Meet the two sides of Nick Ossello: offensive, where he’s Wheat Ridge’s quarterback, and defensive, where he’s a safety. Together, he says, they keep him balanced on the football field.
“It really helps me control my emotions, because on offense, I have to be a leader out there and I have to stay on composed,” Ossello said this morning. “But then on defense, I can go crazy and hit anything, and go make a big hit.”
Yet Ossello doesn’t simply play both sides of the ball. He shines.
Through the Farmers’ first four games, Ossello has thrown for 380 yards and three touchdowns, while leading the team in rushing with 639 yards and nine touchdowns. Defensively, he’s fourth on the team in tackles with 14.
“We’re not exactly loaded with players,” Ossello said. “I mean we don’t have 150 kids to choose from, so he knows that I kind of have to play both ways. And lots of do.”
Ossello is one of the best athletes in the state — the senior has already committed to Maryland for lacrosse — and it shows when a play breaks down. In Wheat Ridge’s 62-37 win over Longmont two weeks ago, he had five rushing touchdowns, including 59- and 36-yard scores.
“I love the fact that if the receivers aren’t open, I can still make a play,” Ossello said. “That’s probably one of my favorite parts about football: being able to scramble. I love dropping back and then seeing the whole defense and being able to make a run, make a play.”
He’s a huge reason the Farmers — who play Green Mountain at 7 p.m. tonight at Jefferson County Stadium — have not only started out 4-0, but are ranked No. 2 in this week’s Denver Post/9News 4A poll, and are outscoring opponents 147-65.
“I’ll be honest, I didn’t think we were expecting to win by so many points against some pretty tough teams,” Ossello said. “Ponderosa was a very tough game, but I don’t think we expected to be Longmont by so much and then Castle View and Brighton were pretty big wins. We definitely expected to be 4-0, but now that we did it with such domination, it’s definitely given us some momentum carrying on into league play.”
It’s also given Wheat Ridge a target on its back as one of the teams to beat in 4A.
“For so long, we’ve been the underdog gunning for other teams,” Ossello said. “It’s kind of nice to have the change of pace where everybody’s gunning for us.”
Ryan Casey: 303-954-1983 or rcasey@denverpost.com
