While Super Bowl parties will be going on next weekend, Central senior Jason Diffee will have his focus on the NFL draft April 28-30.

Diffee, Central’s long snapper for the past three seasons, has signed with an NFL agent and been declared eligible for the 2016 NFL draft.

If Diffee were to be drafted or sign with a team, he would join Jon Kitna as the only Central student-athletes to play in the NFL.

Diffee, who played at Liberty High School in Bakersfield, Calif., was an offensive lineman for most of high school. He learned to long snap his senior year from his teammate at the time, Cole Mazza.

Mazza is currently the long snapper at University of Alabama, who won the 2015 NCAA Division I National Championship.

Diffee didn’t get the opportunity to long snap until he went to college, at the College of Sequoias in Visalia, Calif., and then here at Central.

Having scouts from multiple professional teams come watch him this season, including the Seattle Seahawks, helped Diffee realize his potential as a professional long snapper.

“I knew I was good, but I didn’t know I was at that level,” Diffee said. “They said I had what it took to snap at the next level.”

Diffee is excited for the opportunity to try and join the most elite group of football players in the world.

“Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve dreamed of playing in the NFL, it’d be a dream come true,” Diffee said. “It’d be an honor.”

Diffee has worked hard throughout his career at Central and has been noticed by Benny Boyd, Central’s special teams and defensive backs coach.

“He is the most diligent specialist I have ever worked with,” Boyd said. “He is so conscious of his performance, he wants every detail to be precise.”

This sentiment is also shared by Jonny Kuhn, who is the punter that has received Diffee’s snaps the past two seasons.

“Of course I’m excited for him. On the field, it’s just work, work, work,” Kuhn said. “He’s always got that grind mentality.”

Kuhn noticed the difference between his long snapper from high school and Diffee almost immediately.

“The hardest part was having my hands hurt for the first couple months of working with him,” Kuhn said. “But it’s nice to not have to worry about if it’s a bad snap or not because he puts it in the same spot every single time.”

Diffee’s position is one that is not acknowledged often except by football’s diehard fans, as most teams only carry one long snapper on their roster.

“There’s about 32 guys who are employed doing what he does. It’s such an unsung position, nobody ever notices the long snapper unless they screw up, even more so than the kicker or punter,” Boyd said. “With a perfect long snap, a perfect short snap, no one bats an eye.”

The scarcity of long snappers in the NFL might turn into a blessing for Diffee this season.

Both Diffee and his agent believe that there’s going to be between eight and 10 openings for teams through retirements and roster cuts. The Arizona Cardinals are one of these. Their long snapper Mike Leach announced retirement last week, which is one of the spots for new players to join teams, primarily through the draft.

“This is the best year to get into the long snapper position,” Diffee said.

As far as the NFL draft goes, Diffee doesn’t have huge plans to watch the draft.

“I’ll be here to celebrate with friends and my teammates,” Diffee said. “Hopefully I get the call.”