Ambassador Christian’s Weston Michalak is The Observer’s football Player of the Week
Ambassador Christian is doing a terrible imitation of a typical first-year football program, and Weston Michalak is a big reason for that.
First-year programs usually struggle to score points and win more than a game or two.
Not Ambassador Christian. The north Mecklenburg Christian private school is off to a 2-0 start. The Lions have outscored their opponents 77-26, and the list of victims includes Christ School, usually among North Carolina’s top private school programs.
Michalak, a 6-3, 195-pound freshman quarterback, threw five touchdown passes last week in his team’s 49-20 romp over North Raleigh Christian.
For that, he has been voted this season’s second Charlotte Observer Player of the Week.
In the Lions’ two games, Michalak has completed 46 of 69 passes (66.7 percent) for 520 yards. He has eight touchdowns to just one interception.
And he thinks he can do better.
“Oh, sure, I have lots of room to improve,” he said. “We all do. We feel like the sky’s the limit for this team.”
He is part of a program being assembled by Jay Poag, a former N.C. State and Davidson assistant who had head coaching stops in Georgia and at Pine Lake Prep. His team’s schedule is ... well, ambitious.
The Lions, who play their first home game Friday night against Asheville School (2-0), will play opponents such as Rabun Gap School, Cardinal Gibbons and Chattanooga’s Baylor School in future weeks. Each of those is a championship contender in its athletic association.
“We’ll play anyone,” Poag said.
Michalak echoes that sentiment.
“It’s the best way to get better,” he said. “You have to challenge yourself.”
Michalak said he was a quarterback since he began playing football around age 3. He spent last year as quarterback of the junior varsity squad of the Cabarrus Stallions, a program for students who are home-schooled or attend private schools that don’t have football programs.
“We had a really good team,” said Michalak, whose two older brothers played at Hough and Community School of Davidson.. “It was a championship-level team.”
When it came time for high school, Michalak opted for Ambassador Christian.
“I love this school,” he said. “Coach Poag described what he wanted in a program, and that’s exactly how it has been. The school is great, with solid academics and a Christian atmosphere.”
Michalak said there are about 40 transfer students on the Ambassador Christian team, but he said the group has molded quickly.
“I feel like this is a special group,” he said. “We work hard, and we support each other. I have tremendous receivers. The whole thing has just clicked.”
He said he hasn’t thought much about how quickly he has burst on the scene.
“I don’t focus on that stuff,” he said. “I’m the same as the rest of the team. We focus on the game ahead ... on being 1-0 each week. The rest of the stuff isn’t important now.”
Previous Winners
Week 1: Jad Aljakhbeer, Ardrey Kell