Jesuit High School Football

The best description of my athletic career with the Jesuit High School Crusaders was work. I spent every day in the weight room and transformed my body from a 150 pound freshman to a 206 pound senior. This involved bench, squats, and power cleans, but my favorite part was leading lineman workouts. We would meet every day after school to do stairs, calisthenics, and weight lifting, and my favorite, the 'Fun Run'. I demanded focus and commitment in an effort to be the best team we could be. I was voted Captain and starting Center because of my leadership, work ethic, and attitude towards winning. The biggest hurdle I had, was that I was following an all-state, college scholarship, 6'6 300 pound Adam Klefner who had the best feet, technique, and strength I had ever seen at the position. I had big shoes to fill. However, I knew if I wanted to be at the level expected at Jesuit High School, I had to start my training immediately. I worked my way to become 2nd Team All-League.

We had a daunting task because the team we followed was a back to back state champion football team where on offense and defense, it had 8 college scholarship athletes.

However, because of our hard work and tenacity we won the league championship.

The hardest game for me was against Southridge, the team I had played with before and won 3 pee wee championships. I told the team, this will be the hardest team we face, and not to take them lightly. I wanted nothing more than to beat my old team. I looked around and saw my old teammates and wanted to dominate. The game went back and forth, and we lost when our kicker missed an extra point in overtime. Devastating. So much it pushed me to tears.

After our playoff loss, I walked off the field with my head held high, proud that this was the culmination of my football career, knowing I gave it my all.