“We [football coaches] have a saying: ‘If you bite as a pup, then you will bite as an adult. If you are aggressive and physical as a young player, then you will do that as you get older.’ He was that kind of a young player,” former football coach, Lance Scheib said.
He. You are probably wondering who he is. He is none other than junior Ja’shaun Dickman, a multi-sport athlete of football, diving and lacrosse.
Out of the three sports, Dickman says football would be the one he would choose in a heartbeat. It has helped him make most of the friends he has, allowing him to form a brotherhood with the team. It has always been there during hard times for him to go to get his mind off of his troubles.
“My first true love is football, and I just fell in love with the game as soon as I started,” Dickman said.
Dickman has been playing football since he was 10 years old. This is his seventh year playing.
“You would never look at Ja’shaun off the field and know how successful and passionate he is when he is on the field, since his personality is so different on and off the field,” Scheib said.
Scheib has known and been a coach to Dickman for five years. He and two of Dickman’s other mentors, diving coach Doug Hartley and lacrosse coach Bryan Stankus, agree that Dickman has the ability to be a team leader and motivator.
For example, during a JV lacrosse game against LaPorte, the boys started the game off rough: 0-2. Dickman grew visibly irritated after the opposing team scored the second goal. He won the next face off, and took the ball down the field and scored. He scored a second goal after winning the next face-off. After his second goal, Dickman was signaled to come off the field to take a break, but he shook it off and went on to score again, giving the team lead with 3-2. After the third goal, the other team called a timeout, and that was when Dickman took it upon himself to fire up the team saying, “There you go boys, I got us the lead, but I’m not going to score anymore. You guys have to step it up, I’ll assist but I won’t score.” He stayed true to his word and didn’t score again during that game, and his team won 11-2.
Dickman will be playing varsity lacrosse this upcoming spring season as a defensive midfielder, a defensive specialist, because of his tenacious athleticism.
“He is a fierce teammate, and defending his teammates may be something that could push him over the edge,” Stankus said. “[I don’t think that though] he understands that he will be a necessary piece of what I think will be a very strong season for us.”
Being a motivator doesn’t just stop at lacrosse and football; it carries into diving during NHS swim meets. After he’s done and the boys are just watching the swimmers finish up the meet, he’s cheering them on.
“He’s very involved with the the other guys and motivates them. He’s there on the side encouraging the team to keep going,” Hartley said. “He’s good at cheering on the team.”
With being involved in a sport during each season, an athlete’s strengths begin to build up and his dominance becomes more obvious while they are playing or participating in the sport.
“His competitiveness is unbelievable, his athleticism, his great will and desire to be successful,” Scheib said. “He takes every loss personally. He has to believe more in himself, but he’s got a lot more self-confidence in his ability to excel at everything going on in his life.”
No matter the sport, no matter the player, when an athlete looks into the crowd they search for that one person, his biggest supporter in the stands cheering him on and chanting his name, for Dickman he looks for his a specific face.
“My little brother, Daniel, he’s 5-years old. He is my biggest supporter, he really looks up to me as a big brother,” Dickman said. “He aspires to be something like me.”
Having his little brother there to cheer him on, and tell him that he’s a “beast,” gets Dickman fired up
“I kind of dig that he looks up to me, and how he really helps to motivate me.”