The moment Davon Badley began playing football at Harvey High School as a freshman, Coach Mickey Mohner had a feeling about the first-year player. “We knew he would be a special talent for us,” said Mohner. Even with his freshman season at Harvey cut short by a broken wrist sustained during an intrasquad scrimmage in the preseason, the vibe was unmistaken. “The following year, he showed the type of player we expected him to be,” said Mohner. Badley eventually became a two-time first-team All-Ohio selection at linebacker for the Red Raiders, a two-time CVC Defensive Player of the Year and a standout boys basketball player and track and field athlete. Not much has changed since Badley graduated from Harvey last spring. A few months after graduation, Badley arrived at John Carroll like a lot of other college football freshmen — wide-eyed, not sure what to expect and hoping to make an impression from the get-go. Has he ever just three games into his college football career. Badley — 6-foot-1, 195 pounds — was put into the starting lineup Sept. 21 at Mount Union after starter and co-captain Chris Golson suffered a season-ending injury and performed well with seven stops in that game. The news of Badley named a starter was from linebackers coach Joey Bates — who played at JCU and Kirtland — the week of the Mount game. “I was a little shocked,” said Badley. “I was like, ‘Oh wow.’ I called my mom, Coach (Mohner), and they were happy but they told me, ‘Keep pushing because you’re a step forward to where you’re trying to get to.” Bates was the main point person in JCU’s recruitment of Badley. He attended a number of Badley’s high school games, and that made an impact in his decision to choose JCU. For Bates, the attraction to Badley as a football recruit was immediate starting around his junior season. “What flashed was how instinctive and versatile of a football player he was,” said Bates. “He was making an impact at Harvey in all three phases of the game. Then when you combine all of that with his athleticism and playmaking skills, you have a pretty unique football player.” John Carroll freshman linebacker Davon Badley returns an interception for a touchdown against Heidelberg Sept. 28. (Brian Fisher — For The News-Herald) The following week against Heidelberg at home on Sept. 27 — JCU’s first win of the season after an 0-2 start — Badley was again effective with five more tackles and a pick-6 interception that swung the momentum of the game in the second quarter en route to a 48-10 victory. It’s rare at any level of college football for a freshman to make an immediate impact but Badley had done that at a place steeped with Harvey history, thanks to the NFL’s all-time winningest coach, the late Don Shula. Shula — born in Grand River and a graduate of Harvey — played football for the Blue Streaks in the 1950s, then played in the NFL for seven seasons as a defensive back with the Browns and Baltimore Colts before starting his coaching career. When Badley committed to play at JCU he was very aware of the history that ties Harvey and JCU. “Every day,” said Badley about the reminders of Shula at Harvey. “They would also talk about how hard he coached, how he pushed everyone to the limit … He was a great guy. If I would have met him, I’m sure he would have put us through a lot.” Shula’s name is there as a reminder during every practice. All Badley needs to do is look at the press box and large letters that read “Don Shula Stadium.” Shula — who passed away in 2020 — finished with 347 victories. He’s also the only coach to lead a team to a perfect season when his 1972 Dolphins went 17-0.  “He was one of the reasons why I came to John Carroll,” said Badley. “I wanted to carry on the Harvey legacy of Don Shula.” All of which sounds great to Mohner: “We hope Davon is the first of many to go through the Harvey-to-JCU Shula pipeline.” JCU coach Jeff Behrman said Badley is “still a work in progress but he’s making plays. He’s just scratching the surface on how good a player he can be.” Playing freshman isn’t anything new for the JCU coach, who said he’s played a lot of freshmen dating to his tenure at Union College from 2016 to 2022. The value in doing that is two-fold.  To play as a freshman means a player needs to be talented. But the value when that freshman becomes an upperclassman could be enormous. “He always has energy, comes to practice every day and gets better and when you have a mentality like that, you’re gonna get better and when you log all those practices, all those hours, by the time you’re a senior, you would think you’re gonna be pretty good,” Behrman said. John Carroll at Muskingum When: 1:30 p.m., Oct. 5 Where: McConagha Stadium Records: JCU 1-2 1-1 OAC, Muskingum 3-0, 2-0 OAC Radio: WJCU-FM 88.7