PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — When Jayden Poulshock hits the field as a running back or safety for the David Douglas Scots, he does it with the toughness and finesse of a wrestler.
Poulshock is one of the biggest reasons the Scots are knocking on the door of their first winning season since 2010.
“He’s been a huge part of our team and being a senior he’s going to be one of those seniors we’re really going to miss next year,” coach Cal Szueber said.
For years Poulshock has done both sports. Now the combination of skills has made him a force on the football field.
“When you first start wrestling they teach you moves and double legs help me a lot with defense and tackling,” Poulshock told KOIN 6 News. “Wrestling made my, like, reactions faster and I could, like, you know, move around easier and basically, like, tell the future of what’s going to happen before it happens.”
Szueber recognizes his skills and toughness, describing him as “one of those tough safety types he can come up and hit somebody as well as anybody … one of those running backs that instead of trying to dance around somebody he’ll run through them … not a real big kid, you know, he’s only 5-feet-7 but he’s tough as nails.”
That toughness is only accentuated by how much he wants to win — not just for him but for what he calls his brotherhood.
“I think it means a lot because if you don’t have a brotherhood on the football field I don’t think your team can get very far.”
This year the Scots have that brotherhood. Poulshock said it’s a big reason why they have the chance to do something no David Douglas team has done in more than a decade — finish with a winning record.
“I think everybody trusts each other with everything, you know, like the linemen blocking, and then the quarterback getting the snap and then on defense everybody trusting each other to get their man or their zone or whatever they’re supposed to do,” he said. “I think it’s just trusting each other.”