Although Lake Central’s Jayden Carpenter-Mansfield is just a sophomore, he projects an air of maturity.
Carpenter-Mansfield, a 5-foot-10, 165-pound wide receiver/cornerback, is the youngest of nine children and has learned a few things.
“Don’t take stuff for granted,” he said. “Work hard. You always want to give everything your all and just stay humble, show people what you can do, because at the end of the day, once you’re done playing, you don’t want to have any regrets.
“So whatever you’re doing, just be the best you can, be a good person, and keep up with your grades — because you can’t do any of this if you don’t keep up with your grades.”
Carpenter-Mansfield paused and then smiled. “My mom’s definitely hard on me about my grades,” he said.
Carpenter-Mansfield’s siblings — four brothers and four sisters — tend to give him grief about other things.
“I’m the spoiled baby, they say,” he said with a laugh.
But Carpenter-Mansfield’s family has been influential in more important ways.
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“They’ve been playing a big part in my life, helping me and giving me different advice, not even just as a football player, but as a person, being a great person and stuff,” he said.
“We’ve all always been active. My father, my mother, they’ve always just been trying to teach each one of their kids to be active. My brothers and my dad, they’ve always been teaching me the game. They definitely get on me and critique my game. They’re always saying, like, ‘Never take a rep off. You never know who’s watching.’ I’m just trying to be the first one out of all my siblings to go play at the DI level, so they’re really pushing me.”
Carpenter-Mansfield, whose cousin Richie Carpenter Jr. played Division I football at Kent State, rarely comes off the field for the Indians (3-3, 3-1), who have won back-to-back games and snapped a three-game losing streak in the series against Michigan City last week.
Carpenter-Mansfield has 17 catches for 218 yards and a touchdown and has rushed for 83 yards and three TDs on eight carries, including as a wildcat quarterback. He has also been playing defense in recent weeks.
Lake Central coach Pete Koulianos, whose team has matched its three victories from each of his first two seasons, decided Carpenter-Mansfield is too valuable to remain on the sideline.
“We use him a lot,” Koulianos said. “We run him in motion from the slot and different things like that. We were worried about his ability to play an entire game, and finally I just said, ‘You know what, let’s just play him on defense.’ We had him in some of our defensive packages, but he was not a full-time kid.
“And finally, I just said, ‘We’ll just play him on defense, and we’ll rest him on offense if we have to’ — but we really haven’t had to. So he’s a full-time two-way guy for us, which is pretty rare at our level. You don’t get too many two-way guys, but he’s an impact player on both sides of the ball, for sure.”
Senior wide receiver Frankie Verta, a Grand Valley State recruit, recognizes Carpenter-Mansfield’s contributions too.
“Obviously both sides of the ball, you don’t find that very often as a sophomore at a (Class) 6A school — very rare,” Verta said. “He has a great work ethic, that kid, and he’s just an awesome kid to be around.
“He brings speed. That’s what he gives us — speed. He’s electric.”
Carpenter-Mansfield has been on the fast track in the program. He played just two games on the freshman team last season before he moved up to the junior varsity team. By midseason, he was promoted to the varsity team as a defensive back and then earned a starting spot at receiver.
Koulianos recognized Carpenter-Mansfield’s potential from an early stage.
“When I got here, he was a seventh grader, and we just knew he was going to be super talented,” Koulianos said. “He was just making so many plays at the lower levels — freshman, JV. We were like, ‘Listen, you’re going to have to play varsity.’
“So we threw him in it on the varsity level with us freshman year, and slowly but surely, he’s become an outstanding all-around football player.”
Carpenter-Mansfield, who also played center field and pitched some for Class 4A state champion Lake Central’s JV baseball team in the spring, said he grew about 2 inches and added about 20 pounds since his freshman season.
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“I really emphasized getting bigger and stronger,” he said. “The biggest thing for me was the weight room because I was in the slot, so you have to block the outside linebacker. I was getting a little bit bullied, but I held my own. So that’s really helped me a lot, especially on my blocking aspect and breaking more tackles too. I don’t go down as much as easy. I feel like I always break the first two tackles, and it takes more than one guy to get me down, just fighting.
“And it’s also helped my explosiveness jumping up for balls, being more physical on tough catches, and I feel like that’s why they also let me go in the wildcat because they see I can break those tackles.”
That has been part of Carpenter-Mansfield’s overall growth and development.
“I’ve been eating right and mentally preparing for each and every game,” he said. “I’ve been watching a lot of film, like at home and when I have free time. If I get done with my homework early, I’ll watch film, really study, because that plays a big part. I’m not the biggest, so I have to make my speed a big part of my game and my football IQ.
“Because at corner, you see some tendencies the receiver does, and that gives you the upper hand on making that big play. Or at receiver, you see some tendencies the DB has, and you can see their weaknesses and make a good play.”
Koulianos envisions Carpenter-Mansfield continuing to make plays for the Indians.
“He’s a phenomenal athlete,” Koulianos said. “Great kid, nice family, for sure, his mom and dad are super, super supportive. He does everything that you ask of him. He’s just one of those guys.”