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YEATESVILLE, N.C. — Max Vansant may not come across right away as a high-energy teenager. But when the Northside High School senior hits the field, court or golf links, that all changes.

During football season, the 5-foot-9 senior is hard to miss on the football field. He’s rushing around the corner or hitting a hole created by the offensive line to get yards on offense. On the basketball court, he’s always hustling with the ball, looking who to distribute the rock to before thinking of taking a shot himself.

In fact, the only time he may take it slow in athletics is when he’s on the golf course.

Northside’s ‘field general’ is always in the mix on both offense and defense. He’s had a few games with double-digit scoring, with the win over Pamlico County on Tuesday (14 points, seven steals, three assists) the latest example. However, his job is to get the other four on the court going offensively.

He’s done that and much more this season. We talked with him about his career at Northside, how this season has gone and which sport he enjoys the best.

1. What has the basketball season been like for you? What’s kind of the ups and downs?

“It’s been awesome, man. First two years in varsity, we struggled. We went 6-18 the first year, then sophomore, and going 19-4 (this year). I’m proud of everybody. It was a lot of work put into it.”

2. You’re like the field general of the team. In the second quarter (Tuesday against Pamlico County), you were scoring a bunch of points and trying to get some, I guess, momentum going. Talk a little bit about that part of the game and what worked for you and what worked for the team.

“Well, we were pressuring the ball on the press, and that gave me some chance to get some steals and get wide-open layups. Everybody was working together to get those. It just changed energy when our press started working.”

3. It seemed like the offense was okay, but the defense, it seemed like something wasn’t working. Can you tell me about the other sides of the ball there?

“I feel like we struggled defensively because we got in foul trouble early. We were in a box-and-one; they were getting a second chance. It’s just, it’s hard to play defense when you can’t be aggressive. Plus, they were taking us, and they were running the floor well.”

4. It seems like a lot of times, you’re looking for other people to score. There was a game, I can’t remember which one it was, we had like 20 points. It seems like you could turn the offense on when you want to, and a lot of times you’re looking to try to get the other guys involved.

“It really depends, but if I go out there and I hit the first few shots, it’s just a different game. It depends what defense they’re playing to, it’s just a lot of factors. I’d rather swing it around and let everybody score.”

5. After this, you’ll switch to golf. So you switch from kind of a rough-and-tumble sport like football and basketball to a real finesse sport. Obviously, you like playing the three sports, but is it just the mentality of those sports that you like so much? I mean, because one’s really different from the other, and different from the other.

“I feel like with football and basketball, it’s just the only goal is to win. I mean, you should just be as competitive as you can be. That’s really the only mentality I really have, is just be competitive and work hard. Because, if you’re competitive, you’re not gonna let somebody else outwork you. You’re not gonna go out there and not give it 100%. You wanna win everything, and I feel like that doesn’t change with football and basketball.

Note: A sports injury and recovery got him very interested in physical therapy. He intends to attend the University of North Carolina and eventually become a physical therapist.