Notre Dame Football: ’17 Safety Jordan Genmark-Heath Tells His Interesting Story

Jordan Genmark-Heath had an interesting path to Notre Dame.

With JGH growing up playing football in Sweden then immigrating to California where he blossomed into one of the most intriguing high school football players in the state, I wanted to hear the story from the man himself.

I caught up with him last night and he spoke about a variety of things, from learning how to catch a football via YouTube videos as a youngster in Sweden, to how he will be rooming with ex-Seattle Seahawk and Notre Dame alumni, Rick Mirer’s son at Notre Dame.

First, I asked JGH about how his off season training is coming along. His current method isn’t what I would’ve expected.

“I’m playing lacrosse. I just got out of lacrosse practice. It’s my first year. I thought I was never going to have a chance to play an organized high school sport again, so I might as well just try it.”

Rick Mirer’s son, who will be attending Notre Dame as a lacrosse player, is a close friend of Genmark-Heath and the two will be rooming together in South Bend.

JGH then got into his story of playing football in Sweden. Here’s what he had to say.

“I started playing football in Sweden when I was about 8 years old. In Sweden, there are no sports in high school. It’s all club teams. I played for a team in Marsta. I played for that club when I was about 8. I was very good at football in a sense.”

"“It took me about 2-3 years before I started getting the hang of it. I kind of fell in love with it after my first practice. I was in love with the brother hood and the companionship. Everything that football stands for, and I got to hit people which is kinda my thing."

“My cousin was going to try out for the team, but he didn’t want to go out by himself, so it kind of forced me along. I fell in love and kept on doing it.”

“Football is very small in Sweden. There was only about 2,000 kids in all of Sweden that played football. The coaching is very limited. There’s very few coaches who go to clinics and all that. There’s football fans there, but it’s not the biggest like here in America.”

"“With YouTube, I would look up “how to catch,” “how to run,” “how to tackle.” I kind of relied on that for a while to be honest. When I didn’t know how to something, I would just watch and watch and then try to replicate.”"

“You just play the other club teams in Sweden so we just kind of rotated with the same five teams. We would all meet in a tournament at the end of the season which was like a championship, in a sense.”

“I was a quarterback for the longest time. I actually had quarterback offers even though I hadn’t played quarterback since I was 14, back home in Sweden….I was the youngest quarterback to start for the Swedish National Team – Under 19 when I was 14.”

Genmark-Heath had offers to play quarterback at Cal Poly, San Jose State and Dartmouth.

Jordan Genmark-Heath and his family won a green card lottery and immigrated to California after falling in love with the state during a vacation. He spoke with me about starting his football career there.

“In my freshman and sophomore seasons, I didn’t really know about playing in college. I just thought going to camps and things was a cool thing to do.”

“At the end of my sophomore year, I transferred to Cathedral Catholic in San Diego.”

With league rules being what they are, he wasn’t eligible to play his entire junior season.

“I had to sit out for 6 games. Having something that you love taken away from you for that long was rough. I did the running and I did my best to compete but I’d have to sit out on game days. It was a learning process for me. I was always used to playing and always starting.

“It was nice for me to be humbled. There’s only so many players on the team that get to play and the guys standing on the sideline – they do everything that I do in practice. They run as much. They lift weights as much. I was humbled and appreciative of how much work everybody does.”

Genmark-Heath had an outstanding career at Cathedral Catholic, winning a state championship in his senior year. He spoke to me about that.

“We had a tremendous season. It was amazing. We had a lot of guys who put in a lot of work from the get-go.”

"“We officially started January 8, but as soon as we came off, to us, a losing season, we went 7-5, our senior class came together and decided we didn’t want to lose anymore. That’s not who we are.”"

“We kept each other accountable. That was a huge part of our deal. We pushed people, like, if they were late for practice, they would have to flip the tire. If somebody wouldn’t make the time, we would run extra or stay after and run.”

“We had a lot of fun during the season, especially the defense. Most of the time, we didn’t even care about the other team or talk to them. We would only talk to each other.”

“Our goal was to be 1-0 every week, not worry about upcoming games. As long as we do our thing and that’s going to transfer up to Notre Dame as well.”

JGH played a lot of different positions at Cathedral Catholic and throughout his career, on both sides of the ball. His versatility is truly special. Here’s what he had to say about where he feels he will end up at the college level.

“I’ve been recruited as an athlete. You can name all the schools that offered me. They all recruited me for different positions.”

"“For me, I’ve always been an athlete, in a sense. I just love playing football, so it doesn’t matter if I’m a punter or a long snapper. As long as I get to play, I’m excited, but I feel like with my body type, safety is my natural position.”"

