By Mandy Housenick
GoLeopards.com Featured Columnist

Carson Persing stepped onto the field, turf beneath his cleats, week after week, running dazzling routes, and nearly every time those routes culminated with an amazing catch.

The Lafayette senior is hardly a fan of being pulled from games. It's hardly his coaches' first choice either. Sometimes, though, it was unavoidable. He simply needed to catch his breath from time to time.

When Persing, the Leopards' top returning receiver, was forced to head to the sidelines, he was hiding a well-kept secret – pain. Lots of pain.

"It was never going to stop me from playing, so I didn't feel the need to make it a huge deal," Persing said.

Once on the sideline, he'd do his best to inconspicuously stretch and rub the area as to not draw too much attention to his discomfort. He wasn't going to miss any additional snaps.

Turns out, once Persing saw a specialist at the end of last season, he had a double hernia, which meant surgery, physical therapy and sitting out for spring workouts.

"His toughness is unreal," head coach John Troxell said. "He just played through the pain. I will always remember him for that. He never told us how much he was hurting. Maybe he thought we'd take him out (for longer) if he told us. That's just me speculating, and he just loves to play and he wasn't going to not play."

With what Persing brings to the field, Lafayette certainly needs him to play.



The four-year starter, now a captain, led the team in receiving last year with 60 catches for 724 yards and four touchdowns. His 149 career receptions rank him seventh at Lafayette, needing 50 more to surpass the all-time mark of 198 held by Mark Ross '14.

So far this season, the Preseason All-Patriot League team member has five catches for 25 yards in one game, the Leopards' week two matchup vs. FBS foe Connecticut.

At just 5-foot-8 and hardly a top recruit coming out of Danville High School, few would have thought Persing would have found himself in this spot.

"I definitely didn't expect to play very much early on, so I tried to make the most of the opportunities," he said. "You kind of have to be lucky enough to play a lot early on."

Troxell and wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator Ryan Roeder said it was a lot more than luck that had Persing on the field as a freshman.

Was he undersized? Yes.

Did he still have more to learn from the Leopards' playbook? Yes.

Did Troxell see a tremendous upside to Persing? You bet he did.

"What you can't take away is the amount of times that the ball went to him in high school," Troxell said. "We get kids like that all the time. You think they will be really, really good, but it takes them time to figure it out and learn it. With Carson, it translated to the college game right away.

"His first year was 2023. We really didn't have a ton of depth. We lost some guys who decided to leave or not play. Some of it was probably good timing and he got an opportunity and he made the most of it. He can really find open space. He's just an incredible football player.

"All he does is get open and catch balls. He is just such a great competitor. He loves to win and hates to lose. He is going to give you everything he's got."

It's that effort and skill that make fellow wide receiver Mason Kuehner feel a sense of a relief when he looks over and sees No. 7 by his side.

"It always feels better when I line up next to him because he always knows what he's doing," Kuehner said. "I can ask him questions when he's next to me. The offense is always better when he is on the field."



The football field isn't the only place Persing is competitive.

"He's one of those kids that is really good at a lot of things and he wants to win at everything," Kuehner said as he chuckled.

A game of mini golf? Check.

A game of cornhole? Check.

It doesn't bother Kuehner though.

"He's one of my best friends, and my stepdad says I'm the same way with winning," Kuehner said.

Everyone who spends time around Persing near the field also agrees he's an incredible student of the game. And those involved in athletics know that just because you're talented between the lines doesn't necessarily mean you pick up the Xs and Os easily.

Never has that been a challenge for Persing. Maybe his almost 1400 SATs have something to do with that. Maybe it's something that just comes naturally to him. Maybe he simply pays better attention than many others.

Whatever it is, the coaching staff is grateful Persing is a quick study.

"The players joke that I ask Carson all the hard questions," Roeder said. "He's grown up around athletics, and he's a student of the game. When you are explaining things, you get that nod when you can talk to him about schematics on a different level, and I think he enjoys that part of the game."

"He absorbs it better (than most)," Troxell added. "He knows what coverage he's seeing and what is going to happen before it happens. He knows when to get open. He's just really smart. I'm sure Ivy League teams could have taken him and other teams in our league could have taken him. He has proven them wrong and us right."

That deep understanding and intuition is what led to him being chosen as a captain – a move that didn't surprise Troxell in the least.

"He's great with the younger guys," Troxell said. "He's the first one to try to help them grasp things and has been that way for a couple years now."

Persing's time as a Leopard is winding down. But by the time the 2026 season wraps up, he will surely have left an even bigger mark than he has thus far.


Featured in the game program vs. Marist on Sept. 12