3A high school football championship: Hurricane lineman has grown into leader role

Few people have had a better view of Hurricane star offensive lineman Daniel Nielsen's progression over the years than his teammate, Jarom Healey.

Over the past three years, Healey, a fellow senior and Hurricane's leading rusher this fall, has watched as Nielsen has gone from being big to being good to being a leader.

Nielsen started out as a big player who got some playing time as a sophomore then progressed to a talented starter as a junior before emerging as a stellar player and leader as a senior.

That Nielsen, who committed to the University of Utah last spring, would eventually become a polished team leader wasn't necessarily apparent to others back in the day, but to his immense credit, he's developed leadership qualities — and put them into action — over the course of his high school career.

"Being the veteran guy that he is, he's taken some of our younger offensive linemen kind of under his wing, and he's showed them pointers," says Healey. "He's definitely been someone to look up to for the younger classmen — kind of a perfected example of what a high school lineman should be."

Over the past three years Nielsen has grown into precisely that and is also someone for others to look up to — literally.

At 6-foot-6, 310 pounds, no one is a bigger man on Hurricane's campus than Nielsen.

"I'll even see him walking down the hall sometimes, and I'll have to stop and think, 'Dang, he's big,' and I see him every day — every day," says Hurricane coach Chris Homer. "But I'll just pass him in the hall sometimes and think, 'Holy cow, he is huge.'"

Homer couldn't be more proud that his big guy, who has always been big, has developed the way he has over the past few years.

"As a freshman, he was kind of like a yearling giraffe," says Homer. "He was just trying to get his feet under him. And then all of a sudden he was big and fast and strong. But you can't take the kid out of Daniel. That's just who he is.

"He just needed to mature. He had to go through a maturing process, both physically and mentally, and I think it's to his credit that he's been able to do that."

Homer said from the beginning he believed Nielsen would be a Division 1 football player, so he wasn't shocked when Utah offered — and Nielsen subsequently accepted — a scholarship offer last spring.

"He's committed to the U. because he's 6-6, 310 pounds and he's athletic as heck," says Homer. "It's incredible how fast he is, how agile he is and that's why he got that early commit. You just can't pass up on a kid like that.

"I think as a football player he's still learning. We're trying to help him as much as we can, but I think as soon as those coaches at the U. get a hold of him, he's just gonna get better and better and better."

For his part, Nielsen hopes he and teammate Corey Edwards, who has committed to BYU, show what they can do at the next level.

"We wanna let colleges and other people know that we're legitimate," he said.

e-mail: drasmussen@desnews.com