Video: Student Athlete of the Week: Jacob Carter, Pontotoc HS, Football

PONTOTOC, Miss. (WCBI Sports) — The Pontotoc Warriors are off to a 5-0 start on the season, and had a huge win last week at North Pontotoc.

The Warriors have eighteen seniors on this year’s team, and are led by a senior who’s battled through many lows to get to this high point in his career.

Jacob Carter has had an up-and-down journey at Pontotoc High School after he transferred from Tupelo High School in his eighth grade year.

Carter has suffered a torn ACL twice in one knee, and a partial tear in the other, all within the past few years.

“It’s definitely been a wild journey”, said the senior quarterback, “I didn’t have surgery on the ACL after my sophomore year, but I got a knee scope and they said it would hold up, but it never did so I played the whole season my junior year with it torn. I didn’t know til after. I had surgery after my junior year and now I’m feeling better than I ever had before.”

Carter has been a three-year starter for the Pontotoc Warriors, and one of the biggest role models that’s always been there for him is his dad, Jeff Carter, who is the head football coach at Pontotoc High School.

“He’s just been a regular dad”, Carter said, “Sometimes during the football season we go correct things that we can’t down here, so we go correct go things because we don’t have enough time sometimes, but we go home and watch some film and just get the game plan together.”

“We try not to bring it home, but it’s competitive as we are, we get home we start seeing football and we start talking about our offense”, the senior Carter said.

“It’s been a lot of fun. I’m going to be honest, he’s not just drawn in to be my son. He’s my buddy.”

Carter’s teammate Nick Bails said watching the father-son duo on the sidelines is something special to see on Friday nights.

“It’s really fun to watch them out together sometimes”, Bails said, “Being son and father out on the sidelines, sometimes they get into it, but it’s all great because you can tell it’s love and it’s passion for the game. It’s really great watching that.”

Carter plans to continue his career in engineering following his high school year, and he wants his legacy to be remembered.

“I want to be remembered as a good teammate and a good person. Just help everybody out around me. Be a positive person. Just be a leader”, Carter said.

Carter and #ThemGrapes will look to stay undefeated when they travel to Ripley on Friday.