There has been all kinds of speculation on where JGH will end up lining up at Notre Dame long-term. In Mike Elko’s defense, its been talked about that he could end up at either safety position, rover or grow into a linebacker. Here’s what he had to say about that.

“I’ve talked to Elko about that a lot. It’s looking right now that he wants me at the stud position, which is a field safety, but it’s a more physical field safety.

“I’d say I can cover a lot of field because of my instincts from playing offense and playing quarterback. I know what they’re looking for. I can cover a lot of field and I can tackle in space. I can come down and hit if they need me in run support. It’s going to be a great fit for me.”

"“What I’m excited about is Coach Elko. Coach Elko is a safeties coach which is really appealing to me. He knows the safety position. A lot of people think DB’s are DB’s and that anybody can play safety. If a coach knows how to coach and use a safety, they’re a huge asset to a team.”"

“Coach Elko really knows that. He took his freshman safety at Wake Forest and made him an All-American. That’s not a coincidence.”

“I was ranked a 4 star and ‘blah blah blah’ but we were talking and he said that when he was at Wake Forest they had 2 stars and no stars and he did the best he could with it. If he could start with 4 stars who are starting at a different talent level, imagine what he could do.”

“I think the possibilities are endless.”

Jordan Genmark-Heath was once committed to Cal, then flipped to Notre Dame after a huge recruiting effort from staff. Here’s what he told me about that.

“I actually started getting recruited by Notre Dame my freshman year by coach Sanford. He came to visit me in school. At the time, I was playing quarterback. We talked and he wanted me to come up there to their camp.”

He attended Notre Dame’s three day camp that year.

“I went to their camp but I didn’t know a lot as I had just moved here from Sweden. I had no clue about colleges or what was going on,” he said with a chuckle.

“I played quarterback and I actually did really well. We kept in contact but it kind of stopped as they weren’t really looking at me at quarterback. So, they were on me early on. That’s why I was considering Notre Dame later on even though they hadn’t offered me.”

He then spoke to me about the situation when Notre Dame started recruiting him hard towards the end of the recruiting season.

“Coach Lyght was the first one to visit me at home. They called me pretty early and offered me, then coach Lyght was there the next day at school then an in-home visit.”

“I’m really good friends with the Mirers. Coach Lyght and Rick Mirer played together so he had a chance to come visit him as well. He was here for about three days. He came to the school a lot.”

“Once Coach Elko’s papers and things were finalized, he made the trip to come see me and we had a great time.”

“For me, it was only really a few schools that I was considering. It was between them, USC, Oregon and Michigan. For me, it was all about the connection with the coaches and I had to do it in that short amount of time that I had.”

Genmark-Heath then spoke to me about the coaching situation at Cal and how it effected him.

“USC called me. They asked me if I was still interested in playing for Cal even though they had fired their coaches. I was very confused as I didn’t know about it yet. I said I would have to call them back. I had to call my coach to see what was going on.”

“I tried to keep the whole media thing as low key as possible because you don’t commit to a school for their coaches. Once the whole coaching staff left, I had to reconsider. I was still interested in Cal but they were having a hard time figuring out their coaching staff and I didn’t have a lot of time left.”

He then spoke to me about his visit to Notre Dame and why they were his choice in the end.

“Notre Dame is Notre Dame and because I had been there before, I had a sense that it would be a great school for me. But still, for me, it was important for me to see the coaches when they’re on their home campus. For me, it was also about how I click with the players.

“My whole recruiting class is amazing. We’re all academically motivated and we’re motivated on the field so it’s the best of both world’s. In order to be successful, you have to surround yourself with people who are like that.”

JGH said the Notre Dame class of ’17 is truly bonding and setting goals.

“We have  a group chat and we talk every single day. We’re all ready close as a class. We’re all pushing each other.”

JGH had a few closing remarks.

“I’ll go out and do whatever it is that they need me to do. I’ll definitely go out and find a special teams spot and get in on the rotation and hopefully be able to start, depending on how it goes.”

“I’m rooming with Mo Mirer, Rick Mirer’s son. We’re close friends. He’s going to Notre Dame to play lacrosse and we play lacrosse together here in San Diego and played football together too.”

Must Read: Film And Analysis Of The 6 Irish Offers From Thursday.

Jordan Genmark-Heath is a special kid on and off the field who didn’t have the easiest path as a recruit.

Coming from a country that isn’t very familiar with the game and having to transfer schools after immigrating to the U.S. were all a signs that he knows how to work through adversity and work hard to achieve greatness.

I expect big things out of JGH during his 4 years at Notre Dame.