Jared CohenPerry knows what they have in front of them this season.
Once again paired in the same section as Hamilton, Chandler and Basha they play a gauntlet of a schedule in division I. There is a big focus on getting off to a fast start to the season and Preston Jones’ Pumas are responding.
Perry is off to a 3-0 start and have received great production from key players across the board. Two players in particular that are making a big impact early on happen to be brothers sharing the field together.
Junior Nate James and freshman D’Shayne James are becoming one of the most lethal wide receiver duos in division I with their speed and athleticism. For them both, getting to play together at this level is something they have always dreamed of.
“It’s amazing,” said Nate James. “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. It blows my mind.”
“We’ve been dreaming about this since day one,” mentioned D’Shayne James. “We knew when came up here we were going to get it working once we got up here to varsity.”
With them being related, one might think that the two would bring very similar skill sets to the Puma offense. However, the two are actually quite different and accent each other very well. Nate the junior stands about 5-10 and is quick, crafty and fast used often in the slot. The freshman D’Shayne is taller standing about 6-2 and is long and swift.
For D’Shayne, playing at the variety level is something that he thought might not have happened this quickly.
“I never imagined this,” D’Shayne stated. “And it’s way more than I expected it to be. I love it.”
The two declared their impact on a high school football field in a hurry as Coach Jones, while playing against his Father on the opposite sideline coaching Mesquite in week one, dialed up a play that saw D’Shayne take a handoff from the quarterback and then threw a deep ball to brother Nate for a score. A play the two probably practiced together when they were kids.
As mentioned, Perry is 3-0 but up ahead of them on the schedule is seven consecutive games against teams that played in the postseason in 2013. The brothers know the work they and their teammates have ahead of them if they want to continue to surprise some people this season.
“We are doing good but we can always get better,” explained Nate. “Our chemistry’s got to get better. Always things we can work on. But right now we are doing pretty good.”
“Once that chemistry gets there, it’s going to be amazing,” D’Shayne added.
