BENTONVILLE — The lack of recruiting consideration has enraged Bentonville offensive line coach Benji Mahan.
College coaches have asked him often about Chase Petersen, the Tigers’ 6-foot-4, 275-pound left tackle, and Mahan said Petersen has deserved every bit of that attention. But without fail, every one of those coaches hangs up the phone or leaves Bentonville High without asking about one of Petersen’s senior teammates.
You see, Jon-Mark Holden stands only 6-feet tall. The left guard weighs 270 pounds and spends his Friday nights annihilating defensive tackles and linebackers. But college recruiters have somehow ignored that physicality and instead focused on Holden’s stature. They all think Holden’s too short for their team’s line.
Subsequently, some school will get a steal, Mahan insists.
“I promise you there’s not another lineman in the state of Arkansas who has the physical punch that Jon-Mark Holden has,” Mahan said. “He has more punch than anyone I’ve ever coached. He gets on a guy and his head will just snap back. Chase jokes that he wouldn’t ever want to block him.
“I always say he’s got the heaviest hands in Benton County.”
If Holden can continue his consistent play this season with Bentonville, Mahan said, the offers will likely start piling up. Not that Holden’s motivation stems from impressing college coaches.
For now, Holden remains content blocking with his four friends up front and opening holes for the 7A-West Conference’s leading rushing attack. Holden said he’ll worry later about his football future. These days, he simply enjoys the comfort level achieved by him, Petersen, junior Marcus Danenhauer and seniors Jonathan Mortensen and Matt Hoffman.
“When you play with guys for a long time, you start to know what they do and they know what you do,” Holden said. “Everything just feels right. We know each other so well. When fronts move around, I’ll say one word, and we’ll all know what we’re doing. It makes it a lot easier.”
Football didn’t initially seem this simple to Holden, however. In fact, he didn’t start playing the sport until the ninth grade. Holden succeeded immediately, even as he appeared lost, using his physicality and what Bentonville coach Barry Lunney calls “outstanding feet” to mask his mental shortcomings.
Mahan and Lunney both remembered the first time they saw Holden at a ninth-grade workout, one of his first-ever football practices.
“You could tell he didn’t really know what was going on,” Mahan said. “But man, he was real strong and real quick.”
Holden quickly ascended up Bentonville’s depth chart, starting by the sixth week of his sophomore season. He has started every game since, constantly providing valuable leadership and crushing blocks for the Tigers.
He gained strength after his freshman and sophomore years — because of a body “that’s built for the weight room,” Mahan said — and mastered Bentonville’s blocking schemes this past summer. Holden’s even started to play defensive tackle the past two weeks, logging about 15 snaps against Fort Smith Southside and Rogers Heritage.
“These first six games, he’s been the most consistent guy on our line,” Mahan said. “He’s played with a passion, and he’s played so physical. I have a lot of trust and confidence in him.”
Holden doesn’t always display the toughness he takes out on opponents
He’s a constant jokester, always quick to make coaches and teammates laugh, often at their own expense. Holden also possesses a love for video games, spending plenty of nights on his Xbox 360, challenging his fellow linemen in online games of Call of Duty.
But every Friday night, he sets the jokes and games aside and becomes the talented guard Mahan pleads with coaches to watch.
“A couple of my friends say I’m different on Friday nights than any other time,” Holden said. “I don’t really realize it. But they say they love me. Apparently, I get pretty intense. The way I think, I’ve got to be that way. I’m only average size, so I have to be aggressive. I have to move forward. If I’m not aggressive, I’ll just be pushed back.”
And Holden rarely lets that happen.
