WELLINGTON – Wolali Ahlijah has been under the radar for most of his high school football career.

Even so, the Wellington senior defensive back has produced in a meaningful way – particularly this season.

The 6-foot, 175-pound standout has tallied 68 total tackles, five tackles for loss, two pass breakups, one fumble recovery, and one interception. He also has recorded two blocked kicks in 10 games played.

Ahlijah’s best moment to date was Wellington’s most recent game against Seminole Ridge in Week 11, when he had nine tackles, three of which were for losses.

The Wolverines standout spoke on what his best play was from his best game.

“My best play I believe was on a screen pass when I came down from my safety spot and made a tackle for loss,” Ahlijah said.

Wellington, a 33-7 winner over Seminole Ridge, finished the regular season with a 6-4 record, good for the No. 6 seed in the Class 4M – Region 3 playoffs. 

Ahlijah spoke on how his senior year has been going to date, along with his entire high school football career at Wellington and more.

“I feel like both individually and as a team, we have been through a lot of adversity,” Ahlijah said. “But we always responded extremely well to it, and I feel like I’ve been able to grow a lot over the course of the season. There’s no place I’d rather have spent all four years of my high school career.”

Ahlijah, who is seeking his first college offer, said he learned a lot from a few games in particular this season. He referred to the tough ones against Martin County (42-7 loss in Week 2), Jensen Beach (17-14 loss in Week 3), Vero Beach (41-7 loss in Week 7), and Palm Beach Central (41-14 loss in Week 10).

“After reviewing and watching film from all those games, it showed me how much potential we really have as a team,” Ahlijah said. “It seemed like the majority the things that went wrong were all self inflicted. We weren’t completely outplayed, but had mistakes that began to pile up, and that led to some of them getting out of hand. Those teams simply capitalized on our mistakes. I believe these games will help us in the playoffs, as we learned that even the smallest mistakes can cost us games.”

Speaking of the playoffs, Wellington will be on the road this evening (Nov. 14; 6:30 p.m. kickoff) against No. 3 seed Palm Beach Gardens (7-3). 

Ahlijah (current No. 5-ranked cornerback in Palm Beach County) spoke on what he and his team need to do against Palm Beach Gardens.

“I believe the biggest thing for us to do is minimize our mistakes,” Ahlijah said. “As long as we don’t kill ourselves, we have a good chance to win. Our defense needs to force a lot of turnovers, and our offense needs to turn those into points.”

Ahlijah’s high school football career will end either tonight, later this month, or in December. Regardless of how it turns out, he wants to make sure he gives special thanks to former head coach Tom Abel and current head coach Danny Mendoza for his overall development as a player.

“I have high praise for both coaches,” Ahlijah said. “Since Coach Abel was my first coach coming into high school, he showed me what it was all about to be a high school athlete in the first place. However, I feel like once Coach Mendoza became the coach during my junior year, I have grown so much as an individual. He taught not only me but my teammates as well what it means to be a leader, and has helped me grow into a player I couldn’t have became without him.  He has helped us all become not only great players, but great young men as well.”