Former Serra football standout Patrick Nunn lands at Western New Mexico

The secondary is where Nunn feels at home. A two-way player at Serra, it was Nunn’s play at cornerback in the 2017 CIF Division 2-AA State Championship Bowl that was critical to the Padres’ 38-14 win over Cajon-San Bernardino to claim the program’s first-ever state title.

“It’s more freedom,” Nunn said. “You don’t have guys coming trying to kill you. I’d rather be the killer. I don’t care how much money they get on offense.”

Nunn is still invested in daring to dream of getting paid to play football someday. After two seasons on scholarship at Washington State, including a redshirt year in 2018, he has played alongside the likes of current NFL safeties Jalen Thompson (Arizona Cardinals) and Skyler Thomas (Los Angeles Chargers).

The typical route to the professional ranks through a Division I Power Five league wasn’t in the cards for Nunn though, partially due to the COVID pandemic but more because of a soul-searching mission after a personal tragedy. As a result, he went from a role player as a redshirt freshman at Washington State in 2019 to benchwarmer at CCSF who totaled just three catches for the state champion Rams in 2021.

“It was kind of expected because I haven’t been on the field in over a year,” Nunn said of his wayward sophomore season at CCSF. “So, I was out of the shape. I wasn’t at the top of my game.”

That isn’t likely to be the case this season.

“He’s going to play safety for us,” Western New Mexico head coach Philip Vigil said. “He’s long and he can run and he’s very instinctive. The thing I’ve been most impressed with Pat is his intentionality. … He’s always looking for ways to get better. He’s only been here for three days, and I can already tell he’s going to be a leader.”

Nunn was certainly a leader at Serra. He and his older brother Leki were integral to the foundation for the Padres becoming a perennial State Championship Bowl contender. They reached the program’s first State Bowl in 2016 when Nunn was a junior (and Leki was a senior). The Padres have now played in four State Bowl games, culminating in last season’s Open Division loss to Mater Dei.

Serra’s only state championship was delivered in 2017 during Nunn’s senior year. And what a performance he turned in, converting to the cornerback position for the first time in his football career and delivering a masterclass in man-to-man coverage to shut down Cajon’s standout 6-8 receiver Darren Jones.

At Washington State with former head coach Mike Leach at the helm, Nunn’s football career seemed to be continuing on an upward trajectory. He took regular reps as a nickel safety in 2019, and even earned two starts. Heading into 2020, with Thompson already having turned pro, and Thomas on the verge of transferring to Liberty University, it looked as though Nunn would get his chance as a regular for the Cougars.

“I was the projected starter for the next season,” Nunn said.

Then came a new head coach in Nick Rolovich. Two months later, the COVID pandemic hit. And by the time Washington State played an abbreviated four-game season in the fall of 2020, Nunn was off the team after being stung by a personal tragedy when his teammate and roommate Bryce Beekman died March 23 from acute intoxication due after ingesting a mixture of promethazine and fentanyl.

Nunn had returned to his San Mateo home after the pandemic quarantines hit Pullman, Washington during the second week of March 2020. Beekman was home alone in an off-campus house where Nunn had previously lived with him.

“After Bryce died, I went back to our house up there, I can’t even explain it,” Nunn said. “I couldn’t leave my room.”

Nunn would never again take the field for Washington State.

“That whole fall semester I didn’t go to class,” Nunn said. “I don’t know. I didn’t think this (COVID) stuff was real. But I just lost my best friend, so I didn’t know what was real.”

After losing his scholarship, Nunn again returned home and quickly found a lifeline in the community college ranks. He attended summer workouts at College of San Mateo but ultimately enrolled at CCSF. While he was admittedly not at the top of his game during his redshirt sophomore season, this year he has made as quick impression of Western New Mexico’s incoming first-year head coach.

Said Vigil: “He’s done a really good job of staying in shape during summer. … and he’s ready to go.”