This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
10/04/2017 12:00 AMNick Braga has shifted into another gear for the Valley Regional-Old Lyme football team this season. In his two games as a starting running back, Nick has rushed for 150 yards and three touchdowns on just 14 carries. The Warriors are undefeated so far, and Nick is hoping to help them fulfill their championship aspirations. Nick, a junior at Valley Regional, has also grabbed some gold with the outdoor track squad by winning the 100-meter dash at last year’s Shoreline Conference Championship on his way to being named the team’s co-Most Valuable Player.
One of the biggest challenges for Nick at game time is settling his nerves. After all, there’s a lot of pressure on football players when they practice all week to put everything on the line for a single game. Nick feels that pressure, but talking with his teammates helps him get settled.
“I get anxiety before games, and everyone on the team calms me down. When I get on field, it’s good to know that we’re all on the same page,” says Nick, who lives in Chester. “For me, a big thing is staying focused. So after every run, I will check in with the linemen, because it really pays dividends staying on the same page.”
Nick feels that one of the biggest reasons behind his emergence on the football field stems from the jolt of confidence he got by winning the 100 at the Shoreline Conference Track Championship. Tim King, who’s Nick’s head coach for both football and track, told Nick that he had faith in him just before that race.
“It was winning the 100 in Shorelines. That’s what gave me the confidence in football. Going into the meet, I was ranked fifth in the Shoreline. I didn’t really think that I could win it. Prior to the final race, Coach King talked to me and said, ‘Nick, just go over and time up the count and just go when the gun goes off. If you beat them off the start, you could maintain and win it,’” says Nick. “I sat behind the starting line and [listened to] the count over and over. Then I lined up and closed my eyes and counted it. I timed it up pretty well, and I was going to go whether he fired the gun or not.”
“While running it, I looked to my side. I know I wasn’t supposed to, but I did, and I saw that I had it won,” Nick continues. “It just boosted my confidence by a trillion. I knew that I was fast, but I never thought I could be fast at that level. Then going into that summer I worked harder, because I knew I could really do something.”
Coach King has since seen Nick grow into a football player who runs the ball with a great deal of self-assuredness. King thinks that bodes well for Nick and the Warriors for the rest of this year, as well as next season.
“He’s grown so much since the beginning of the season, no less in the last year. Just the last four or five weeks, he’s grown more confident. A lot of that comes from the reps he gets,” Coach King says. “He’s pretty quick. The way our offense is based is pretty much the way he runs. It’s kind of almost built for him. He can cram, bounce, or cut back. When you run the zone offense, those are kind of the three options available...The best part is that he’s only a junior.”
While Nick is shining in the Warriors’ offense, he also recognizes the guys whom he depends on the most: his offensive linemen. During the summer, Nick not only studied how to become a better running back, but also how to be a lineman. Nick knows if the people who play both positions understand each others’ roles, they will work together more effectively. Valley-Old Lyme’s offensive line came into this year as a relatively inexperienced group, and Nick appreciates how they’re stepping up.
“Whenever something goes wrong, the linemen are the first to apologize. They know they’re being tested, and they want to prove themselves,” says Nick. “That was one of the things we focused on. We knew going into it that our seniors played a big role last season, and we had to be able to adjust. We took that on to outplay ourselves. We knew this is our season, and we control it. If we work hard enough, we can do what we want to do.”
Nick wants to understand what goes into being a lineman, because he likes running plays where he tucks in behind the blockers before using his speed to break free.
“I like running counter, because I like to follow someone and be able to read what’s going on and put a blocker in front of me. I also like a lot of tosses and anything outside,” Nick says. “Everyone’s got me confident about my speed. I find it really fun to hit top speed and run around and just do what I can.”
Nick wants to make sure that he savors every minute of his high school career, since he knows that there’s no going back once it’s finished. Of course, Nick also wants to help the Warriors reach the pinnacle of success this season.
“A lot of my friends are upper classmen and they just tell me high school football is one of those things that you love while you do it, but you may not know how much it means,” says Nick, who thanks his mother Emily Stone and his girlfriend Sydney Lee for their support. “I think this is our year to go out and show how much we worked in the offseason. I think we can be really good, and I just want to help the team however I can, whether that be a run or pass blocking. We all have the same goal.”