When an 18-year-old high school athlete has a bunch of Division I colleges knocking on his or her door, one might think that the young adult may lose focus on the here-and-now and start to concentrate on their promising future.

Until this 2012 football season is over, that is not something Pleasant Valley's Dakota Everett is going to do.Everett, who plays linebacker for the Bears and sometimes lines up at tight end, has been contacted by schools such as Rutgers, Penn State, UConnBears' Everett and Syracuse about a possible future in college football. But Everett isn't worried about any of that right now. After all, he still has a high school career to finish and a Mountain Valley Conference championship to win."I asked him the other night what is goal was and what he wanted to do," said Pleasant Valley head coach Jim Terwilliger. "He said, 'Coach, right now I honestly just want to be a great high school football player. We will cross that bridge when it comes.'"Talk about a young man who has a great head on his shoulders. He is really focused on playing East Stroudsburg North right now, but I do know that he will be playing college football somewhere. It is in his blood."Everett has started since his sophomore year and has progressed into an absolute stud at linebacker. The 6-3, 235-pounder leads the Pleasant Valley defense in tackles (74), solo tackles (60), and is tied for the team lead in sacks (4) despite sitting out last week with a sore hamstring. He has even played some tight end and has caught two touchdowns.However, the defensive numbers aren't the only things that have changed over the years."The most obvious thing is his leadership role," said Terwilliger. "When he started for us the last two years we had some older guys that took control of things. This year has been a different story. He has been an outstanding leader. He calls our defense and calls the guys out when they need to be called out."The real difference is in his mental approach. He understands a lot more than he ever did about his position and how the scheme works. He also understands what everyone is doing. And if you can do that then that makes everyone's job a lot easier."Some people have said that a person must be a little crazy in order to play linebacker. For Everett, his mentality, along with his physical attributes, seem to be tailor-made for playing the position."Crazy? Kind of," admitted Everett. "I absolutely love hitting. That is where it's at. I remember the first day of three-a-days we didn't hop right into a tackling circuit. Three-a-days are known for hitting right away. You're going to get hit in the mouth and you're either going to like it or you're not going to like it. This year we didn't have a tackling circuit right away and I thought it was weird."I love playing defense. I love being able to run into people, throw them down, get back up and do it again."Yet, at the same time, Everett still has that little kid in him that just loves playing the game."Last year we beat Lehighton 6-0 and we didn't even have an offensive touchdown," said Everett. "We won in the pouring rain. It was nothing but mud and water all night long. That was hands down my favorite game. Just getting out there, running around in the mud, sliding around and being a kid. That's what it's about for me."Terwilliger shared that notion when talking about his senior leader."He is as tough, hard-nosed, and a blue-collared kid that you ever did see," said Terwilliger. "He is not afraid to get dirty. In fact, it's hard to keep him clean. What separates him is his toughness and his physical prowess on the field."Football isn't just a game for Everett. It has been a part of his life since the first grade. Since then it has become his life. And he wouldn't have it any other way."When our defense is out on the field I'm reminding people what they have to do and what they have to play for," said Everett. "You play with your heart. You don't play to wear the jersey. You don't play because the chicks like football. Those are the wrong reasons. You play football because you like to and because it's your life. I always remind people of that."Fortunately for Everett, it looks like his future will be filled with the game he so deeply loves.*****BUSY NIGHT ... Jacen Nalesnik of Lehighton had carried the ball 57 times in Lehighton's first seven games of the season.He got a lot busier on Friday night in the Indians' 22-19 upset of East Stroudsburg South.Against the Cavaliers, Nalesnik carried the ball 37 times with almost all of the runs coming out of Lehighton's "Apache" formation (the Indians' version of the Wildcat). Nalesnik is just the sixth different area player in the last 20 years to carry the ball that many times in a game.Northern Lehigh's Cody Remaley did it four times (49, 41, 40 and 38 carries) and Lehighton's Robbie Frey did it twice (43 and 40 carries). The other players to accomplish the feat were Tamaqua's Wayde Williams (42), Lehighton's Joe Semanoff (38) and Jim Thorpe's Shane Edwards (37).*****BUSY NIGHT 2 Nalesnik wasn't just busy running the ball on Friday night, he was also busy kicking it. Nalesnik booted two field goals and a pair of extra points in the Indians' victory.Since 1990, Nalesnik is only the 10th area player and the second from Lehighton to kick two or more field goals in the same game.Other players who have done it were:Ryan Habick, Pleasant Valley - 3 (9/25/09); Chris Horn, Northwestern - 3 (9/8/06); Tyler O'Shura, Jim Thorpe - 3 (9/30/05); Lance Williams, Tamaqua - 2 (11/11/11); Malik Krcic, Pleasant Valley - 2 (10/8/10); Cory Whitehead, Lehighton - 2 (1/06); Jordan Grube, Northwestern - 2 (9/28/02); Jeremy Rex, Northwestern - 2 (1/97); Eric Haydt, Palmerton - 2 (10/31/92).*****COMEBACK COLTS ... Marian trailed Shenandoah 17-7 in the third quarter before rallying for a 21-17 victory on Saturday afternoon.The last time the Colts trailed by 10 or more points and rallied to win the game was Aug. 31, 2007 when they overcame a 32-21 deficit to defeat Lehighton, 41-39.*****BELOW ZERO ... Pleasant Valley's defense held Allen to minus-42 yards of total offense in its 42-0 victory on Friday night.That's the best defensive performance by the Bears in the last 20 years. Their previous best effort was holding Pocono Mountain West to 11 yards of total offense on Oct. 3, 2003 in a 49-0 victory.The last time a TIMES NEWS area team held an opponent to negative total yards was on Sept. 14, 2007 when Palmerton held Notre Dame to minus-5 yards in a 39-0 victory.*****SCORING MACHINE ... Austyn Borre became just the second Pleasant Valley player to score 100 or more points in a season since 1970.Borre had five touchdowns on Friday night against Allen to give him 102 points for the season. The only other Bear player to surpass that mark in the last 42 years was Chris Jacobs, who had 108 points in 1998.*****ARM AND LEGS ... Jim Thorpe's Pat Duvigneaud had an oustanding game against Schuylkill Haven this past weekend.The senior quarterback threw for 261 yards and two touchcowns and also ran for 133 yards and three scores.Since 1988, when the TIMES NEWS started running individual statistics, Duvigneaud is the first player in the area to throw for at least 250 and rush for at least 100. The most rushing yards by a quarterback that surpassed 250 yards in a game was Marian's Brent Andrew, who totaled 72 yards on the ground on Oct. 24, 1997. In that game, Andrew threw for 292.*****PICK SIX ... Tamaqua's Dalton Nunemacher intercepted a pass against Panther Valley last weekend and returned it 55 yards for a touchdown.That was Nunemacher's second pick-six of the season, as he also accomplished the feat against Jim Thorpe in Week 1.Over the last 20 seasons, he is just the seventh TIMES NEWS area player to have at least two interception returns for touchdowns in the same season. The others are Jim Thorpe's Eric Busocker (2007), Craig Zurn (2006) and Jared Schrantz (1996), Northwestern's Austin Bleam (2002) and Manny Gaspar (1995) and Panther Valley's Jake Dunn (2008).*****JUST WIN BABY ... This past Friday, Northern Lehigh gained a big win over Bangor despite the fact the Slaters held a 384-253 advantage in total offense.The last time the Bulldogs won a game in which their opponent had 100 or more yards than them was Oct. 22, 1999 when Northwestern held a 223-102 edge in offense but Nolehi won the game, 6-0.