Lipscomb Academy head coach Jamie Graham has seen first hand how impressive West Virginia defensive line commitment Amir Leonard-Jean Charles already is on the football field.

But he’s far from a finished product and that makes his future all the more exciting.

Leonard-Jean Charles continues to improve day-by-day which is something Graham has been impressed with considering how highly recruited he was and all the opportunities he already had.

“You don’t see a finished product, you see a kid that is still working to get better and wants to be better,” he said. “I’m thankful he does work as hard as he does and he does care about doing the little things. This is nowhere near his best football.”

Leonard-Jean Charles already stands 6-foot-4 and tips the scales at over 300-pounds while possessing great length. All of that has made him stand out on the field but he’s also impressed his head coach with how he has approached getting better at the game despite his physical gifts.

And those gifts include his size and ability to move along with his feet and hands.

“It’s really more about his mentality. West Virginia is getting a kid that mentally will be ready to play. He is growing and getting older by the day because he is young right now but the closer he gets to college the better he’s going to get physically and I think he’s going to have a big year,” he said.

Graham believes that Leonard-Jean Charles is just scratching the surface of what he will become eventually and there’s no question that he is excited to have him on his side instead of trying to block him. At the high school level, Leonard-Jean Charles often commands two blockers.

“He is going to be as good as he wants to be. I don’t think there’s a limit on how good Amir can be,” he said.

Graham understood the number of opportunities that Leonard-Jean Charles had but felt that the family ties to West Virginia with his mother attending there as well as how the coaching staff developed a strong relationship with him made the school an easy pick.

And now, the prized defensive lineman can turn his focus toward closing out his final season at the high school level in style.

“Now he can go out and play. He has a home and his mind is clear so he can go out and go to work,” he said. “He just understood what was best for him.”

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