Nick Burt:
Three-sport athlete proved
himself
and helped the football
team do it, too
By Bruce Smith
Matchup
The Borah Lions felt the 2012 season was a chance to
prove themselves. Nick Burt felt the same way about himself.
Burt, a 6-foot, 200-pound senior, was a three-sport
athlete. He competed in football, basketball and track and field. This football
season, he started out at defensive back but was moved to linebacker. He ended
up second on the team in tackles and even made honorable mention all-SIC.
“He was a safety, but got bigger,” said coach Darren
Corpus. “We had some highs and lows on the team this year and he fit in well.”
Burt fit in a lot of ways on Borah’s sports teams. He
competed in the sprints during track season. He started on the junior varsity
basketball team as a junior and was thrilled when the Lions’ varsity won the 5A
state title. He also was expected to be a major player for coach Cary Cada’s
varsity squad as a senior.
In football, he was the JV team’s defensive player of the
year in 2011. Corpus called him a “tweener kid,” and asked him to stay on the
JVs in order to improve. It probably wasn’t any surprise that his success
coincided with the teams.
“We knew we were going to be pretty decent, but it made
us mad to see the preseason rankings,” Burt said. “We had to go prove ourselves.”
After years of disappointing seasons, Borah’s turnaround
started last year in coach Darren Corpus’s first season. The Lions put together
a 5-4 record, but missed the postseason.
Burt had played for Corpus at West Junior High and
developed a good relationship. It may have started when Burt was a ninth grader
and hadn’t decided if he wanted to play.
“He didn’t show to the first two-a-day practice,” Corpus
recalled. “Some of the kids (teammates) put him on the phone and I talked to
him. He came to the second practice, but hardly played for us last year until
the championship game, and then he had three picks (interceptions) and a fumble
recovery.
“The rest is history and he has been an integral part of
our teams.”
Burt said the team had high hopes this year, but the
38-24 loss to Boise in the season opener had them going into the opposite
direction. Burt remembered the coaches “calling them out” before they even left
the stadium that night. There were also other motivators.
“Hawkins (Mann) called us out on many things … when we
were playing terrible,” he said. “We just did our jobs and came back.”
The next week, Borah started a six-game winning streak.
“It (the season) went pretty well,” Burt said. “We made a
lot of progress. We expected more, but it went pretty well.”
The series of victories included wins over Centennial,
Meridian, Mountain View, Timberline and Vallivue. Burt said his favorite game
was the 24-21 win at Eagle, a game where he led the defense with nine tackles.
“We weren’t picked to win, but we played good,” he said.
“They were ranked second in the state at that time and we only gave up one
touchdown. We were flying around.”
Burt said he had several other good
memories:
* - His favorite play came against Capital, when he
forced a fumble by Eagles running back T.J. Clarke. Burt said Clarke used to be
a teammate before transferring.
“There wasn’t too much talk on the field, but there was
definitely some heat between all of us,” he said.
* - Beating Rocky Mountain in a game that decided the SIC
title.
“We were looking forward to that game all year. It
actually surprised us. They were the ones getting looked at all season.”
* - Losing to Highland in the 5A playoffs when the Rams
converted a 3rd-and-35 play late in the game.
“It was a good game. We should have won. On that play, I
was dropping way back, going into coverage. I got blocked right before I could
get him.”
When football season ended, Burt went right into
basketball, and looked forward to helping the Lions see if they could repeat as
championss. He wasn’t certain what his future held after high school. He said
his parents were both in the military, and he was considering that, too.
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