It’s always the same response — they tell him he’s crazy.
Poly Prep senior Nick Storz is one of the best baseball players in the country — he committed to Louisiana State University more than a year ago — but he is risking injury by playing football this fall. Storz’s decision to take to the gridiron raised plenty of eyebrows, but the tight end sees it differently. He’s not crazy — he’s having fun.
“I wanted to play the game that I love playing so much. I didn’t want to look back on it and think I didn’t do everything I could. Of course you do have the ‘be careful’ and ‘don’t get hurt’ messages,” said Storz who is a big-time on-field target at 6-foot-6. “But as long as you don’t have that in your head and you have fun doing it and play with heart, you don’t really have to worry about that.”
As soon as he suited up with the Devils in the summer preseason, he knew that his decision to play football would surprise plenty of people. After all, student-athletes typically focus on just one sport, and there aren’t many athletes who would risk their baseball future for a chance to play an entirely different sport.
Storz, however, doesn’t see it that way, and neither do his coaches — at Poly or the collegiate level.
“I talked to the [Louisiana State University] head coach and the assistant coaches. I told them I was thinking about coming back and they loved it,” Storz said. “They like two-sport athletes, and it was really good that I had the support of my future coaching staff. And even coach [Matt] Roventini at Poly, he’s showed full support of it.”
It hasn’t been a perfect season.
The Blue Devils lost back-to-back games last month by a combined five points. Storz’s competitive nature isn’t particularly pleased with that, but he’s having the time of his life on the football field.
“Our main goal was actually to be undefeated, and that can’t really happen anymore,” Storz said. “But we want to try to win out. For me though, I’m just trying to stay in it.”
Storz always considered himself a two-sport athlete — even when he wasn’t officially playing football — and he’s doing his best to maintain that reputation this fall. He’s not playing baseball competitively right now, but he’s not ignoring the sport either — his time on the gridiron is cross-training for the diamond, he said.
“It’s going to get me ready for the season and it also helps mentally,” Storz said. “You really do have that same aggressive state of mind that you have on the football field on the pitching mound. It helps me with my mindset, my stamina, my physicality — everything.”
