Nashua South's Colvin Levesque tries to keep his balance duirng a game this season vs. Manchester Memorial. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – There was really only one time when football was frustrating for Nashua High School South senior jack-of-all-trades Colvin Levesque.

He started in the secondary a couple of games as a freshman as “they kind of just threw me out there.”

But then he thinks back to his sophomore year, which he calls “a very bad year.” The Panthers won only a couple of games and “I kind of lost all faith and myself and confidence. I was younger and had to play against seniors. It’s hard to keep showing up when you’re not getting the results you want.”

You wouldn’t know it today, as he is as big a playmaker as it comes for the No. 4 Panthers, who have won nine games and head to Bedford Friday night for a semifinal joust with the 10-0 Bulldogs.

The plays he makes will be the big interception like the one he made against the Cardinals of Bishop Guertin in the final seconds to preserve a slim lead and win for South in the regular season. Or a TD run in the first quarter to get the Panthers on the board first the other night in the quarters vs. Guertin.

“He can do it all, too,” South coach Josh Porter said. “Run the ball, catch, block, play defense, he runs up and tackles, whether it’s a screen game or perimeter run. He’s a stud, he really is. It’s been a lot of fun coaching him the last four years and seeing him develop.

“There’s that saying that big time players make big-time plays in big-time games, and that’s him to a T. He’s got a clutch factor. Like the kids like to say, ‘Ice in his veins.'”

Certainly different than a couple of years earlier. What happened? He had that junior season “to gain (confidence) all back, and this year I’m having an even better year. It just comes with experience.”

Oh, so much has changed. Levesque, who has a huge knack to get the ball while on defense or offense, whether it be as a defensive back, running back or receiver, is one of the more indispensable Panthers. With their depth, that’s saying something.

“I think my role is to be the glue guy, be the guy you go to when need be,” he said. “But also when you’re not getting the ball, you have to do other things. Whenever they want to look to look to me, I’m going to go make a play. If it’s going to go somewhere else, I still have to put in work and go find somebody to block or maybe go run a good route to help other players get open.”

“He plays with maturity, confidence, and that comes from his preparation,” Porter said. “He watches film. He practices hard. You come to one of our practices, and he does not miss a single rep. It shows in his conditioning for sure. … His work ethic is unmatched for sure.”

Levesque leads by example, communicates well on defense, “and just produces every time you give him the ball.”

Levesque takes pride in that ability to do different things. He’s what Porter calls the Panthers’ “swiss army knife on offense” as he can line up in the slot, or line up in the backfield as a running back.

“I love it,” he said. “I love that coach can lean on me when he needs me.”

“Sometimes that’s just a natural abiltiy, having a nose for the football,” Porter said. “Just going back to film study, understanding our coverages, what he’s responsible for. We spend a lot of time each week on the other team’s pass concepts, how their routs distribute, how we’re going to match it, and all that, and he really puts a lot of time in that aspect. Plays fast, right? You can tell he’s not thinking, he just reacts.”

For example, his father Joshua, a former South assistant, taught him how to hold on field goals, and teammate Cody Jackson had a slight hand issue during the week of the BG quarterfinal, so Levsque was able to do the holding on placekicks. He had done it when he was a freshman and he did it during the quarterfinal. “They kind of threw me in there on Thursday to see what I’ve got. It’s not the hardest thing in the world. First you need the snap, then the hold, then the kick.”

Levesque is also a basketball player, and used to play baseball “but it wasn’t for me. And I’m not the best basketball player; it’s just the effort I give to the team.”

Levesque in Porter’s mind is technically sound with his footwork, hips, eyes, everything. “It all comes together for him,” Porter said.

Levesque started playing football at the strong suggestion of his father back when he was age 7, first flag and then tackle football.

“When you’re younger, the fastest guys are the best and I was fast,” Levesque said. “I’ve always just kind of had a knack for it, I’ve always been a good receiver, had good hands I think the main thing is I love being on a team and being around my guys.”

Nashua South’s Colvin Levesque has had a lot to smile about with his play this season in multiple areas. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Porter has seen all four years. He understands Levesque’s frustration as a sophomore, and says it was a collective effort for that entire senior class to improve.

“I think they all decided to do that together,” he said. “Outside of just the four years they’ve been here together, the y played in (youth football), they’d been used to winning a lot of football games. And when they came in, where we were at, (Josh) Tripp, Sam (Levine) and Colvin started as freshmen. And then when they came in their sophomore year, we had even more of them playing, we took our lumps. We had to learn how to win varsity football games. They just stuck together. They said ‘Hey, we’re coming back, we’re doing this.'”

“We’ve all been playing together for so long,” Levesque said. “We just love being a team. We’re so grateful to have another week together, we’re going to show up and give it all we’ve got.”

That’s what they’ve done all year, and Levesque’s senior class the last two years. The Guertin regular season game was his favorite game of his high school career, the team down 24-8 at the halftime break during which they vowed to win the game, which they did. Levesque is all about comebacks. He hit the weight room hard before his junior season. “When you’re vs. those big seniors, mentally it gets to you,” he said. “You go in the weight room, get bigger, then running routs, catching football, watching football, it all helps.”

Yes, he and his teammates put that 2023 season behind them and showed up the next season to compete – and made the quarterfinals.

“We did show up,” he said. “I think that’s why we’re here as a team. We’ve been knocked down so many times, but we’ve come so far.”

And they hope to go a couple of steps further.