and his "little" brother devour groceries like Milpitas ingests opponents. The Trojans (6-0 overall, 2-0 league) have outscored opponents 250 to 30 this season and 186 to 6 over the past three games.
"One of my favorites is spaghetti," said Jason, who also plays center on the basketball team and tosses the discus and puts the shot in the spring. "We'll have four or five big old plates of that apiece. My brother can eat more than me and I have to keep up with him. When we have tacos I'll eat one and then he'll have two and then it just keeps going like that."
Fortunately the boys' mom Sandy Scrempos -- a Terra Nova High grad -- is equal to the task. She's uber-involved with the Trojan program, teaming with a cadre of Trojan parents every Thursday to fix dinner for the entire Milpitas varsity and junior varsity teams. One week it's 130 chicken leg quarters, spaghetti and all the fixings -- another week something different. The Trojans, led by Jason, consume the spread like lions set loose on a wildebeast.
It's all in day's work for Sandy who faces her own "Restaurant Impossible" challenge every day.
"We go through six gallons of milk a week -- no wait, maybe eight," she said. "The boys are bottomless pits. And don't forget the bedtime snack -- a big bowl of cereal and milk. Maybe I need to purchase a cow!"
Or a haberdasher. Sandy said clothing the boys is almost as taxing as feeding them.
"Finding clothes, shoes and socks for them is difficult," she said. "They both wear a size 16 shoe. You can't just walk into a store and buy a pair of 16's off the shelf. Finding pants and shirts long enough is also a challenge. I do a lot of online shopping for them."
OK, so we get it. The behemoths eat a lot and are personally keeping the garment district in business. But nobody would take notice if that's all they did. Fortunately for Trojan fans, Jason can play, as shown by his 4.7 tackles per game, four sacks for the season and four Pac-12 offers (Washington State, Cal and Arizona also coveted him).
The senior is a relative newcomer to tight end this season, but has caught three passes for 106 yards (35.3 yards per catch) and a touchdown. He also snagged a 2-point conversion pass in Milpitas' 31-17 upset of Valley Christian, then the No. 1 team in the Prep2Prep.com CCS rankings.
"We knew they were up there, one of the best teams around," Jason said. "We practiced hard all week and we had the mindset we weren't going to lose."
Regarding tonight's test against formidable Wilcox (kickoff 7 p.m.), he said: "They're a big, strong team like us. They have big linemen and like to run the ball."
Wilcox coach Dan Brown also knows his team in for a battle with Milpitas and its big two-way star.
"He has the potential to be a good college football player," Brown said. "We've faced him the last few years. As a defensive player he can cause a lot of problems because of his length and his agility."
Jason is modest by nature but said he felt like he belonged a few seasons ago when he sacked Palo Alto quarterback Keller Chryst (now at Stanford) four times.
He also said he'd love to "play in the league" (NFL), but will also study diligently at Washington and could opt for physical therapy or coaching football if he doesn't turn out to be the next J.J. Watt.
Now with Justin enrolling at Milpitas in 2015, the Trojans will have a Scrempos in the football program for eight consecutive years come 2018. Given that, it might be instructive to examine where these kids attained their unusual size and game-changing potential.
Mom Sandy is 5-foot-11. Dad Pete is a city worker who is 6-1 and played water polo and basketball at Milpitas before giving pro bowling a brief whirl. Pete's brother, Steve Scrempos, is 6-3 and played an array of sports for Milpitas.
Jason and Justin also have a brother, John, who is 19 and was in the Milpitas marching band. He's 5-10, 220, prompting Jason to say he "got the short end of the stick" gene-wise. He'll probably start a rock band and make millions.
As for Justin, he's too big (by 60 pounds) to play PAL football like Jason did. So he competes for the NorCal Golden Bears no-weight-limit youth team where he sticks out like Big Foot frolicking among Lilliputians.
"He's in this league where he has to wear an X on his helmet and he's not allowed to play anything but the line," Jason said. "He's still growing into his body. But I see him in the garage dribbling a basketball and working on his coordination.
"In football he stands up a little too much sometimes because he has these little dudes who come up to his waist and it's tough for him to get a low pad level. I think he's also scared he's going to hurt them. He's like a gentle giant. He's got to learn it's football and you just have to get after it and hit people."
Jason will do just that tonight against Wilcox. Milpitas fans will naturally hope for another victory. If not, well, The Scrempos boys can always take refuge in their post-game meal.
"We go to In-N-Out after the Friday night games," Sandy said. "The boys order a 4-by-4, Double-Double, fries and a drink each. Crazy. Then they go home and have some dessert!"
John Murphy is the Web Content Manager for Prep2Prep. He may be reached at jmurphy@prep2prep.com.
