The Outlier: Nicholas Deloach Jr. a Rare Example for Hometown

Graduating as a valedictorian, the Missouri Tigers cornerback is seen as a golden example for his hometown.

Oct 20, 2024; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers cornerback Nicholas Deloach Jr. watches from the sideline during a game the Auburn Tigers at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. / Matt Guzman-Missouri Tigers On SI

Nic Deloach Jr. wasn’t even supposed to be there.

That June morning ahead of his senior year of high school, he expected to be at an All-Star event for track and field in New Mexico. But he wasn’t registered in time.

So instead, he found himself at a football prospect camp at Lindenwood University.

Even if his schedule didn’t go according to plan, the future Missouri cornerback was actually exactly where he was supposed to be. 

A Life-Changer and Game-Changer

Jessica Deloach didn’t think she wanted kids.

"Lil Nick’ changed that. 

“After I had him and they put him into my arms, he completely changed my life,” Jessica said. “ I never looked at anything the same.” 

Nic was what Jessica needed at the time. She worked the night shift at a factory to support the family. All she had to do to get Nic to take a nap was tell him ‘Mommy’s tired, let’s take a nap.’

Jessica Deloach holds a young Nicholas Deloach Jr. "He showed me to I can do anything I put my mind to," Jessica said of her oldest child. / Courtesy of Jessica Deloach.

He found ways to entertain himself —— teaching himself how to play video games and put together lego sets. He’d sit on the floor, hours at a time, stacking the bricks on top of each of another. He didn’t want any of the smaller, simple ones designed for toddlers, but the complex ones with a stack of instructions. Jessica told him he would have to put together the sets himself. He insisted he would.

“When he puts his mind to something, he's gonna accomplish it,” Jessica said of her oldest son. “He says he's gonna do it, he's gonna do it.”

Nic started preschool when he was just 2 years old. As soon as he started, academics were his top priority. He was devastated in 3rd grade when he received his first B, all because an illness had caused him to miss a few days of class.

“I always tell people, I can't take credit for Nicholas,” Jessica said. “He took school serious on his own.”

His dedication to academics didn’t falter when he added athletics to his schedule. He started wrestling when he was 9 years old, encouraged by his father, Nicholas Sr, or as the family calls him, “Big Nick”, to join. 

“Lil Nick” started wrestling much earlier than his father. Big Nick didn’t start wrestling until he was in high school after a neighborhood friend suggested he go to try outs. The coach was impressed with Big Nick, who would go on to wrestle through high school and college and coach high school wrestling immediately out of college.

If not for the suggestion of that neighborhood friend, Big Nick and Jessica never would’ve been brought together. They met during Big Nick’s sophomore year when Jessica was a manager for the wrestling team. 

After just doing wrestling for some, Lil Nick’s uncle and Jessica’s brother-in-law, Darien Donald, introduced football into Lil Nick’s life. Donald, coaching Cahokia’s Peewee team at the time, was looking for any young athletes in the area who could play for his team. Lil Nick quickly proved to be different from the rest of the town kids. 

“He used to score in just about every game,” Donald said. “He just did everything well. You could put him anywhere, and he picked up information pretty fast. “

First, Donald put Lil Nick at tight end and defensive end. Then at wide receiver during middle school. He would continue at wide receiver through high school and also pick up defensive back. In his senior year, he amassed 421 receiving yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions.

At receiver, his speed became apparent, partly a result of his practice in track and field, which he added to his plate in middle school. Throughout his childhood, he had heard his mother and her sisters reminisce on their days on the track field in high school. Jessica was an explosive runner on relays and dashes, and also competed in jumping events. 

Lil Nick took home the Illinois state title for the triple jump in his senior year with a 46'0" mark. That same year, he ended on the podium for the high jump at state, placing third.

Lil Nick used his expertise in all three sports to build himself into the player he became for his main sport, football. In wrestling, he learned certain techniques that are similar to football tackling, such as the ankle pick, the go-to move for both he and his father. 

Nicholas Deloach Sr. (left) with Nicholas Jr. (center) and head wrestling coach EJ Brooks (right) after Nicholas Jr. placed fifth in the Illinois state tournament in 2023. / Courtesy of EJ Brooks.

Through Lil Nick’s success on the wrestling mat and track, he represented the continuation of a life his parents put on hold after his birth.

“He never wants to disappoint you.”

Lil Nick wasn’t even supposed to make it this far.

He fell just short of placing in the state tournament for wrestling his junior year. He was battling a wicked case of COVID-19 in the week leading up. He had met the challenge plenty of times before with cutting weight with wrestling, but this was another mountain.

But EJ Brooks, Cahokia’s head wrestling coach at the time, saw Lil Nick refused to give himself any forgiveness. To him, failure was failure. Brooks, a lifelong friend of Big Nick, saw what was pulling at Lil Nick.

“I know he felt like he let his Dad down,” Brooks said. “It wasn't even like he wanted it for himself. His dad never verbalized how much he wanted it for him, but I knew Lil Nick could feel it.” 

Brooks and Big Nick had wrestled together all throughout high school. 

Big Nick was Lil Nick’s head coach throughout middle school. The year before Lil Nick’s freshman year of high school coincided with a time of transition for Brooks. He was wrapping an eight-year stint as the head wrestling coach at Granite City and was considering a handful of other offers. 

