On National Signing Day last week, family and friends, coaches and mentors all gathered in a celebration of Kupchella fulfilling that dream, when he put pen to paper and signed his National Letter of Intent to Robert Morris.

If anything, it was a simple thank you from Kupchella to everyone who has helped him along the way.

It’s been a journey filled with hundreds of thousands of miles on the road, a scary injury and plenty of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

And like many dreams, it started at a young age

Warren’s Jake Kupchella fires a pass to Micah Passmore during the first quarter of Friday’s game

“It’s been the longest, hardest-working seven years of my life,” Kupchella said. “I started in WCYFL as a fullback and linebacker. In sixth grade, Mr. Eadie, he was our coach, he put me at quarterback. At first, I didn’t know if I wanted to play quarterback but I said I’d try it. From there I just fell in love with it. Being in charge of the offense and having to be the commander on the field, I like that role.”

His natural talent was on display from a very early age, and not long after, he made a commitment to himself.

“Seventh grade, I set a goal, I’m going to work as hard as I can to make it to the Division I level. That’s been my goal ever since,” he said.

At Beaty, he spent much of his time under the tutelage of Jeff Eaton, a former Dragon quarterback standout himself.

There really couldn’t have been a better fit for the early stages of his development.

Warren's Jake Kupchella threw for 216 yards, rushed for 60 and threw a mean stiff-arm in a 41-34 Dragons' win.

“Coach Eaton, he taught me a lot,” he said. “Being a former quarterback at Warren, he taught me a lot of very helpful, drills, techniques that helped me grow as a quarterback.”

That’s about the time the miles started being put on the family car as well, as Kupchella attended numerous camps.

“My mom, I really can’t thank her enough, she took me everywhere she possibly could,” he said. “Putting 90,000 miles on the car in two years.”

Kupchella sat behind talented senior Evan Suppa as a freshman but did see the field a little bit.

After that season, however, he knew he’d be given the reigns.

“I knew between my freshman and sophomore year, I had to lead seniors in the huddle and have them trust me,” he said.

The camps also continued in full force in the offseason as well.

“I couldn’t’ even tell you how many camps I went to, trying to get ready, trying to get better,” he said.

He shined in his role as a full-time starter in 2016. In what amounted to five games of work, he completed 63 percent of his passes for 965 yards and 12 touchdowns, while also rushing for five scores.

Against Titusville in early October, he had the Dragons out to a lead, throwing for 145 yards and a pair of scores and rushing for another.

A hit along the sideline changed that, however.

What looked like a fairly innocuous play ended up being something much, much more serious – a ruptured spleen.

“It was a very hard time for me,” he said. “I was starting to get on a role.”

What followed was a scary evening for him and his family and a 2-day hospital stay.

It didn’t phase him, however, and his confidence never wavered.

“I knew if I wanted to reach my goals that I set, I had to work harder,” he said.

He had lost quite a bit of weight but was miraculously ready for basketball season.

Once again, his mom, Pam, played a key role.

“My mom made me two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day for a whole entire year, just to get my weight up,” he said. “I couldn’t eat for two days in the hospital, I knew I had to gain weight. I can’t eat them anymore,” he said with a laugh.

And his dad, Brian, would go out with him after work, catching 100 passes a night.

“I can’t tell you how many broken fingers my dad has,” he said. “He still has a messed up finger. I knew there were kids working as hard as me, if not harder. I didn’t want to be outworked.”

That offseason, coming off a 1-win season, Warren brought in a whole new coaching staff, led by head coach Mark Morelli.

“That offseason, I worked as hard as I could,” he said.

“There was a lot of change. He (Morelli) expects me to be able to control the entire offense and lead the team as a whole. I knew I had to be ready to show him I could do that. It was a big year.”

The numbers were solid for the then-junior, but the wins weren’t there, as the Dragons went just 2-8.

They were in many of those games, they just weren’t able to finish.

From a personal standpoint, the offers weren’t exactly rolling in, and Kupchella knew he had to keep working, keep grinding to make himself and his team better.

“I knew I didn’t have a lot of interest coming after my junior year,” he said.

But something changed in the offseason for both Kupchella and his teammates.

Things began to click, and the hard work was beginning to pay off.

He got a text from one of the coaches at Robert Morris, asking if he could come to watch him throw.

Kupchella gathered his receivers, including Ryan Arnold and Alex Anderson, and the next day did just that.

“I felt like I was starting to get where I wanted to go,” he said.

As the Dragons started experiencing more success on the field, Kupchella’s recruitment also heated up.

Along with Robert Morris, Georgetown, Bucknell and Columbia were also showing interest.

Robert Morris was the most persistent, however, and Kupchella got a text during the season from the RMU quarterbacks coach, saying they would love for him to be a part of their football team.

“RMU was very welcoming,” he said. “They wanted me there. I listened to a lot of older players who have played in college and they told me to go where they want you, not where you want to go.”

After completing a 6-4 season, the Dragons were back on the map, and Kupchella and his fellow senior leaders were a big reason why. Kupchella broke the single-season passing yardage record in his final game as a Dragon, a blowout win at home over St. Marys.

After that game was over, the time to make a decision on a college destination got closer and closer.

And while it was tough, he had been looking forward to it for seven years.

“My mom has helped me so much,” he said. “She’s probably cried more than I have through it all. Between her, my dad, my family, everyone who has supported me through it all. They never doubted me once. My goal, for a Warren kid, was kind of out of the air. For me, that just made me work harder, whenever I got doubted.”

And in the end, Robert Morris, an FCS school that competes in the Northeast Conference, was the right fit for the talented signal-caller.

He will be studying cyber intelligence at RMU, a field that is very intriguing to him.

“I’m very interested in the intelligence program,” he said. “It’s the path I want to go.”

And he’s already building a rapport with his future teammates and fellow members of the Colonials’ 2019 recruiting class.

“We’ve contacted each other a lot,” Kupchella said. “They’ve recruited a lot of really good athletes. I feel like we already have a brotherhood. Four or five of us have been talking a lot, already before signing day. I think this class at RMU is going to be very special.”

And while he’ll have a new group of coaches in college, he wanted to make sure the ones that have helped him get to this point know just how much they mean to him.

“I want to thank all my coaches,” he said. “Coach Morelli, he sent I don’t know how many letters out for me. He’s called coaches trying to help me.

“Coach Latimer, he’d work out with me Saturday mornings. Coach (Eric) Rozanski has got me even stronger.

“Coach (Mark) Bupp was always there for me, going through everything. I would go to his house every week to review and break down film with him. And I want to thank coaches Morelli, (Andrew) Morrison, (Shawn) Wilson, (Kevin) Reagle, Rozanski and (Ken) Hinton that have supported and helped me out throughout the past two years.”

He will go from the top at Warren back to being a freshman in college, battling to get better and to get on the field. But it’s something he’s prepared himself for. And he’s ready.

“I’m going to be a small fish in a big pond,” he said. “It’s going to be a whole other experience. I’m ready to take that experience by the horns, put my head down and work as hard as I can.”

From high school to college, from dream to reality, and a whole lot of miles and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in between, Kupchella is ready.

And he knows there’s a plan for him.

“God had a choice for me through it all,” he said. “I have a feeling he did that (ruptured spleen) for a purpose. He gave me the talents, he gave me everything on his end. It was my job to take advantage of everything he’s given me. I can’t be where I am without God. I know he has a path for me.”

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