When Zane Pollack showed up at tryouts this summer, Burlington Central coach Brian Iossi wasn’t quite sure what to do with him.
The 5-foot-4, 150-pound senior is known for his baseball prowess but hadn’t played organized football since he was a kid.
Figuring that Pollack may be too short to play receiver, Iossi put him in the backfield and handed him the ball.
“The first play, I was like, ‘What is that?” Iossi said. “He was doing stuff the first time he touched a football that people had been doing their whole lives.”
Even Pollack said it immediately felt like a natural fit. Flash forward to Saturday’s Class 6A second-round playoff game at Geneva, and Pollack is the Rockets’ leading rusher.
He doesn’t get the ball a ton, with only 89 carries in eight games after missing two games due to an injury, but he makes the most of them. He has rushed for 612 yards and three touchdowns.
He’s averaging 6.8 yards a carry.
“This is so surreal how it’s all happening,” Pollack said. “I couldn’t be happier. Every year since middle school, I’ve been saying I was going to come out and play football, and I never ended up doing it.
“Now that I can drive myself to practice, I decided to do it. All the guys are so supportive about it as well. That makes it awesome. It’s just a family. I think that makes it 100 times better.”
Much of that support comes from one of his best friends, standout senior quarterback Jackson Alcorn. Even Alcorn admitted to being surprised at how quickly Pollack picked things up.
“Back when we were 8, he played football, but he took a long break,” Alcorn said. “I didn’t expect him to still have it. Once he got the first handoff, he looked smooth and natural and hasn’t missed a beat.”
It also was a position where Burlington Central (8-2) looked thin on paper. Three-year starter Joey Kowall graduated. Henry Deering, Tyler McGladdery and Zach Samaan each had different levels of experience at running back.
Samaan is a three-year starter at linebacker, however, so Iossi was hesitant to put that much of a workload on his shoulders. He has emerged as the Rockets’ top threat on the goal line, though.
McGladdery also is a starter on defense. Pollack’s presence solidified the backfield and allowed Iossi to more clearly define roles.
“We didn’t know what we had,” Iossi said. “He showed up, and it’s actually turned into a position of strength.”
Last season, another baseball star in Brady Gilroy came out for varsity football for the first time and had a big season for the Rockets.
In fact, in each of Iossi’s seven seasons as head coach, he’s had at least one senior with no previous high school experience come out for the team and contribute.
“I definitely saw (Gilroy), but that kid is an amazing athlete,” Pollack said. “I’m just a smaller him.”
With the Rockets busy qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since 2014, Pollack still found time to solidify his baseball future two weeks ago. He committed to NCAA Division III Chatham.
“I’ve been in contact with them since the summer and I just felt it was right to do it at the time because of all the love they’ve showed me,” Pollack said. “It felt perfect and I couldn’t wait any longer to do it.”
He couldn’t have waited any longer to give football a shot, either. Both Pollack and the Rockets are glad he did, and he tries not to look back and wonder what might have been if he hadn’t have put it off.
“I think about it,” he said. “But I’m just really glad that I came out for at least one year so I wouldn’t regret it.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
