Among other star athletes at Freedom High School Nasir Core is a well-known and highly respected individual. Having participated in varsity football and basketball since freshmen year, he decided to add track in his senior year. However his sporting career didn’t start in high school, like most skilled athletes he started young,

“I’ve been playing football all my life, so it’s always been a passion of mine. I started playing when I was six. My whole family was a football family so I got tossed into it and grew a love for it. And my dad played basketball and was really good so I figured I would try it. I’ve been playing both since I was a freshmen and it’s my first year doing track so I could be faster for football,” said Core.

Nasir decided he didn’t just want to play the sport, he wanted to own it. He took up a leadership role on the team spending the majority of his career as a quarterback.

“In Football I played quarterback, receiver and a little linebacker when necessary. I always played quarterback and with some of my abilities I tried receiver, my coach saw my size and speed and put me in the position to effect the game differently as a receiver. Though I feel I can make more plays as a quarterback since the ball is in my hands more,”

Having experienced both team sports, and participated in a more solo performance sport such as track, it begs the question, is being a one-man-show better, or worse?

“I like team sports better. I believe that everyone needs someone to motivate them to be a leader, when you need someone to rally your troops. And I feel like I can be that leader. But in track you’re all by yourself, so if you fail you have nobody looking out for you,” said Core.

Being a part of a sports team is a positive experience for most, but how about three?

“It gave me a good experience on how to manage my time-there were no breaks, just one season to the next so it gave me the opportunity to be a role model both on and off the court or field,”

Most of the time Nasir was in the clear when it came to practices coinciding, but during the summer things didn’t always work out so swell.

“Usually nothing clashed except in the summer where I would have some ‘two-a-days,’ so I would talk to coach Smith, and he would help me out. I would do most of the basketball practice, and then go straight to football,” said the quarterback.

As his fame increased so did both pressure, and stress, but he wasn’t alone, Coach Cedric Smith continued to help not only on the court, but off of it as well.

“I’d say I was under a lot of pressure. I always had eyes on me-in class teachers would watch me and say they would tell a coach of I was doing bad, and just walking in the hallways underclassmen are looking up to me. I received a lot of help from Coach Smith, he would talk to me on the phone and help me feel like I was in control, and keep my ego in check. I think Coach Smith was my biggest mentor, since when he was in high school he played basketball and football like me. He was always there for me and knew the stress I was going under and if I ever needed a ride home or anything he was there for me,” said Core.

As an athlete there will be both ups and downs, Nasir made sure his high school career was one to remember.

“My highest moments were being selected for the all-star teams, both basketball, and football. It was nice having the recognition for all the hard work I’ve put in and what I’ve done for Freedom. My lowest moment was when my senior seasons ended. Those were pretty harsh. Coming to terms with it all being over,”

In an athletes career there will always be that one game that stands out the most, for Nasir it was the 2016 District Championship basketball game.

“My most memorable game would be the district championship game vs Sickles High School. We were down 17 points in the fourth quarter, everyone was counting us out and one of our key players were out for a foul. So the team had to rally up and we had to play hard in order to win the battle. We had already won the past two district championships and knew we couldn’t lose this one. We needed to make it three. Jamal Byrne and I stepped up as much as we could to help out. There were some very key and intense moments and everyone pitched in and played hard and we managed to come back and win,” said Core.

For those who love to cheer at sporting events, Nasir can confirm your semi-mindless yelling doesn’t go to waste.

“For me I always love a big crowd. The crowd feeds my energy and like in that district game we had a big crowd. I’m like a big kid, and they really helped me out. The crowd always makes a difference,”

With all these sports the whole “school” part of high school can easily be forgotten, but with the help of his coach and family Nasir stayed on top of his work.

“It was hard coming from late games and having homework to do, but my mom always stayed on top pf me and told me if I didn’t have good grades I couldn’t play sports. She definitely influenced me since I wasn’t willing to give it up,”

As the saying goes, all great things must come to an end. With his sports seasons over, and senior year reaching its end, college is the next step on his journey.

“I’d like to go to FIU [Florida International University], FAMU [Florida A&M University], or BCU, Bethune-Cookman University. Two of them are historically black colleges so I wanna be around my peers. And FIU has a good engineering program which I wanna get into since I’ll be majoring in engineering,” said Core.