Quantcast
Channel: Messmer News
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 40

Messmer/Shorewood star Jonathan Carson sees future in D1 football

0
0

Published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, August 21, 2013 

 

The moment they had been waiting for had just arrived and all Jonathan Carson and his parents could do was sit there speechless.

The three were attending Junior Day at Central Michigan this past winter when they were invited to coach Dan Enos' office. There he offered Carson, a Milwaukee Messmer/Shorewood standout, a football scholarship, a gesture that was met by a long silence.

"We were all sitting there looking at him and he was like, 'Are you going to say anything?'" Carson's mother, Judy, said.

Carson eventually said yes, committing to the Chippewas in the spring to seal a path that seemed unlikely three years ago.

Score one for football.

The sport has taken some hits lately, whether it's the national discussion about the long-term effects of concussions or locally where programs inside the city struggle to build numbers and compete on the field with their suburban brethren.

Those programs need an influx of talent, some of which Carson reminds us can be found on the basketball court.

"Here is a kid from about 20th and Walnut and he has the dream as a seventh- and eighth-grader of being an NBA player just like everyone else," Messmer/Shorewood football coach Drake Zortman said. "But you know what? Football can be a great outlet as well, a great chance to give yourself an opportunity.

"We have great basketball players in this city, some of the best in the country. There are also great football players in this city. We just don't know about as many of them."

Few do both as well as Carson.

A 6-foot-3, 247-pound tight end and defensive end, he caught 27 passes for 734 yards and eight touchdowns for the co-op team last season. He was first-team all-Midwest Classic both ways. It was a breakout year.

"Over the last year and a half, the refinement in the little parts of the game, he's gone gangbusters focusing on the details," Zortman said. "I'm very lucky No. 1 to work with such a quality young man, but No. 2 (to have) somebody who is willing to listen, willing to get yelled at once in a while to perfect the little parts of the game. That's one of the reasons why he separated himself."

Despite his status as one of only a handful of football players in the area with a Division I scholarship in hand, he is still probably better known as a basketball player. The game, according to Carson's mother, was his passion.

As a junior at Messmer last season, he earned first-team all-conference honors in the Midwest Classic for the third straight season, a point guard/forward who averaged 13 points, 8.9 rebounds and 6.9 assists per game. He averaged 19.3 points as a sophomore when the team needed him to score more.

Carson always has been expected to be an impact player on the court. He was one of the state's top freshmen and before he played a game at Messmer accepted an invitation to a USA Basketball camp that included some of the nation's top players from the class of 2014, guys who are now some of the nation's most sought-after college prospects.

Carson, meanwhile, realized after last season there was more of a market at the college level for a tight end his size with 4.8-speed in the 40-yard dash than a 6-3 guard/forward.

"After that season I got different invites to different camps and different places, and all these college letters and these college coaches calling me," said Carson, who has played football since third grade. "So I was like, 'Maybe going the football route is better.'"

What ultimately sealed his change of heart was an invitation to a combine held in conjunction with the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio. Basketball was no longer at the top of his list..

"Football is my priority," Carson said. "But basketball is something I do to stay in shape and something I do for fun."

Carson didn't just talk a good game, he lived it during the offseason, devoting himself to the weight room and training for football more than ever. Even during basketball season, he'd spend part of his Sundays working with a personal trainer.

And even as he continued to play with his club basketball team this summer, he never missed a workout with the football team. The work netted him only six more pounds but shifted Carson's physical makeup noticeably.

It also further endeared him to Zortman, who already had a pretty high opinion of the kid because of how he handles himself at school and carries himself in general.

"He will look me square in the eye every time I talk him," Zortman said. "He never looks down. He never looks up. He looks me square in the eye. Always shakes your hand. Always polite and respectful. It's an all the time thing for him."

Having a Division I player has been invaluable to Messmer/Shorewood, a co-op team drawing from two schools where the football history is modest, to put it mildly.

According to Zortman, Messmer's last conference title came in 1947. Shorewood last won a league title in 1981.

Messmer/Shorewood has been closing in on ending those streaks. The team has qualified for the playoffs the past two years and last season finished 7-2 and was second in the conference.

This year the team is considered a favorite to win the league along with defending champion Lake Country Lutheran. When Messmer/Shorewood opens the season Friday night at home against South Milwaukee, the squad will have 17 seniors, 10 of whom have been varsity contributors since sophomore year.

"I haven't set any personal goals for myself, but as a team I want to win conference and get a home playoff game, something we haven't done here ever," he said. "I want that to happen for my last year and then whatever happens in the playoffs happen."


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 40

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images