Jan. 25—ROCHESTER — When Jack Regan started high school he had never played a snap of football.
Now he’ll play in college at the Division II level for Southwest Minnesota State University.
Heading into the fall of his sophomore year, Regan, who’s now a senior at Mayo High School, was looking for a sport to fill his time after he stopped playing hockey the year before.
That’s where Mayo history teacher and defensive lineman coach Monte Priebe came into play. Priebe had a big part in recruiting Regan to try out for the team. At 6-foot-3, 260 pounds, Regan knew he would likely become a lineman. And he was right. He settled in along the interior defensive line.
It ended up being a great fit for Regan and the Spartans. He credits his level of success and what he’s been able to achieve to the Mayo football program and its coaching staff.
“I never thought I’d be able to play college football,” Regan said. “I thought I joined way too late. … (The Mayo coaches are) really encouraging, and especially the morning lifting programs, I love going to those. Everyone’s just putting each other up and just helping each other get better and pushing each other to get better.”
For Mayo head coach Donny Holcomb, the feeling is mutual.
“To come out as a sophomore and then get a scholarship to play in college is pretty cool because he definitely has shown growth and not just a big body,” Holcomb said. “He’s learned how to get the big body stronger and get off the line quicker and be coachable. So I think Southwest State is going to get a nice recruit because he hasn’t even shown his potential yet. He’s still learning about the sport and learning how to use his body. …
“He’s a hard worker. He’s coachable. … He can take the good things that you say, but also the things that some kids will shy away from or they don’t like to hear, but he takes them to get better, just like we’re intending it.”
Once he joined the Spartans, Regan knew he wanted to pursue football at the next level. It was just a matter of where. Since his football journey started later than most, Regan didn’t expect Division II to even be an option.
That was until one of Regan’s friends encouraged him to create a social media account on Twitter (now X) so football recruiters could get in touch with him. SMSU reached out and Regan quickly realized it might be a good fit, especially since the university has a marketing program — the major he wants to study. The SMSU defensive line coach invited him to Marshall for a visit on Jan. 3 and he made his decision soon after.
“Me and my mom went down and we loved it,” he said. “It’ll be great having a more structured system. I think it’d be hard to get used to being somewhere on my own and figuring that out, and then I just want to go work with another great group of guys and hopefully be successful there.”
After joining the football team, Regan also started wrestling and playing lacrosse. He joined the wrestling team after his first football season with the Spartans, following the lead of many of his teammates who transition to wrestling in the winter, including senior Calder Sheehan who’s committed to wrestle at Division II Northern State University in Aberdeen, S.D.
“The muscles that you use in wrestling (work) really well for football, too, and the conditioning you get from wrestling is just great,” Regan said. “So that helps out a lot with that. I feel like the core strength you get from wrestling just helps you translate that right onto the football field.”
Regan helped Mayo to a state tournament appearance in all three of his varsity football seasons, even after Mayo moved up to compete in Section 3, Class 6A for the final two years.
“Just to have depth at the O and D-line — that’s huge,” Holcomb said. “Especially in the level that we’ve played at the last two years. So being able to utilize Jack, even though he wasn’t as experienced in the game of football that we can teach him to do what we need him to do at one position, then he was able to go out and do it against the best competition — which I know that helped probably in his recruiting too. … It’s cool to see that Jack really enjoys football now and that people see his potential too.”
