Nick Mahan
With his helmet, Nick Mahan appears like just another football player.
However, once he removes the yellow head gear, he transforms into an instantly-recognizable running back for the MacArthur football team.
The reason for such a drastic change? The long, blonde locks Mahan routinely stuffs inside his helmet week-in and week-out.
One might think football players wouldn't care much about how their hair looks considering it's constantly covered, but Mahan makes the most of his naturally curly hair.
How the senior manages to do it and how comfortable it is remains a mystery, and though Mahan makes running through opposing defenses look easy, getting his hair ready on a daily basis presents a different challenge.
Mahan wouldn't have it any other way, though.
"Usually I wake up about an hour before school, so I have to hop right in the shower because it takes like 30-45 minutes to dry," Mahan said. "My first hour is weightlifting, so I don't really have to do too much to it to get it looking good.
"To go somewhere, it probably takes an hour to make sure it looks dry and ready to go out in public."
Unfortunately, Mahan doesn't get to show off his luscious locks and let them blow in the breeze year round.
Once wrestling season starts, Mahan is forced to cut his hair and keep it "cleaner" — an idea he finds frustrating.
"I don't like it because I have to cut it really short — above the earlobes and above the eyebrows," Mahan said.
However, during the offseason, Mahan lets his hair grow and grow and grow . . . Before long, it is in football shape.
"All winter it will be really short, and after that, I usually don't cut it," Mahan said of his regimen. "So come football season, it's extra long."
Even coach Brett Manning has grown fond of the haircut.
"I kind of don't want it to be short," Manning said. "It'd look funny if he cut it."
Mahan is a fan of the Avengers, and if given the chance to be any of the superheroes, he said he'd be Thor — for obvious reasons.
"Also because he's ultra big like me and cool," Mahan said.
Who Mahan would want to play himself in a movie is not so obvious, though.
"Zac Efron, maybe, if he grew out his hair and permed it," Mahan said. "He's like the coolest actor I know, so it'd be cool if that was me."
Of course, there is much more to Mahan than his hair and his success on the football field.
Mahan is a 4.0 student at Mac, and he's taken AP classes throughout his academic career at the school. He is currently taking college algebra and a science class at Cameron University as part of the concurrent program.