EGELSTON TOWNSHIP – When he was a little kid, Brody Jennings went to most of the Oakridge varsity football games, like most of his friends from his youth league teams.

There was one difference, however. While many of the other kids were off in the distance throwing a ball around, Jennings sat with his dad and watched the games, closely followed what was happening on the field, and dreamed of the day when he could play varsity.

That day came a little sooner than anyone expected, and Jennings was more prepared than anyone expected.

Last season, as a sophomore, he played mostly on the Oakridge junior varsity squad while getting a little spot duty on varsity as a “fifth quarter” player.

Then the varsity had some injuries at linebacker, Jennings was doing great at the JV level, and he was called up to the big team as a sudden starter. The coaches knew he had talent but weren’t expecting too much too soon from a kid with very little experience.

To their pleasant surprise, he adopted very quickly and became a major force on defense over the second half of the season.

This fall he continued his rapid development, finishing tops on his team and ninth in the area with 58.5 tackles in the regular season.

Jennings has been rolling in the postseason, as well, registering five tackles in a 32-0 pre-district win over Shepherd, then leading the Eagles with 10 tackles last Friday in a 30-8 victory over Belding in a Division 6 district championship game.

It was the third straight district title for Oakridge, and Jennings said winning another trophy was a lot of fun.

“It felt amazing,” said Jennings, whose team will continue its playoff push in a home regional championship game on Saturday against Gladwin. “Through the whole game our offense and defense played great. Belding is a powerhouse, but we knew what we needed to do. We did pretty good stopping the run. We held them to 80 or 90 yards, I think. We just really came through as a team.”

Much of the Eagles’ success this season is related to their vastly-improved defensive play.

Last year Oakridge, with a lot of underclassmen in starting roles, gave up a lot of points – 260 through 12 games (including one forfeit victory), the most the Eagles had surrendered in a season since 2013.

This year’s they’ve only allowed opponents to score 136 points through 11 games (including one forfeit victory). That’s the fewest points they Eagles have given up since 2014, when they surrendered 134 in 10 games.

“It’s much improved over last year, that’s for sure,” said longtime Oakridge defensive coordinator Tim Parker. “We were just young. We had four sophomores starting, and it took them some time to get used to the varsity game. By the end of the season they had improved dramatically, then they worked really hard this summer. Some of these kids had a really amazing transformation in the weight room.”

Jennings’ immediate success as an inside linebacker has been a big building block for the resurgent defense, Parker said.

“He was dominant on JV, but I remember saying that he wouldn’t be the same right away at the varsity level, because of the bigger kids and much faster speed,” the coach said. “But he stepped right in and became our best inside linebacker.

“He’s a great football kid. He’s very, very coachable. I can show him something once and he knows it. He’s become a student of the game. He watches film and picks up on little nuances that help make him better.

“He just has a nose for the ball. He gets there and makes the play. He’s cut from the same cloth as a lot of the great Oakridge linebackers I’ve worked with.”

Jennings said he was excited last season when he got the midseason invite to join the varsity, and admits he was nervous at first, but said he was also determined to learn fast and do his job well on the field.

“I was surprised when they asked me if I wanted to be on varsity full-time,” said Jennings, who is the son of former Oakridge baseball standout Tom Jennings and is a really good baseball player himself. “I just said ‘Yeah!’

“I knew, coming up to the next level, that I had to step it up for the seniors, because I was friends with a lot of them. My first game up I was a little iffy at first, but then I pulled it together and adapted.”

Jennings has become a leader who helps teammates develop their skills as well, according to Coach Parker. He’s been a big help to fellow junior inside linebacker Julian Primmer, who didn’t start the season at that position full-time, but inherited the job due to an injury.

“Brody’s done a great job of mentoring him,” Parker said.

“He’s one of my close friends,” Jennings said about Primmer. “He’s didn’t play football in the past, but he’s built for it. We both just work hard and we have good chemistry together.”

Jennings said it’s been fun to be part of this season’s stingy Oakridge defense, which has held opponents to fewer than 20 points in 9 of 10 games, and fewer than 10 in each of the past four.

“In practice we’ve been going harder,” he said. “We knew what we had to do to get better. We have a lot of players who like to work hard and we’re making big plays and getting big stops when we need them.

“Leaving other teams with zero on the scoreboard feels good.”