Armand Fernandez-Pierre is a high school football player with the size needed to dominate at the collegiate level. Weighing in at 335 pounds, the nose tackle has a rare physical makeup and has drawn interest from schools like UCLA and Miami. However, Fernandez-Pierre just starting playing high school football his senior year.
Having suffered a serious neck injury playing football in the eighth grade, Fernandez-Pierre decided to commit himself to cheerleading. When Episcopal School of Dallas football coach Clayton Sanders spotted Armand during his cheering routine, he knew he had to get him on the team.
“The deal was that he and my cheer coach would have to figure a way that I could play both sports in the same season,” Armand told My FOX Dallas-Fort Worth.
Fernandez-Pierre is so powerful that Sanders has asked him to not go full-contact on anything but the sleds during practice. His cheerleading coach, Eric Daboa, said he wanted Fernandez-Pierre to remain strictly a cheerleader but realized football presents more opportunities later in life.
“We fought tooth and nail to keep him just on our team and our sideline,” Daboa said. “But we realized what a good athlete he is and understand the opportunities that he would have with football.”
Fernandez-Pierre also sings in the choir, participates in theater and works at Best Buy as a member of the Geek Squad. He has played several different sports, but you might be surprised which he praised for being the most taxing.
“Believe it or not, cheer is one of the most physical sports I’ve ever done,” he explained. “And I’ve done a wide range of sports including lacrosse and wrestling. [Cheer] is about encouraging each other and moving forward as a group and a team. When it comes to football I love being able to be, I guess – how could you say it – brutal.”
If nothing else, Fernandez-Pierre has put together an incredible resume for when he applies to colleges. We have heard of grandmas trying out to be NFL cheerleaders before, but a 335-pound nose tackle who is also a cheerleader is a new one. Hopefully Armand can continue to kill it at both.
H/T The Big Lead
