LEESBURG - Leesburg High School football coach Charles Nassar never has believed he is the only person responsible for helping his players get into college.
Nassar believes in setting a high standard for his players and challenging them every day to surpass those expectations.
The result, Nassar hopes, is players will realize how hard they need to work and then do all of the legwork to realize that goal.
A talented and driven senior class helped Nassar and the LHS football program realize its goals in 2005.
Thanks in part to years of diligence in the weight room, Leesburg finished as the runner-up in Class 4A-District 6 and earned its first playoff appearance since 2001, and its first in Nassar's four seasons at the school.
Michael Lewis and Mark Smith were at the forefront of the program's maturation.
As seniors, they set an example in the weight room and served as leaders in the Yellow Jackets' 8-3 season.
Lewis' and Smith's leadership and play on the field gave them an opportunity to continue their football careers in college.
Lewis and Smith will leave next week for Ranger College in Texas, where they will prepare for the first day of the football team's training camp on Aug. 6.
"Mike and Mark have grown up with us," Nassar said. "They played all four years at Leesburg. It has been nice to watch them mature from high school boys to young men.
"It speaks to the maturity of these young men that they have done the finishing legwork to get themselves somewhere."
The former Leesburg High School standouts signed paperwork for their financial aid in late May and hope to help the junior college program grow just like they helped Leesburg's program grow.
"We had to build a program at Leesburg and look how it has turned out, with the weights and everything," Lewis said. "I am not really worried about what it is going to be like. I know I just have to go out there and give it my all."
Lewis, a 5-foot-11, 223-pounder, played running back and linebacker last season for the Yellow Jackets.
Smith, who is 5-9 and weighs 176 pounds, played quarterback and in the secondary. Both rushed for more than 600 yards.
"Football is my life," Smith said. "My (grade-point average) in ninth grade was real low and Coach (Nassar) told me I wasn't going to be able to play football if I didn't raise my GPA."
Smith played safety with the varsity team the final three games of his freshman season. He said he raised his GPA above 2.0 between his freshman and sophomore years. He said he had a 2.5 GPA as a senior.
Smith said the importance Nassar placed on academics helped him mature on and off the field.
"Coach is always talking about setting an example as a student-athlete, not just an athlete," Smith said. "If you're just an athlete, people in the school will think you're a dummy. Everybody just watched us and we showed them how to get the job done, and they followed."
Smith also credits Nassar for helping him understand doing well in the classroom is just as important as doing well on the football field.
"Now I know when I go to college I can't play around and I have to get my school work taken care of," said Smith, who plans to study criminal justice or business.
Nassar said he started to contact college coaches about Lewis and Smith in February after National Signing Day. He called former Leesburg High School defensive coordinator Jeff Brown, who is the defensive coordinator at Ranger College.
Nassar said Brown was immediately interested after he saw tapes of the two players.
"I just remember them having good heads on their shoulders and being good athletes," said Brown, who coached at Leesburg in 2002 and '03. "We recruit guys we feel will be good for our program on and off the field."
Brown said both players will be in the mix to earn playing time. He said competition will be strong at every position as the team prepares for its season opener Aug. 26 against Highland Community College.
"I think these kids may have slipped through the cracks," Brown said. "I think there are a lot of schools between here and there that would like to have them."
Brown credited former Leesburg High School standout Anthony Saincilaire, a rising sophomore on the Ranger College football team, for helping to bring Lewis and Smith to Texas.
Former Leesburg standout Maurice Shuler also recently signed to play basketball at Ranger College.
Lewis said having friends in school will help him and Smith adjustment to being away from home.
Nassar is looking forward to getting a lot of positive feedback about Lewis and Smith.
"Ranger College offers them a chance to start over academically," Nassar said. "They both worked very hard (academically), and this gives them a clean slate to work themselves into a position to go to a four-year school."
Lewis and Smith join a growing list of Yellow Jackets in college. Tory Harrison (Southern Mississippi) and Randall Sullivan will try to continue their football careers this year. Nassar said Sullivan declined several football scholarship offers to take an academic scholarship to Florida A&M. He said Sullivan will try to walk on to the team.
