For the Eagles' Jalyx Hunt, home is where he can help others

PHILADELPHIA — On the Friday night before Christmas, Jalyx Hunt slipped through the Frankford High School gymnasium door with a tower of cardboard boxes in his arms. The familiar sound of sneakers squeaking on the hardwood as the boys’ basketball team practiced transported him back in time.

Long before the Eagles rookie edge rusher chased after quarterbacks, he dunked over defenders as a captain on the University High School varsity basketball team in Orange City, Fla. While Hunt’s passion for football grew as he ascended to the highest levels of the sport, from Cornell to Houston Christian to the Eagles as their third-round draft pick, he considers basketball his first love.

In the interest of promoting longevity in his football career, Hunt’s dunking days are over. But that doesn’t mean he can’t support the hoop dreams of others.

With Christmas tournaments coming up across the city, Hunt decided to play Santa for the boys at Frankford. As the players finished practice, Hunt unpacked the custom duffel bags, backpacks, and sweat suits from the boxes and organized them in bundles. Hunt had one request for the team before he distributed their gifts.

“If y’all going to wear this,” Hunt told them, “y’all got to hoop.”

The donation was part of Hunt’s campaign to support underfunded school sports programs in Philadelphia during the holiday season. The idea began with a shopping trip. While perusing the racks at Free Press, a streetwear boutique in Center City, Hunt met former store manager Marissa Cotroneo. He told her that he was interested in giving back to the community, so when Frankford assistant coach Lowell Ulmer reached out to Cotroneo looking for a team merchandise sponsor, she knew who to contact.

Hunt agreed to help, but he didn’t want to stop with Frankford. On Dec. 3, which coincided with Giving Tuesday, Hunt launched a GoFundMe and put out feelers on social media to find other teams in need. He partnered with Thomas Mott and Josh Davis, YouTubers who have grown to prominence for their Eagles content, to promote the fundraiser.

Two weeks after its launch, the GoFundMe raised over $4,400. Hunt also secured a deal from Ace Sportswear, a custom apparel company based in Baltimore that agreed to sell him Frankford’s merchandise (valued at $6,000) at half price. He paid for the rest through a combination of his own funds and a portion of the GoFundMe donations.

“I love helping people,” Hunt said. “But also, I don’t feel like you can really enjoy a place you live if you don’t know the places and the people around you. So this is just my way of making this more of a home for myself and also just doing something that I always love to do.”

The new gear served as one of the highlights of a turbulent few years for the Frankford basketball team. In April 2023, asbestos damage closed the majority of the 110-year-old building. Students finished the 2022-23 school year online, reminiscent of their pandemic learning experience just a couple years earlier.

This year, they are displaced between the Frankford High annex and Roberto Clemente Middle School. As of June, the district plans to reopen the school in 2025 after a $20 million investment to repair the main building.

“I’m just happy for these guys, because they have just been through so much,” Frankford assistant coach Howard Griffith said. “We usually get sweatsuits and stuff for the kids. And they usually pay $200. Because unlike any other year, the economy, only four or five kids were able to pay. So today, I was able to give back those families their money.”

Hunt also drew interest from Little Flower Catholic High School for Girls and Kensington High School. He decided to split up the majority of the GoFundMe resources between those schools, while Frankford received the merchandise donation.

But Hunt didn’t want to simply put the checks or the gear in the mail. He decided to visit each school and offer advice he wished he had received as a high school student-athlete, starting with Little Flower last Thursday and Frankford the following night. He plans to go to Kensington after the new year.

After shaking the hands of each Little Flower player and parent in attendance, Hunt spoke to the group about the importance of developing a sense of discipline instead of relying on external motivation, a topic that head coach Jesse Morgan had requested.

“When I was in high school, I wish somebody really broke it down to me,” Hunt said. “Because I was like, ‘I don’t feel motivated to do it.’ And I kind of used it as a crutch or a cop-out. But a lot of things in life, no matter how much you love it, you don’t always feel like doing it. And that’s when discipline comes in. And I feel like if I can help them in any way possible, that’s something that has really helped me in my life.”

At Frankford, Hunt stressed the significance of maintaining good grades, regardless of whether the student-athletes aspired to play basketball in college. Luis Duran, the Eagles’ barber, who is a Frankford alumnus, accompanied Hunt to remind the players to do the right things, even when no one is watching.

“A lot of the things Lou and Jalyx say, they’re the things we’re saying to them every day,” Ulmer said, “But it’s always good when you see people who’ve been through it or are successful that you see on TV, they come in and reinforce that same message. It just means so much for those kids to hear, from people that they see on TV or people that walked in their shoes at some point in time.”

Hunt is finding his place in the local community while he does the same on the football field. Since Brandon Graham went down in Week 12 with a season-ending triceps tear, Hunt has assumed a more prominent role in the edge rusher rotation. His defensive snaps skyrocketed from 10.8% in Weeks 1-12 to 50% in the last four games.

The workload isn’t too foreign. Hunt said the hard practices he competed in all season prepared him for an uptick in game action. He’s starting to make more of an impact. In last week’s loss to the Washington Commanders, Hunt posted his second-highest pressure rate of the season (14.3%), according to Next Gen Stats.

With each passing day, the city feels a little less foreign, too. Whenever Hunt references “home” among family and friends, he said they know he is talking about Philly. That passion for his newfound community isn’t lost on Ulmer.

“A lot of times, guys, they’ll do a lot for the city that they play in,” Ulmer said. “But sponsoring a high school is something personal. So a lot of times, you may want to go home and sponsor your high school. So it speaks a lot to Jalyx’s character, especially being a young guy and trying to establish himself in the league. But taking time out of his day and busy schedule to sponsor us and then come down here and meet with us and hand out the bags personally, it means a lot.”

Hunt’s relationships with the high school teams won’t end with the donations. He plans on attending their games when his schedule permits. On the bus to Landover, Md., last weekend, Hunt wore the Little Flower sweatshirt the team gifted him as a token of appreciation for his donation.

Philly has given Hunt a new home and a new setting for the latest chapter of his football career. He aspires to give back even more.

“I have a lot of access to do a lot of things,” Hunt said, “and it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t at least try or attempt to use what I know now and access that I have to help others.”