Too big to play with the neighborhood kids? No, he’s not
Seventh in a series profiling top high school football players by position. Today, Weston Port, San Juan Hills linebacker.
Standing in the middle of the San Juan Hills football field, you look around and begin to understand why it’s the perfect name for the high school. The campus is surrounded by rolling hills. College recruiters making the drive to San Juan Capistrano will feel as if they’ve been transported into a country setting.
The team’s 15-year-old star, 6-foot-2, 220-pound Weston Port, is asked how far he lives from school.
“Right down the street — five minutes,” he said.
Privates schools tried with offers of free tuition to persuade Port not to attend his neighborhood school after he became a standout as an eighth-grader.
“I was into it at first,” he said. “Then I realized if I’m good enough, I don’t need to go to private school to be a D1 athlete. I have had friends go the private school route [and hear] ‘Dang, all these kids just care about themselves.’ These are my really good friends. It’s hanging out and playing football. It’s a lot more fun and when it’s fun, you play better.”
Port burst onto the high school scene last season as a freshman in his first game against Santa Margarita. He was a week away from his 15th birthday.
As the bus came into the new Saddleback College Stadium, he wondered, “Am I going to get destroyed by these kids?”
“Normally before games, I’m nervous,” he said. “We came out of the tunnel, I had my dawgs next to me. I didn’t feel any fear.”
He recorded two sacks playing edge rusher in a 38-14 loss. He’d go on to contribute 91 tackles, including 25 for losses.
“He’s one of the best I’ve ever seen and he’s only a freshman,” coach Robert Frith said last spring. “When I watch his film, I don’t know if I’ve coached a player as dominant. We knew right away he was going to be a guy and start from the day he showed.
We made him a captain as a freshman.”
Port moved to the area with his family from Texas as a 7-year-old. When looking for a high school, the family had a plan.
“Him and his dad told me he wanted to come to program that is run like a family and not a business,” Frith said.
Now that Port has everyone’s attention, he understands resting on laurels won’t be enough to achieve his dreams. He has earned respect by the way he treats others, his good grades, character and courtesy. It’s just a matter of progressing physically.
“I don’t want to reflect on my freshman year, ‘Oh that was great.’ I want to be able to get better,” he said. “If I keep growing and keep building, it’s going to be a lot of fun destroying kids.”