The 2020 Mount Pisgah football team had six players sign to play football at the next level,  Happy Chane, Nick Speros, Nick Jackson, Coleman Smith, David Bertrand, and Matt Trujillo.

Happy Chane was a first-team all-region linebacker while having to switch from tight end to guard for his senior year. Happy was a great leader for the whole team. He is now playing for The University of Rochester in New York. Rochester has had a shaky start at 1-2, but both their losses were hard-fought, games. It’s not easy for student-athletes to balance school and athletics, especially at the college level. Students like Chane who were already good at time management had to become better.

“I had to be elite,” Chane said. “Balancing school, football, social life, and my personal time isn’t easy but planning my whole day out a night in advance gives me the opportunity to balance these things.”

In his senior season at Mount Pisgah, Nick Speros played receiver, totaling 1,232 yards and 7 touchdowns on 87 catches in 11 games which earned him all-region first team. In February of this year, he signed a preferred walk-on offer to play at Division I (FCS) school Samford, who is off to a 2-1 start.

Speros says he feels right at home on his new team.

“I was blessed at Mount Pisgah to have coaches all four years who cared about me as both a player and a person,” Speros said. “That helped me transition easily to college ball at Samford because it’s honestly the same way here. The change was definitely noticeable on a timing basis, but it is just football at the end of the day and I’m thankful to have ended up in the situation I’ve ended up in.”

Nick Jackson started all four years of high school for Mount Pisgah. He has played defensive line and offensive line for his whole career. In his senior year, Nick was an absolute force on the d-line, winning region 6-A (Private) lineman of the year and earned the interest of many schools, but ultimately decided to play at Marist College. The Red Foxes have only played one game so far, losing to Columbia.

Coleman Smith had an amazing senior year, earning region 6-A (Private) Offensive Player of the year with 3,020 passing yards and 22 touchdowns on a 62% completion percentage. His 3,020 yards put him at number 5 in the entire state (A private-7A) in passing yards. Coleman went on to sign with Birmingham Southern College. The Panthers have had a perfect start to the season at 3-0.

David Bertrand was an all-region center, starting long snapper, and played defensive line for our 2020 team. He is also a 3-time state champion in wrestling. He signed to play both football as a long snapper and wrestle at Presbyterian College, which has started the year at 2-1.

Matt Trujillo was the starting right guard and backup defensive tackle for the Patriots during his senior season. His performance on the offensive line earned him a spot on the Rose-Hulman Engineers, who has started the year 1-2.