Share
His story: Arispe started playing football when he was in fourth grade. He's always been a defensive player and got his first varsity start several games into his junior season, filling in for an injured starter. This past weekend, in Arlington's 27-20 victory against Abilene Cooper in a Class 5A Division II area-round playoff game, Arispe had 14 tackles, including four for losses.
His goal: Arispe hopes to play college football somewhere and then would like to have a career as a high school coach.
He said: "Playing defense, you get to hit somebody. You either have that defensive mentality or you don't. You pretty much have to be crazy, honestly. You have to always be wanting to hit somebody and you have to keep a high intensity all the time.
"We've had a great season. We're not done yet, though. We plan on going to state. We've got a good enough team for it. We just have to play together and keep doing what we've been doing. I knew at the start of spring [this team could be special], right when we started practicing. Our defense was pretty locked down and pretty special as it was and our offense has some explosive players and playmakers.
"We all went out [Friday] not knowing if we would get to play this week. We had to leave it all out on the field and just make sure our heart was in it, and that's exactly what we did."
Coach Scott Peach said: "He's very elusive. It's hard to get an angle to block him. He also reacts extremely well to the football. He's more athletic than most of the linemen he plays against, so as long as he doesn't let them get attached to him, he's tough to block.
"He's having an outstanding season. He has been a fantastic football player. He really falls in line with most of the kids in our senior class. We only have one kid right now committed to play college football. Jack is like a lot of our seniors. They're average-sized kids that have a great passion for football and have a big heart for Arlington High School, and they exceed our expectations and Jack is one of those kids.
"He's certainly one of the leaders on this team. He does it because he's really the personality of our defense. He's tough, he's emotional, he's physical, he's not afraid to use his voice to lead. Our defense rises and sets based on how our linebacker play is, and he's one of those linebackers that makes us go.
"Jack has shown up huge for us this entire football season. I don't think we would be where we're at without his contributions."
Interesting note: In his first varsity start as a junior, in a Colts' 47-16 win over rival Arlington Martin, Arispe made 17 tackles and was named player of the week. "We knew what we had after that," Peach said. "The rest is history."
We welcome your comments on this story, but please be civil. Do not use profanity, hate speech, threats, personal abuse, images, internet links or any device to draw undue attention. Comments deemed inappropriate will be removed and repeated abusers will be banned. NOTE: If you log in using your Twitter account, your comments will be signed using the name on your Twitter profile, NOT your Twitter user name. Read our full comment policy.
Live scores from a full slate of games, plus news and videos from our high school experts. Right on your phone.
