Cody Thorn
In a few days, Nate Jean will be starting his final spring football practice for the Northwest Texans.
The start of the second most important football team in the Lone Star State will be on April 15 and when he trots this field this upcoming fall, he will be one of the key players for the Texans.
He’s also pretty good at wrestling too.
Jean is coming off a third-place showing at the UIL Class 5A tournament in February. The junior went 4-1 at state and his only loss was a 7-6 decision to the eventual state champion Efren Arizmendez Jr. from Comal Smithson Valley in the 165-pound semifinals.
Jean picked up career win No. 100 during this past season at the regional meet.
After spring football, he will split time between the two sports he loves. He started wrestling at 4 years old but when the family moved to Texas from New Jersey in the third grade, he started playing football. He’s been juggling both since.
“I don’t want to lose my touch, like my skills, so I like to practice every day after I go to football workouts in the morning,” Jean said. “I started last summer after my sophomore season. We had workouts in the morning for football and then we’d have wrestling workouts after that. I got to both and stay in shape for both.”
The change from wrestling to football hadn’t been hard for Jean.
He’s said he’s enjoyed eating and had gained about 20 pounds from the end of the wrestling season to now.
As a backup last year, Jean flashed potential for the school in Justin — in the shadows of the Texas Motor Speedway.
He ran for 645 yards and 14 touchdowns on 115 carries. The lead back was all-stater Ice Durodoye, who had 1,976 yards and 28 scores.
The Texans are moving up to 6A this year — the top level in Texas football — and Jean is in line to be a big part of the offense….
