He snaps the ball, and this NC high school football lineman keeps 3,600 students happy
He’s the guy who starts every Ardrey Kell offensive play. He makes sure the offensive linemen are in the right spot and is arguably one of the most important players on the football field.
But that’s not the tough part, Jack Ludwick said.
Just try keeping more than 3,600 students happy.
“It’s a big job,” Ludwick, starting center for the Knights’ football team, said of his really big role — student body president at one of North Carolina’s biggest high schools.
“I think we’re the second-biggest school in the state, behind Myers Park,” Ludwick said. “Yeah, there’s a lot going on.”
The second-biggest school in the state probably has the biggest student body president. At 6-3 and 275 pounds, Jack Ludwick does not shrink into the margins of life at Ardrey Kell.
Two weeks ago, while most of his teammates concentrated on the game plan against homecoming opponent South Mecklenburg, Ludwick was dealing with not one, but two, student assemblies.
“The school is so big that we can’t have just one homecoming pep rally,” he said. “So we have one rally on Thursday for freshmen and sophomores, and then another on Friday for juniors and seniors.”
Coming together
Ludwick won’t have to worry about any of that Friday night, when he and the Knights hit the road for their regular-season finale against SoMeck 4A foe Palisades.
At 6-3 overall and 3-1 in the conference, the Knights seemingly are a lock for the 4A playoffs that begin next week. But the season has included a series of ups and downs — inconsistencies that Ludwick said could have been expected.
“We lost more than 30 seniors from last year’s team,” he said. “This year was about defining who we are. There were times when we got off our mojo, but we’ve always found a way to come back together.”
Ludwick, a preseason Observer all-Mecklenburg pick, said he has found his leadership abilities useful with the football team.
“When leadership was needed, I’ve tried to step in,” he said.
Still, Ludwick’s approach to the game is a bit different.
“I love playing football,” he said. “For me, it’s a lot of fun. It’s what I want to be doing.”
He started at age 8, with the South Charlotte Patriots youth program.
“Our coach dropped out, and my dad came in to coach,” Ludwick said. “I played five years for my dad.”
‘He’s a lineman’
Mark Ludwick, who played at Stonehill College in Massachusetts, made a decision early about his son.
“Dad announced, ‘He is a lineman,’ ” Jack Ludwick recalled. “I was always big. Because of my size, I had to play two years up. I got used to playing against older guys.”
Ludwick was moved from junior varsity to varsity near the end of his freshman season and has started at center for Ardrey Kell since his sophomore year.
“We get such little attention,” he said. “Nobody will ever come up and praise you when things go right. Most people don’t notice it. You’ve got to find the reward internally.”
Ludwick says he suspects some of his peers define their lives as being football players.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “I love football. And I work hard at it. But I have other things, too.”
In addition to being student body president, he is a member of the Ardrey Kell Model United Nations team (he’s the head delegate). He founded the French Honor Society. He’s a member of the school’s Young Life group. He’s also a Eucharistic minister and teaches faith formation classes to second-graders at St. Matthew Catholic Church.
And leading the student body means Ludwick spends a lot of time with community service projects.
“We read to students at Elon Park (Elementary), and we had a voter registration drive that got 280 people registered,” he said. “We also have big food drives. There are lots of things going on.”
A lot going on
Amid all this, he’s carrying a 4.63 grade-point average and ranks 10th academically in a class of 900 students.
“I’ve got a lot going on,” said Ludwick, who also has two part-time jobs. “That’s one thing I like about football. From 2:15 until 5 every weekday, I can concentrate on football.”
Ludwick said he hasn’t made a decision on a college, but he wants to go someplace where he can play football. Ivy League schools have beckoned, but Ludwick said he’s keeping his options open.
“I might like to go back to the Northeast,” he said. “We moved here from Massachusetts when I was 2, and we still have a lot of family there. But I’ll figure it all out.”
In the meantime, there’s football.
“I think we’ve found a way to come together,” he said of the Knights, adding that he has built bonds with junior quarterback Gavin Adams. “We’re now a very close group. I think it’s all happening at the right time.”
This story was originally published October 27, 2023 at 7:30 AM.
