Pulling double duty

When Cristian Perez started growing, he began to dream. Big dreams.

Now, Perez’s hopes of being a college student-athlete are close to becoming a reality.

The Southeast Whitfield multisport standout has signed a football/wrestling scholarship with the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Ky. Perez will report to campus and begin practice with the Patriots on Aug. 13.

“I’m excited and a little nervous,” Perez said. “I’m nervous to experience college life and excited about this opportunity at the same time.”

It took a while for Perez, his Southeast coaches and those from Cumberland to work out all the details, reaching the point where he signed scholarship papers on Thursday night at Southeast High.

Chad Brewer, the Raiders’ defensive coordinator, first spoke to Cumberland coaches about the 6-foot-1-inch, 250-pound defensive lineman in May. Perez made his first visit to the Cumberland campus that same month.

Last week while at on-campus orientation, Perez said the last details of the athletic scholarship were ironed out. Now, he’s in the final days of preparation for the next step in his career as a student-athlete.

“I’m going to play football and wrestle,” Perez said. “They also offered me a track scholarship, but I decided not to do that.

“I’m a little concerned about the football and wrestling seasons being so close together, but I did that at Southeast. I chose not to do track in college because that would have been too much to take on.”

Perez decided to stick with his two main sports and give himself plenty of time to focus on academics, although he has excelled in that arena as well. He is a National Honor Society student and plans to study business administration and work toward a teaching degree.

“Some day I’d like to teach and coach, I think,” Perez said.

Raiders football coach David Crane certainly sees those qualities in Perez, having coached him for two seasons.

“Cristian has been a tremendous leader for us on the field and in the classroom,” Crane said. “He works just as hard in the weight room as he does in the classroom and sets a real good example for our guys.”

Perez’s on-field capabilities helped the Raiders post a 5-5 record in 2009, their first non-losing mark in 17 years.

A mobile and quick lineman who played defensive end as a senior after playing tackle his junior year, Perez was a key cog in Southeast’s 3-4 defensive alignment.

He recorded 88 tackles, which was the best among area defensive linemen, and had 14 tackles for loss, three sacks, a blocked punt and a fumble recovery last season. For that senior year performance, Perez landed on The Daily Citizen All-Area Football Team after being an honorable mention selection in 2008.

“Cristian has the ability to play either (defensive tackle or end),” Crane said. “He’s one of our strongest kids and has a lot of athletic ability. He blocked a punt against Cedartown (a 27-14 victory that clinched the .500 record in the season finale) and got us going. We’re going to miss him.”

Perez was born in Mexico and spent about a month in Chicago before settling in Dalton when “he was very little.”

“I’ve basically been in Dalton all my life,” he said. “We came to the United States because my parents wanted me to get a good education. My main reason for playing sports was to maybe get a scholarship to college and not have my parents pay for me going.”

Perez’s plan has worked out perfectly.

An NAIA school, University of the Cumberlands competes in the Mid-South Conference and coach John Bland, 33-11 in four seasons, has made three straight playoff appearances. The Patriots went 9-2 last season and 10-2 in 2008.

As a wrestler, Perez was a solid heavyweight, competing in the highest Georgia High School Association weight class at 285 pounds. He was an All-Area honorable mention pick his junior and senior seasons.

“I started out at 180 pounds my freshman year,” he said. “My sophomore and junior years I was at 215 and went up to heavyweight last year.”

Raiders wrestling coach Neil Nichols has no doubt Perez can transfer his high school success to Cumberlands. In time.

“When we needed a big win, Cristian thrived on being in that pressure situation,” Nichols said. “I think Cristian can pretty much do what he wants to do, but in college it might take a while. Just like going from middle school to high school, going from high school to college is a whole different world. But he’s got the want-to to succeed in anything he attempts. I look for him to do well.”

Nichols also believes that Perez can handle both sports at Cumberland.

“We talked about that,” Nichols said. “Cristian knew he wanted to play football, not that he didn’t like wrestling, but football was his main focus. He really likes football. He thought he could do both, and I believe he can, too. That’s definitely something he wanted to do.”

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