Nashua South recent grad Jake O'Connor focuses during a recent practice for Team West in preparation for Friday's annual CHaD East-West All-Star Game at Saint Anselm College. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

AMHERST – It’s baseball season for sure as the weather is expected to warm up.

But Nashua High School South graduated senior Jake O’Connor is taking just a little interruption from his favorite sport to play one last game in another sport he excels in – football.

O’Connor is one of 20-plus local players on the Team West roster in Friday’s annual CHaD East-West High School All-Star Football Game at Saint Anselm’s Grappone Stadium.

O’Connor is going to play baseball in college at Wheaton, where he’ll study business management.

O’Connor has been playing both sports all his life, and played tight end and inside linebacker for Nashua South. He’s got even more value because he is a good long snapper.

Merrimack and Team West head coach Kip Jackson had to coach against O’Connor with the Tomahawks, and knows very well what he can do on the football field.

“He was a really good blocker,” Jackson said, “and we liked his intensity and physicality. And he’s also really good long snapper, it must be in the genes because his brother (former Panther Kyle) was also.”

Last fall was a struggle for O’Connor and the Panthers. “The first six games (0-6) were a big struggle, a big struggle,” he said. “But after that Concord game (a 42-24 loss), the second half, we started to fight. And we started to pick up the momentum. We had our next four games, and we ended up winning three of them, so we ended the season on a good note.”

O’Connor has been playing football since the first grade, but certainly remembers the first time he took the field at Stellos with the South varsity a sophom0re defensive end.

“Oh, man, it was definitely nerve-wracking,” he said. “But once you make that first hit, it all goes away.”

O’Connor says he’s proud of his accomplishments as a football player.

“I think I ended up being a better leader,” he said. “Which is definitely a big thing. Running out of the tunnel with those guys (his fellow co-captains), just being that leader, just taught me better leadership skills.”

While he was successful on the defensive side, O’Connor enjoyed playing tight end the most.

“I like the offensive concepts a lot more than playing on defense,” he said, adding that there were certain skills he felt he had on that side of the ball. “Definitely my route running and my speed. That was a big one. Definitely had to work on the blocking, but my speed and my route running skills definitely got me a lot of receiving yards this year.”

So how does a tight end become a pitcher? Simple – it’s what O’Connor has done since he was young. And he hopes he pitches at Wheaton, but he did play the outfield for the Panthers this just concluded season when he didn’t pitch.

But he was always at home on the mound, and he enjoyed pitching in a couple of high profile intra-city games at Holman Stadium on a Friday night – the North-South game and the Panthers game vs. Bishop Guertin.

“It was a lot of fun,” O’Connor said. “Just having the option to pitch on a Friday night, being in those shoes, it just felt great, just to feel the team’s energy behind you. There were some times where I felt like I wasn’t getting backed up, but that’s just baseball.”

And baseball is best for him when he’s on the mound.

“When you’re pitching, you kind of feel like you have the game in your hand,” he said. “You kind of feel like you’re dealing the cards. It is a big difference. There’s the team atmosphere in football, but then being on the mound (in baseball) feeling like you have the cards in your own hands. … I don’t know, it’s just a big difference.”

But at the same time, playing in Friday’s CHaD Game is an experience he knows he won’t forget.

“Oh it feels great,” he said. “I’m so excited to be out here with some of the best (players) in the state. I’m so pumped. Super pumped.”

Not a bad game to end one sport with and vault into another.