Prep Confidential

Jackson's 5, Part II

Posted by: Marcus Jackson

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 3:19 PM

Each week, News-Gazette staff writer Marcus Jackson will pose five questions to an area prep athlete. Next up is St. Joseph-Ogden's Zach Becker, a three-sport standout (football, basketball, baseball) who was invited to walk on to the Illinois football team next fall to play linebacker.

MJ: The word is you practice a weird diet similar to that of J Leman's. What does that consist of?

ZB: I eat about 20 raw eggs a day, a lot of olive oil, heavy whipping cream, 20 beef liver pills a day, whole milk, a lot of dairy products in general. A lot of meat, a lot of nuts. I can't have Gatorade, no pop or anything with a whole lot of sugar in it.

MJ: So is it just water and milk that you can drink?

ZB: Yeah, water and whole milk. I can have 100 percent juice and stuff.

MJ: What was it like taking down that first raw egg?

ZB: I tried a couple just drinking them straight and I wasn't a big fan of them. They really don't taste like anything. I get them all in my protein shakes now. Just crack them open and put them in there and I don't taste them.

MJ: Is there any room in the refrigerator a your house to store all your eggs and other food?

ZB: We have two fridges. We've got one out in the garage that's just full of cartons of eggs. Everybody jokes with us that we should just start raising chickens.

MJ: Do you ever find yourself wanting to cheat every so often?

ZB: Yeah, there are times when there isn't anything else around except for someone else's Gatorade and I'll take a sip out of it. Or at like a holiday there will be like some potatoes or something out there that I'll cheat on. Everybody cheats a little bit, but I try not to.

MJ: The guys on your team seem to give you a hard time because you're always so serious and never smile. Do they stay on you about that quite a bit?

ZB: They makes jokes at practice and stuff a lot. A lot of times they'll make jokes or whatever and I'll think stuff is funny, but I won't smile. I don't know what it is. Everybody thinks I try to be like that all the time, but that's not it at all.

MJ: What's the surefire way to get you to crack a smile?

ZB: Not necessarily. A lot of times we do some dumb stuff with the guys on the team and I'll get the laugh in. But mainly just when we're messing around I'll laugh, but there isn't just one thing that does it I don't think.

MJ: What's the better feeling for you, laying out a quarterback with a big hit, hitting a game-winning shot at the buzzer or hitting a home run?

ZB: I'd have to say laying out a quarterback in football. Just because of the Friday night atmosphere underneath the lights. You've got the big crowd out there, especially at St. Joe, I mean everyone comes to the games and just to be the center of attention and to make a big play like that is pretty cool.

MJ: Was the no-hitter you pitched (Saturday) you first ever?

ZB: I threw one before in grade school. We 10-run ruled them in four innings and I think I had 12 strikeouts. It was a perfect game. I struck out every person.

MJ: What did it feel like to do that at the high school level?

ZB: It's tough to do. I've been close a few times. But it felt really good just to get it. I tried not to think about it during the game. We actually threw a lot more fast balls (Saturday) than usual. They were just hitting pop flies and weak grounders and we were able to field everything.

MJ: You've been pretty busy with sports your whole life. But when you're not playing, what are some things you like to do off the field?

ZB: I stay pretty busy with homework when I'm not at practice during the week. On weekends I'll hang out with the guys on the team. Sometimes we'll go out to eat, we'll go bowling and do some fun stuff like that. And of course there's some ladies there every once in a while.

MJ: So no girlfriend right now?

ZB: No. Not at the moment.

MJ: Have you thought about what you might like to do once your football career is over?

ZB: I'm thinking between physical therapy or physicians assistant. I'm majoring in kinesiology, that the school I got into. But I'm not sure which one of those two I want to go into yet. They're both six-year programs. But it would also be nice to hit the lottery or something so I don't have to work.

MJ: What would you do with the money if you did win the lottery?

ZB: I'd have to get a nice house, a couple cars. Maybe an old muscle car and then maybe like an old Chavelle or a Charger. Then maybe like a new truck or a Lamborghini or a Ferrari or something.

MJ: Being a local kid, is going to play football at Illinois something you always dreamed of doing?

ZB: Yeah. I've been going to those camps forever. I've met a few of the guys on the team already through my trainer. Just going to games and being a part of the atmosphere is something I really look forward to playing in. We played in the state game two years ago and that really made me want to play there every weekend.

MJ: What does it feel like to be a prominent athlete at a school like St. Joe that has so much athletic tradition?

ZB: We have some of the best coaches in the area in every sport. Everybody always wonders how we do it, girls and guys both dominate in almost every season every year. A lot of it's coaching. It's pretty cool to be one of the top performers in each sport. I don't do anything any different that any other guy. I work just as hard as everyone else. But it's a good feeling to be a part of a winning team all the time. We work for it though. It's not given to us. We put in time at practice, a lot of hours, and that pays off.

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Previous Entries

• 7/2/2008
  Jackson's 5 Part IX
• 6/25/2008
  Jackson's 5 Part VIII
• 6/18/2008
  Jackson's 5 Part VII
• More…