Nathan Hart is Athlete of the Week
Age 17 | School Imperial High | Grade 12
643.
That’s the number of times the IHS Tigers handed the ball off to Brandon Hueso over the last three seasons. It makes for an average of about 214 carries per season and close to 20 per game. Hueso was the quintessential workhorse back and the lynchpin of Imperial’s attack. But he’s gone, graduated — as seems to happen so often with these schoolkids.
His departure opened up a heck of a lot of offensive opportunities for this year’s returning Tigers, and one of the main questions heading into the season was who would take up the bit and run with it.
In week one at least, the answer looked to be Nathan Hart.
Hart, a 17-year-old senior, has had some success in the past rushing the ball — including a 101-yard, one-TD effort in a 24-14 win over Rancho Buena Vista last year — but he has mostly seen play on the defensive side of things. In 2017, working primarily as a safety, he totaled 59 tackles (for an average of five per game) while accounting for four sacks, three interceptions, and two forced fumbles.
Last Friday against Cibola, given a turn in the bell cow role, Mr. Hart decided it was time to show out. Taking 23 of those vacant carries, he plunged forth into a 102-yard day, hitting pay dirt three times.
And these TDs were of neither the garbage-time nor garden varieties. Each was a crucial fourth-quarter score that helped Imperial erase a somewhat imposing 18-7 deficit. When you include a two-point conversion to the tally, Hart accounted for a full 20 of IHS’s eventual 29 points.
The increased offensive burden did not cause Hart to shirk his defensive responsibilities, however. Playing linebacker now, he notched seven total tackles, three of which went for a loss. Both figures paced the team.
When the day was done, Hart sat atop the team leaderboard in six major categories (touchdowns, carries, receiving yards, all-purpose yards, tackles and tackles for loss). Without his herculean effort, it’s very possible that the Tigers would not have managed to complete their comeback.
When asked what sort of mindset one has to have to turn in such an impactful on-field performance, Hart professed to abiding by a very linear mantra. “I just try to beat the guy in front of me,” he said. Shrinking the scope of the conflict down to a oneon-one matchup lets him manage what he can manage. His teammates help take care of the rest.
Hart said he is particularly thankful for the work his linemen did in the trenches opening the niches he wriggled through in his game-breaking scores, but he praised the whole IHS system from the ground up — from the staff to the support system (as well as his family), without whom success wouldn’t be possible.