“I’ve only learned the basics so far,” he said.

But the former record-setting quarterback at Jamestown HIgh School and Edinboro University has never shied away from a challenge, regardless of venue.

In fact, since playing his last collegiate game three years ago, Sisson has continued his football odyssey in China, Serbia and Germany before landing in a city in Sweden’s south-central region this winter. He was supposed to be opening his season for the Orebro Black Knights this spring, but it was postponed until at least Aug. 15 and their head coach, Timothy Speckman, left the team last week when they couldn’t afford to keep him in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“With Coach leaving, the only significant impact to me is that the sports group has asked me to work with the coaches group a little bit more,” Sisson wrote via Facebook Messenger last week. “I’d already kind of been involved, but I let Tim do a lot of the leading. (With Tim now gone), they asked me to just step up and take a little bit more of the steering wheel in his place.”

In 2018, Jake Sisson was the quarterback for the United States in the FISU World University American Football Championship in China. Submitted photo

Being in the driver’s seat is something that Sisson, a 2014 Jamestown High School graduate, knows a thing or two about. Last year he led the Kragujevac Wild Boars to the Serbian League football championship followed by a stint with the Ingolstadt Dukes in the German Football League.

In 2018, he was the quarterback for the United States in the FISU World University American Football Championship in Harbin, China, which came on the heels of opportunities earlier that year that included playing in the Dream Bowl in Roanoke, Virginia; participating in the Podyum Showcase in Miami and the National Scouting Combine in Indianapolis; and performing at the PSAC Pro Day hosted by California (Pennsylvania) University.

Sisson’s latest football adventure comes after a record-setting career at Edinboro, where he ranks second in career touchdown passes (85), third in career passing yards (8,313), third in career total offense (8,672), third in career pass completions (702) and third in career pass attempts (1,243). As a senior at Jamestown High School, Sisson completed 178 of 275 passes for a Western New York-record 3,184 yards, threw for 33 touchdowns, was intercepted just four times, and rushed for 24 more TDs while running for a team-high 732 yards. The Post-Journal and Western New York Player of the Year in 2013, he was also the recipient of the Connolly Cup.

Whether Sisson will have an opportunity to show those talents in the Superserien, the highest level of football in Sweden, remains to be seen.

In place of games, the 24-year-old has “reset” his offseason routine, his daily workouts he says will get “ramped up a bit” and the weekly team training will feature more agility/spring workouts rather than actual football.

“We practice with the team twice a week right now, on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Sisson said, “but some guys and myself have found a little extra time to ‘play’ football in the park since the Superserien has placed rules on the use of pads and balls for practice.”

As far as social distancing is concerned, Sisson said that was already “set in stone before this whole pandemic thing.”

“Swedes enjoy having their own little personal bubble and tend to already naturally ‘social distance’ from others when in public places regardless,” he noted.

That being said, Sisson said he’s “extremely comfortable” in Sweden and even posted a video to Facebook on Easter Sunday showing him eating some of the country’s favorite foods.

“The people of the city have been overwhelmingly kind to me and I have met and made so many new few friends here,” he added. “It’s just unbelievable how much they make this place feel home to me.”

So much so that he picked up a residency card last week, which is good for five years. Given his globe-trotting ways, however, Sisson seems to always have a new adventure on the horizon as he pursues his football dreams.

“Right now, to fill my time, I try to go to the gym, and since Sweden doesn’t really have any quarantine laws as of right now, I try to make the most of my time out here with friends I’ve made, both on the team and off the team, especially with some of the other sports teams in town,” he said. “We try to go around the city and experience things since the weather is starting to turn.”

Sisson is hopeful that there will be a football season, even though that’s months away, if at all.

“Here in Sweden people have been using pretty good common sense with the lack of social distancing rules and regulations, so our numbers (of positive coronavirus tests) are pretty far down,” he said. “My thoughts and prayers are out to all of the coronavirus victims and families back home.”