Standing at 6-foot-3, 225 pounds, senior defensive end and tight end Zayne Latham is a load, La Center head football coach John Lambert said.
“He’s a big, strong, athletic kid,” Lambert said. “He’s a weight room warrior, and he was a basketball guy first, but I think he’s fallen in love with football.”
Coach Lambert explained that last season Latham was a little tentative when running the ball, but that is not the case this year.
“He’s not tentative anymore when he runs,” Lambert said. “It’s confidence and understanding of what you’re supposed to do, and part of that is his commitment to the team and getting better and understanding what he wants to do.”
“He’s competitive, he’s likable, he’s hardworking and he’s dependable in what he does. Having a player like that is just a blast to have on a team,” Lambert said. “And he’s going to get picked up somewhere because he’s a big, fast, strong kid and some team is going to pick him up and be really happy where he’s at next year.”
Watching Zayne Latham play, one can immediately ascertain he is dedicated and has certainly put in the work.
“Just from last year, I mean, we all put in work last year but came up short in the playoffs,” Latham said. “I think that all fired us up a little bit this offseason.”
Latham has started his senior season after offseason workouts with a max bench press of 355 pounds, a squat of 410 pounds, and a clean lift of 225 pounds for repetitions.
The last time it was measured, Latham ran a 40-yard dash in 4.7 seconds. He previously trained at a local gym in Battle Ground but his focus changed this last offseason.
“This summer, I tried to get more into the program. This summer, we try to be less individuals and be more as a team, so we all worked out up here (at La Center High School),” Latham said. Latham is a leader and proudly shares leadership duties across the team.
“We switch captains every week because we take pride in leadership as a team,” Latham said. “We don’t want one individual.”
Off the field and in the classroom, Latham’s favorite class is Current World Problems. After graduation with the class of 2027, Latham hopes to be playing football at a four-year college, with a goal of getting into marketing. He has multiple schools interested and actively recruiting him to play football at the next level.
During halftime of the game on Friday, Oct. 2, Latham was crowned homecoming king, and his date for the dance, senior volleyball star at La Center High School Whitney Martell, was a princess on the senior homecoming court. Latham and Martell have been in a relationship since the ninth grade.
