Nasty.
Not exactly the word you would expect to be used when describing a pastor’s son. But that is one of the first things Jeff Alamolhoda says when describing Jeremy Preston.
Preston is a linebacker for the Langley Rams junior football team.
“He is a different guy on and off the field,” said Alamolhoda, the Rams’ head coach.
“Off the field, he is very nice, he is caring, he is soft-spoken, a happy guy, always smiling.
“On the field, he is nasty and plays with a chip on his shoulder. He is going to smack you and then he is going to let you know he is going to smack you all day.
“That is the type of linebacker we like: he makes plays and finishes them.”
After hearing a description like that, one might expect to meet an ill-tempered young man, but Preston is quite the opposite.
After all, how many other linebackers spend their spring break in a tiny town outside of Mexico City helping build houses and paint them for the less fortunate?
That is exactly what Preston did last spring.
“It was a really cool thing to experience, it puts life into perspective for you,” Preston explained.
The trip was organized through his church.
This was not the first time he had made the trip either, but the other times he went, Preston was much younger.
“Just the happiness of the people,” he said about what stood out most to him.
“They were just happy for what they do have.”
Preston brings that same hard-working attitude to the football field.
Preston, who is from Whalley, has played football since he was five years old and played high school football with the Holy Cross Crusaders.
“I love the intensity and I love to hit people,” he said with a smile.
Preston came to the Rams on his own and approached the team for a tryout. And Alamolhoda knew quickly he had a player.
“The very first time he came out, we knew he was going to make our team,” Alamolhoda said.
“He is a high energy guy, a high motor guy who flies around the field.
“He never quits and just shows up and works hard.”