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MFL helps build "nail into hammer' and team leader
McCOOK, Neb. — Jackson Dellevoet couldn’t really point at the problem during his McCook Bison sophomore year — maybe because his finger was dislocated and pointing oddly around that time.
The Citta Deli cook also admits he once felt like a shrimp few would have ever wanted on their specialty pizzas.
Yet that’s where all those wonderful less glorified levels of sports have come into play.
Dellevoet scoffs at anyone who belittles levels of sports “below”varsity.
“I worked really hard and played really well on the JV team (in 2022),” the 2023 Bison team co-captain, Color Day king and West Nebraska All-Star linebacker recalled. “And there’s no shame in playing JV at all. I had so much fun that season with some long-time teammates and great friends.”
Great friends who might even recall when Jackson broke his nose during recess years ago.
Great friends who saw one of their smaller buddies start stepping up huge in the summer McCook Football League.
“They tell us you’re either going to be the hammer or the nail,” Jackson said. “As a fifth grader, I was about five feet-and-nothing (tall) and a really big kid who had to be about six foot came across the middle on a pass play.”
“I stepped in and hit him good across the legs. It hurt me but I think he felt it a little more,” past or Kyle Dellevoet’s son added. “That’s where I realized you gotta get your nose in the dirt.”
Jackson’s nose found love with football being “so much, win or lose.”
He played all four seasons of MFL, grinded through those tough McCook High times and emerged as a true leader in that one full varsity season last fall.
Jackson made 61 tackles in nine games, or nearly seven per contest. Perhaps his best was 10 stops with seven solos against the mighty powerhouse Adams Central Patriots.
The Bison celebrated a 17-14 win in those seniors’ final home game.
Jackson also become of the Bison fullbacks where he averaged 5.5 yards with his 44 rushes.
He scored five touchdowns including that always remembered four-TD effort in a 57-16 home win over Alliance.
“They just kept calling Oregon left and Oregon right, that was for me,” he said. “The longest only went 13 yards, but I think it could have broke for 25 or more.”
Again, the co-captain knew it was all about teammates.
“I remember (lineman) Quentin Terry pulling and smoking a (defensive) guy on that 13-yarder,” he said. “(Seniors) Simon Garcia and Mitchel Cole blocked great all game. But I also saw younger teammates like Eidos Klein and Spencer Steinbeck that I played on JV with.”
“I learned to be nice to those freshmen and sophomores as a senior,” Jackson added. “There’s a lot of hazing in sports that doesn’t need to go on.”
Jackson’s football friends carried on through a Lincoln church camp last week.
Fellow 2024 grads Brett Fraker and Adyn Meyer joined among more than 2,000 youths.
“Those All-Star games are special. You’re not only around great players but guys who are also great leaders,” J.D. proclaimed.
Now Bison teammates like Andrew Pochop and Ethan Schmidt are helping Jackson as they coach the MFL’s Cowboys fifth-sixth grade team.
The cook is bringing ingredients that should help all these young future Bison get stronger.
“One thing with MFL is you get a lot of McCook Bison football in your head,” he said. “When you do move up to high school, it’s like ‘Oh yeah, I remember this play or know what this means.’ It really is a great program.”
However, MFL will soon conclude a busy stretch where Jackson participated in everything from drama to choir to student council to diving on the McCook High swim-dive team.
“I picked up on that after the season started,” he said. “Swimming is definitely more painful than it looks. Diving is mostly mental. It does hurt if you flop.”
MFL concludes next week where Jackson turns his attention to a new college challenge.
Yet he’s not ready for any good-byes with McCook. He’ll attend McCook Community College and begin by focusing on business administration.
Just like his colorful and varied McCook High career, Dellevoet knows plenty of options for his future are available.
Just have to be get that nose in there.
“Get involved is what I would tell younger students,” he said. “I might still want to be a teacher and maybe a coach.”
“Because if there is one (to admire), I’d have to say it’s coach (and MFL director Joe) Vetrovsky,” Jackson concluded.
“He’s always been there. He might yell and nip at us in practices or games. But there’s never been a time in the hallway that he doesn’t say hi.”