Recently, Lakeside’s Jack Thexton got that “first call” that every high school athlete with next-level aspirations dreams of. He received his first college football scholarship offer.
He took to X (formerly known as Twitter) on Oct. 9 to share his offer from Union Commonwealth in Barbourville, Kentucky. And, as it typically happens, once one came, others soon followed.
Four days later, one came from Florida Central Tech. Then an overture from Anderson University in Anderson, South Carolina.
Call it a big deal for Thexton whose play has helped Lakeside to an historic regular season which includes a likely second place finish in Region 1-AAAAA which should give Lakeside home field advantage in the first round of the Class AAAAA state playoffs. His play has been speaking volumes.
Coming into Friday night’s blowout win of Bradwell Institute, Thexton had 225 rushing yards and nine touchdowns. He’d also caught nine pass for 116 yards. The 6-foot-1, 225 pounder has also starred for the Panthers as a linebacker.
We chatted with Thexton, and he told us all about how that first offer felt, how a hurricane-complicated senior season has been and where his passion for football comes from.
GABRIEL STOVALL: How did it feel for you to get this first scholarship offer?
JACK THEXTON: “Getting that first offer was a huge boost. Giving me a boost of confidence, it feels good knowing that I’m getting noticed, so it was definitely a feeling of relief and major encouragement as well.”
STOVALL: How did your love for football begin, and when did you start believing you could play college ball?
THEXTON: “It comes from my dad and my grandpa who both played football. My dad played at Mass and my grandpa played at Michigan State. So my love for football has really been there since I was born.”
STOVALL: I’ve seen coaches call you “Mr. Do-It-All.” What makes you able to perform at such a high level in so many areas on the football field?
THEXTON: “Since I’ve been playing football when I wasps really young, I’ve tried almost every position from quarterback to center and even safety. Playing all those positions has really helped me to just get comfortable playing where it is that I’m needed.”
STOVALL: During the game when quarterback Ty Jones was injured, you came up big in relief of him. Has that always been the plan for you to be able to fill in for him if necessary?
THEXTON: “Thanks to our offensive coordinator and his wide playbook, he had a bunch of different formations with one of those being me in the backfield which worked great in that game. Having Ty go down was scary, but the coaches do a great job of getting lots of people involved on offense.”
STOVALL: With Lakeside having an historic season and more wins than any other team in program history, what is it about this team that’s so different from the other Lakeside squads you’ve been a part of?
THEXTON: “It’s just something about this team that’s different. With a huge part of our team being seniors, I haven’t seen a group of guys want to win more. With so many seniors, there is more than enough leaders on this team getting on each other at practice and making sure everything is perfect.”
STOVALL: I know it’s been a lot playing three games in eight days, but after all that everyone went through with Hurricane Helene, how good did it feel to get back to playing football and pursuing a deep playoff run?
THEXTON: “During the storm, I was itching to get back at it. But with the team still being together almost everyday during the storm lifting and hanging out, it made it easy. What I hope for the rest of the season is to continue what we’ve been doing — making history.”
