Prime stakeout landed 2016 Boulder High grad a chance

The NFL scouts gathered around the bench press in the University of Colorado weight room were confused early Tuesday afternoon.

Who’s this guy? He’s not on the list. What’s the “E” on his shirt?

Jake L’heureux first answered the question by yelling his name over and over again.

Then he did his best to introduce himself.

L’heureux, it turns out, grew up right down the road. Bedroom painted black and gold. Buffs swag all over.

The journey from Boulder High to CU’S pro day at Folsom Field, though, proved anything but local.

Instead, his college career spanned nearly eight years and four schools. It culminated in a weeks-long dash of phone calls, changing plans, concern, forecastwatching and staking out Deion Sanders in a parking lot.

All just to get a shot to run and jump and catch passes in front of pro scouts who had no idea who he was and may not ever re-visit his name. Just on the hope that maybe one of them will.

“I don’t even know if I could ballpark how many hours I put in,” L’heureux told The Denver Post of trying to make Tuesday a reality he described afterward as, “surreal.”

The cliff notes version of a coast-to-coast college career: L’heureux graduated from Boulder High in 2016 and spent time at two Arizona junior colleges, first Glendale Community College and then Phoenix College.

After that, he walked on at FCS Northern Arizona and carved out a role for himself, mostly on special teams, in 2019, before a torn groin muscle.

Then the COVID-19 scramble. Eventually, he ended up at Division II Edinboro

University in Pennsylvania, where he spent three seasons split down the middle by a torn ACL.

He had 322 receiving yards and two touchdowns at Phoenix College in 2018 and 24 catches for 222 in 2021 at Edinboro. In 2023? Two catches for 18, according to the school’s website. Not exactly a resume that lands you on the NFL’S radar screen.

So how did he end up doing 12 reps on the bench Tuesday, jumping 33 inches vertical and 9-foot-9 broad — numbers that didn’t look out of place among the Buffs’ contingent on hand — in front of scouts from most NFL teams?

Pretty much by will.

L’heureux’s been training at Kula Sports Performance in Highlands Ranch and thought he had a line on participating at Colorado School of Mines’ pro day.

Then he found out that, as a Boulder County resident who didn’t attend a local school, that was a no-go. He tried frantically to find one near Edinboro, back at NAU, at Colorado State or Air Force. No, no, no and no.

So he started calling anybody he could get a number for.

“I was kind of freaking out the past few weeks,” he said.

Eventually, he connected with CU head strength coach Maurice Sims.

It didn’t sound promising. He called in a favor with Dr. Eric Mccarty, who performed his knee operation in 2022 and happens to be CU’S head team physician. That helped, but L’heureux wasn’t convinced.

So he went to find Coach Prime.

“I had a general idea of where his office was because I knew they shared the same building where I did my physical therapy,” L’heureux said, noting that he spent parts of a couple days on the lookout before sheer getting lucky. “I caught out of the corner of my eye him walking into the building. So I parked right by there and I sat there for maybe an hour and a half until Coach Prime walked out and I said, ‘Hey coach.’ He’s like, ‘What’s up man?’

“So I explained my situation like, ‘Hey, I just need to get into a pro day and my other place fell through.’”

Sanders wasn’t opposed but told him he needed to talk with “Coach Ray” — chief of staff Rodney Forsett.

Another scramble for another phone number. Forsett told him he had to get in touch with director of player personnel Corey Phillips.

The dot-connecting as L’heureux reels off his quest includes “this guy Zach” and “this lady Lori,” each of whom helped in their own way.

“Somehow I miraculously got Corey Phillips’ number. This was Wednesday last week,” he said. “He said, ‘Let me see what I can do.’ At this point it wasn’t official that the pro day was getting moved. I was praying the snowstorm canceled the pro day.”

Prayer answered. The big Front Range storm pushed CU’S pro day and bought him five more days.

Then finally Monday, L’heureux got the word from Phillips. Went to get a physical. Dashed to the indoor facility. Filled out paperwork. Landed his spot.

Imagine, then, what it was like to finish up running and jumping and have Dave Bratten, a scout for the Broncos, tell you, “Hey Jake, you did a really good job today. Great work.”

“That really meant a lot,” L’heureux said. “I must have done something right.”

What’s ahead? Unclear, but the past couple of weeks and the past several years make one thing pretty clear for L’heureux.

“It’s my dream and I’m not going to stop working at it,” he said.