After Syracuse wrestling collapsed, sophomore Harold Jean-Louis could have continued his wrestling career when he received an offer from North Carolina State.

‘They saw me at a couple of tournaments,’ Jean-Louis said. ‘They saw my potential, and they would’ve liked to work with me.’

But Jean-Louis didn’t want to work with N.C. State. After finishing football season last year, he realized he was too out of shape to continue wrestling. He also did not want to attend graduate school there, which would have been part of the plan.

Instead, Jean-Louis wants to continue his studies at an Ivy League institution to earn either his master’s or law degree. His eyes are set on Pennsylvania, where SU’s wrestling team participated in its last tournament at the Palestra.

In the meantime Jean-Louis, from Wyandanch, has been taking handoffs as a tailback for the SU football team. He played football and ran track in high school to keep in shape.

Jean-Louis wrestled in the 165-pound class for SU and has one fond memory.

‘That’s the best shape I’ll ever be in my life,’ Jean-Louis said.

He started last season strong, but then faded. Despite winning seven matches, he didn’t work hard enough on the regimen that head coach Scott Miller prescribed late in the season.

What Jean-Louis learned from the wrestling mats, he’s quickly applied to the football field.

‘You realize you have to be sporadic at times,’ Jean-Louis said. ‘There’s not always a right answer. You just do something and you have to face the consequences, whatever they may be. Things come at you so quickly you just have to be decisive and attentive to everything that is going around you and just make up your mind.’

Jean-Louis hasn’t brought the lackadaisical attitude he carried at the end of wrestling last season to spring football. He’s hustling and competing to earn a spot.

‘I realize that I’m not a first rank as a tailback,’ Jean-Louis said. ‘But I’m contributing to the competition and they see me going harder then them, so they’re going to go harder and I commend that.’

Published on April 24, 2002 at 12:00 pm