DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Perrigo grew into silent leader on Lakeside’s defense
Despite a rough start to the season with a 31-17 loss to Lake Hamilton, Lakeside picked up the pace, finishing the season 7-4 overall and 4-1 in the 5A-South to claim the conference championship.
Senior linebacker Will Perrigo led Lakeside’s defense as the Rams reached the quarterfinals in the Class 5A state playoffs.
Perrigo finished the season with 97 solo tackles, 148 stops total with 30 tackles for a loss and two interceptions. He is the 2020 All-Garland County Defensive Player of the Year.
“We knew that going into the season that he was our leader on and off the field,” said Lakeside head coach Jared McBride. He’s a guy that kind of shows you how it’s done. He works hard in the weight room, and he’s early to practice. He puts the work in and plays on both sides of the ball and never comes off the field. … He just plays hard. We’ve known that for a long time. We could see that in fourth grade football, and he’s played for us a long time.
“He’s been a dominant football player all the way through. He’s a different kind of leader. He’s not super vocal, but he’ll show you how it goes. He embraces that. You’re not gonna find a better kid overall as far as the way he goes about his business in the classroom, on and off the field, church, whatever it is, he’s gonna be really good at it.”
Trust has been a key part of the relationship between Perrigo and McBride.
“There’s a lot of trust there,” McBride said. “Trust for him — just leading our team and knowing what we want to do and how we want to do it and make sure that he helps guide those guys along. He’s a guy that you don’t have to tell twice. You can show him once and he knows what to do, remembers what to do so that makes it a lot easier as a coach to trust that he’s gonna get the job done.”
Even though the season did not end how the Rams hoped, Perrigo is proud of how far they got and cites good leadership and connection as the main reason.
“It felt good,” he said of reaching the quarterfinals. “We hadn’t been to the quarterfinals since 2015, so it was the first time in five years. We also got conference championship, so that also felt good — just to end my high school career on a good note for the most part. Our senior class — we just played together ever since I’d been playing at Lakeside. We had a desire to win and to work hard, and I think that kind of had the ripple effect through the younger kids, too.”
Last season, Perrigo began to realize how important his role as linebacker would play for the Rams.
“The first two games I was nervous,” he said. “It was a big responsbility. Coach gives me a hand signal, and I call the play on defense, and the first two games I was like, ‘If I mess up, we run the wrong play, and it’s all my fault.’ Once I got comfortable, I really didn’t overthink it. I just played football. I was always fine with the pressure of being important and stuff, and I always was willing to take that. I like the position of being a leader, so I think being an example for people is exciting.”
The defender saw his confidence grow significantly from his junior season to his senior season, embracing the responsbilities that came with being a vital piece of the puzzle.
“I think I had more confidence as a leader and as just a player,” he said. “I was just more confident in my ability to make plays and just when I went on the field — last year, I had a few games where I was more nervous to get out there cause it’s like, ‘This is my first year starting at this position.’ This year was more like I’m a veteran, so I had more confidence. I always thought of myself as our defensive leader. We have Will Ross at quarterback, and he’s great offensively. Calls plays and all that stuff, and I would say that defensively, I kept the guys motivated, and just I try to lead by example. I try to get to the ball at my full speed every time and that gives a good example for the younger kids and the other kids out there. For us to be successful, we all have to do that.”
Perrigo said that while Lakeside was undersized in many of the key positions on the field, the team had to give more of themselves on the field to compete.
“As a team, we’re a little undersized in a decent portion of positions,” he said. “We had to make up for that in just hard work and effort to the ball defensively and everything. I think we overcome that pretty well, and we worked really well together. We just learned to connect and understand each other better. We had a lot of people graduate last year. I think it happens every year where we get a better connection every game. You learn how people play and the aggression you guys need and the hard work it takes. We started off rough against Lake Hamilton and stuff, but then our receivers, our quarterback, our running backs all learn how to play with each other and our linemen learn how to block for the running backs.”
Hard work is nothing new for the senior defender.
“My dad was raised by a farmer, so he grew up in a culture where you always work hard,” he said. “That’s just your life. That’s how life is. He raised me where I work hard in whatever I do. We’re Christian, so we do things as if we’re honoring God, so I like to do everything to the best of my ability, so I think that really translated into football.”
With parents who would travel the distance to any game, Perrigo’s athletic career has been filled with a multitude of support from family and friends.
“I don’t think they missed a game,” he said. “They’d drive six hours. My parents are always at a game. Any financial thing for sports they would take care of and my grandparents — my grandpa, he played college football at the NAIA level, I think.
He loves football. … He refereed for years, so he would always watch every game. It always felt good to get approval from my grandparents.”
The night of the quarterfinal matchup against Vilonia, Perrigo stepped into the running back position as teammates Isaac Echols and Chance Cross were unable to compete. Perrigo led on the ground with 23 carries for 58 yards and two touchdowns while manning the defense with seven solo tackles and 12 total stops.
“I didn’t usually play running back, and in that game I did get to play running back cause two of our guys got quarantined,” he explained. “I hate for them that they had to get quarantined, but I got to play running back for the first time in a long time, and that was memorable. I had two touchdowns, so that was exciting.”
With the solid teammates he’s made during his time in the program at Lakeside, Perrigo knows they will continue to maintain a friendship as they all move forward.
“My friends in our senior class — there’s a decent amount of us, but not as much as when we started,” he said. “The ones that stuck through all the way, I think we’ll always be able to pick up where we left off. We just got really close with each other. We’ve played peewee and stuff, and we always would win in peewee. You go after a Saturday game, and you go hang out as little sixth graders, you always build emotional connections when you’re running around as little kids and stuff. It started there and once we got older, we watched each other grow up.”