Amigo taking more on his shoulders for Nashua South football

Alex Amigo wasn't trying to do anything fancy as he sprinted toward the end zone during last Friday's game.

All the Nashua High School South senior was focused on was catching the football.

Amigo did that, and did it in spectacular fashion, dragging his foot through the grass just to the left of the white paint on Merrimack's football field, as the ball went over his shoulder and landed in his outstretched arms.

As he went to the ground, Amigo pulled the football into his body, braced for impact, and rolled over with the catch secure for a touchdown - one of three he would catch from quarterback Sean Holland as South got its first win of the season.

"I kind of just go for it, not really thinking too much," Amigo said. "You just try to make a play and I knew I was close to the sideline. I didn’t know if I would be able to stay in. I saw the referee and he had his hands up."

Just making a football play is what Amigo - and the Panthers as a team - have been trying to focus on after a rough start to the season. Despite high expectations going into the year, South got off to an 0-2 start, and needed to regroup in practice going into last week's game against Merrimack.

It was an adjustment period for the Panthers, and it's been a bit of one for Amigo. Not only is he a senior captain this season, it's the first year of football he's played without his older brother, Owen, who graduated in the spring.

"It’s definitely been different," Amigo said. "Ever since freshman year, I’ve been on the field with him. Last year, we’d be in the car on the way home and we’d always talk about (football) a lot. It’s a change being by myself a lot."

South coach Scott Knight has noticed a change in Amigo, too, but that's come more in the last couple of weeks.

"In the last two weeks, he’s stepped up his game big time," the coach said. "He’s starting to play downhill on both sides of the ball and it’s making a big difference for him and for us as a team. He’s starting to understand those expectations of him on the field.

"He’s a little more vocal and now he’s starting to back that up with some real solid play. I’m seeing it in practice. We saw it last week in the game, and it’s carried over into practice. We’re just such a much better football team than we were two weeks ago. This was our best week of practice yet and it’s kids like that."

A three-sport athlete, Amigo started playing baseball when he was five, but organized football wouldn't come for a few more years. That wasn't for a lack of trying.

"Ever since I was little I really wanted to play for some reason and I bugged my dad," he said. "My brother, he’s just easy-going and he’ll do whatever, and when I was in fifth grade, my dad signed us both up. We both started playing the same year.

"I definitely knew I was going to have to adapt a little bit. A lot of the guys from last year are gone. I just knew all we had to do was execute. It’s the same with any sport. Predictions can say whatever they want, but if you don’t execute, it doesn’t matter."

Amigo has been around South long enough to know what happens when a team doesn't execute, and not just because of the Panthers' start this season. As a freshman, he was around the varsity and ended up starting his sophomore year, when South won just two games.

That experience with football - and his experiences in baseball and basketball - are why Knight likes to have Amigo on the field as much as he can.

"You get a kid like that on a Friday night and you need him to make a play, more often than not, he’s the one who can make it," Knight said. "He plays corner and he makes a lot of plays for us out there. He’s also our punter. He kicks it pretty well. He is a threat to run at all times. He’s also on the PAT on the wing. He’s on the field a lot."

That includes Friday night, when South takes on Nashua North at Stellos Stadium at 7 p.m.