Then his former teammate called. 

“He's like, ‘Hey, I'm trusting him with you. You better come home,’” Brooks recalls Big Nick saying in the phone call.

There was no selfish motive for Big Nick. He wasn’t looking to wedge himself in as an assistant coach. He just wanted what was best for his son.

But, Brooks basically gained another assistant coach in Lil Nick. He knew what was expected of him and the rest of the team followed his lead. After his first season, Lil Nick could literally run the team's practice. He did exactly that one time during his junior year when Brooks was held up at a meeting for an hour.

“We walked in my room, Nick was running a full drill session seamlessly like it was nothing,” Brooks said.

Lil Nick was the ultimate lead by example person, not just for his teams, but for the entire community of Cahokia, Ill.

“It's great people out here, but we have our troubles,” Donald, who is now the head football coach at Cahokia High School, said. “Nick found his way, navigated his life through our community and never found himself out of position or in a bad situation.”

Lil Nick is the exception in many ways for the small city of 12,096. Neighboring East St. Louis, it’s an area filled with violence, drugs, gangs and a severe lack of role models for the area’s youth to look up to.

“There's too many distracting temptations,” Brooks said. “The streets, drugs. … You got kids sneaking out of class to have sex. You got kids sneaking out of class to get high in the bathrooms.”

Education is far from the focus for most of the area’s youth. At Cahokia High School, only 60% of students graduate and 67% are chronically absent, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s latest report. Just 5% of students are proficient in English and 1% in mathematics.

"He's a rare example," Brooks said. "When you're talking about Lil Nick, it's just easy to to point him and say, 'look at him.'"

Some are focused on simply surviving.

Just in the last few months, two of Brooks’ former wrestlers were murdered. One of the victims was killed the day before he planned to leave for college. 

Lil Nick not only escaped, but showed the way for others. Making it to SEC football represents a beacon of hope for an area that needs it. 

Oct 20, 2024; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers cornerback Nicholas Deloach Jr. (24) prepares to drop back in coverage during a game against the Auburn Tigers at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. / Matt Guzman-Missouri Tigers On SI

“We encourage Nick to keep doing what he's doing,” Donald said. “So that we can continue to say (to the football team), ‘That guy, walked the same hallway with you guys. So, if he can do it, you guys can do it too.’”

Cahokia’s football program is often overlooked, with just 820 students enrolled in 2023. 

Lil Nick changed that.

“Everybody tells me how proud of him that they are and how and how he's gonna put the city on,” Jessica said of how the community sees her son. “Because of him, they're (scouts) coming in, they're looking at the other kids.” 

Jessica has always been worried about the weight these expectations could carry on her son. His dad recognizes a lot of people “live through him.” He’s a symbol of hope for a city, an inspiration to every kid in his family.

“Everybody looks up to Nicholas (Jr.). Everybody wants to be like Nicholas,” Jessica said.

Lil Nick is aware. He knows the amount of eyes he’s had on him since high school. More than anything, he’s scared of letting others down. The most effective way for Jessica to discipline him when he was younger was by calling his grandparents and telling them about his mistake.

“That hurt him more than anything,” Jessica said. “He never wants anybody to look down on him. He never wants to disappoint you.”

It’s pushed him to his breaking point. With the mere idea of disappointing his dad driving him to still compete in the state wrestling tournament his junior season. Or a time early in his high school athletics career that led him to tears

Again, Lil Nick was sick. His mother didn’t want him to even go to football practice but he insisted. He didn’t want to tell the coaches and just toughed it out. Jessica walked by his room that afternoon to see him on the floor in tears. 

His coaches thought he just wasn't applying himself.

“He can't always go so hard,” Jessica said. “Iit was a lot of pressure too. … I always asked him,  ‘Lil Nick, don't feel like you gotta do all of this stuff because everybody's looking at you.”’

“‘You're human. We all fall short.’ That's still my biggest concern with him.”

A Windy Path Landing in Missouri

The weight of expectations is yet to derail Deloach Jr. in his second season with Missouri.

He’s become an important part of the Tigers’ secondary, splitting time with Clemson transfer Toriano Pride. Jr. On an experienced Missouri defense, no first or second-year player besides starting sophomore safety Marvin Burks is taking more snaps than Deloach Jr.

Oct 20, 2024; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers cornerback Nicholas Deloach Jr. (24) smiles on the sideline during a game against the Auburn Tigers at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. / Matt Guzman-Missouri Tigers On SI

Deloach Jr. popped on Missouri’s radar in June of 2022 at a prospect camp that his calendar would’ve told you he wouldn’t be at.

After a few hours in the heat, Missouri defensive backs coach Al Pogue was preparing to leave. As he was preparing to head out, he caught a look at a wiry, explosive, intelligent wide receiver and cornerback.

Pogue talked to Lil Nick afterward and offered him a workout at one of Missouri’s prospect camps. If his on-field skill wasn’t enough, the conversations illuminating his character certainly were for Missouri to make a scholarship offer.

It was a lucky twist of fate for Deloach Jr. to end up at the Lindenwood prospect camp and not in New Mexico for track. History of the troubles plaguing his hometown would tell you he wasn’t supposed to reach the point he’s reached now. That he wasn't supposed to graduate as a valedictorian or a decorated three-sport athlete.

Lil Nick changed that.