Former Nashua North linebacker Jack Krulowski shares a light moment with former foe Colvin Levesque of Nashua South during a recent Team West practice in Manchester for the CHaD East-West All-Star Football Game. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MANCHESTER — Everyone knows that former Nashua High School North linebacker Jack Krulowski has always been the ultimate gamer.

Thus it was no surprise that he showed up for Team West’s CHaD football practice the other day, even though he’s still not cleared to play following surgery after he tore his ACL and meniscus in Week 6 of last year’s football season at Bedford. Ouch.

“I’ll be here with my friends,” said Krulowski, who is one of the team captains. He didn’t think he’d be named to the team because of his injury but Merrimack and Team West head coach Kip Jackson told him over the winter to expect it.

Krulowski said incredibly he tore up his knee three times that night – the first time covering a punt, then making a defensive play and then making a bock when, as he put it, his knee “finally exploded.”

“It was pretty annoying,” Krulikowski said. “But it was like it was bound to happen. I’d been playing football for 14 years, it was going to happen, just a matter of when.

Krulowski’s football career will continue, though, as he’s set to play at Saint Anselm College, the school he’ll be at next Friday night for the CHaD East-West All-Star game, on the sidelines at Grappone Stadium. He won’t be cleared to play, he said, until late August or September.

The rehab, he said, “has been a long process. I couldn’t move out of my bed for two weeks. It was little challenges every day. I’d challenge myself to get out of bed by myself, lift my leg by myself, and it’s going good now.”

So good that Krulowski has been back on the field, doing training and speed work. “I’m ready to go,” he grinned.

But he looks fondly back at his time at North. The best part, he says, were “the relationships with my boys that I’ve been with since the third grade. We’ve been together through everything. Those boys, I’m going to miss them on the field.”

North will miss him. Krulowski was always in attack mode, so much so he had a lot o freedom in the Titan defense.

“It was awesome,” he said. “Tave (North defensive coordinator Kyle) gave me the freedom to go anywhere I wanted.”

Krulowski says his ability to read the run and blitz are two of his best assets. “My blitz I love,” he said. “Blitzing, just getting off the box, getting through (the line) and making a game-changing hit or something in the backfield.”

Krulowski was relaxed, talking with players he knew at practice, and watching intently. It’s going to be difficult for sure for him to have to watch from the sidelines next Friday.

“It’s going to be really rough,” he said. “I built (the knee) up for awhile. I’ve had time to get over it. It’s going to be rough watching everybody out there, not being able to go out and play against the top guys.”

Not to worry, because Krulowski will be playing against a whole different level at Grappone Stadium before you know it.