“Start, Sit & Seth” is the original column of In-Between Media, bridging feel-good lifestyle advice with redraft fantasy football analysis. Consistently following Seth Woolcock’s journey as a young creator, this series is now in its fifth season. Join him as he shares the story of Christian Lezzer.
By Seth Woolcock, In-Between Media
The first leaves have begun to fall alongside the edges of Pennsylvania State University – the place I now call home.
Whether I like it or not, the first crisp autumn mornings are always nostalgic for me, reminding me of my roots. While I’ve often written about how my hometown of Kane impacted me, I sometimes neglect to mention what I deem “my second hometown.”
County Roads, Take Me Home
Alongside the West Branch of the Susquehanna lies a town in the Clearfield County hills called Curwensville. Though I didn’t move there until I was 16 and a year and a half from graduating high school, it holds a special place in my heart.
It’s a slow-paced type of town – the kind with the same one or two bars rooting for the high school football team, probably wearing the same jerseys from the early 2000s. I hold myself to make the hour drive almost monthly. While there, I get a haircut from my longtime barber and best friend, followed by some Busch Lights and a round of disc golf at the local lake.
On my commute over the mountains, I’ve often wondered what the future holds for this tiny town tucked in-between farmlands and the state’s largest university.
Looking for answers, I linked up with someone who is making sure it remains the roots of so many like me and the home to new families alike.
Meet Clearfield’s Christian Lezzer
Today you can’t go very far in Clearfield County without seeing the name Christian Lezzer on a front-yard sign. But not long ago, Christian, now 27, was like any of my friends who grew up alongside the river.
After attending Curwensville until the first grade, Christian enrolled in the neighboring school, Clearfield, just four miles up the road. Quickly, Christian’s life became revolved around playing sports.
“You’re not going to have a better time playing sports than at the high school level,” Christian said in a Sept. 21 interview. “Just because it’s with people you grew up with, and you’re competing against other towns.”
By his junior year of high school, Christian was a highly sought-after inside linebacker recruit, drawing more than 10 scholarship offers from schools from around the U.S. This included Rutgers University, Kent State University, the University of Arizona (UA) and Boston College (BC).
Ultimately in 2014, Christian chose to attend BC because of the closer proximity to Clearfield County than second-choice UA.
From Clearfield Co. to Boston College
“It was a different lifestyle, changing from a small town to living in a big city,” Christian said. “It was very regimented. So I would have workouts starting at 6 in the morning and not get done until 9 at night with classes, study halls, workouts and meetings.”
After BC experienced injuries at linebacker his first year, Christian negated his redshirt season, taking the field for the Eagles. During that first season at BC, Christian played in two games and recorded a sack against the University of Southern California (USC) and future NFL QB Cody Kessler.
Curveballs
However, after Christian’s two seasons with the Eagles, doctors advised him to end his playing football career due to a series of concussions he had suffered. So, he put down his helmet and picked back up a baseball glove, and ultimately made BC’s baseball team as a walk-on.
Yet, after the college ruled baseball a contact sport, Christian’s time as a BC athlete came to a close.
Christian then spent six months with a renowned concussion specialist at Harvard, who cleared him to return to the football field. He eventually took his talents south as he transferred to the University of Central Florida (UCF).
This being the early days of the transfer portal, Christian had to redshirt his first season with the UCF Knights. Unfortunately, Christian suffered another concussion during training camp, officially ending his playing career.
“It was definitely hard,” he said. “You go from something you’ve been playing your whole life having it taken away from you in a split second.”
The Knights went on to have an undefeated season under head coach Scott Frost and win the Peach Bowl.
Forging Our Own Paths
After graduating with a 4.0 and his business management degree, Christian returned to Pennsylvania. He got his start with his family business, Lezzer Lumber, relocating to Lancaster County in the process. He worked there for almost two years before deciding to do his own thing in 2019.
“Honestly, I had just come home from work one day and started watching HGTV and thought I could do that.”
He got his real estate license, returned to Clearfield County, and began learning the “ins and outs” of real estate.
Today, in just his third year since opening The Lezzer Group – Keller Williams Advantage Realty, he and his team of 10 agents are on pace to exceed $50 million in sales this year.
“I think the discipline of being an athlete, having a regimented schedule and sticking to that is a big thing,” Christian said. “I think teamwork and being able to work with people also played a major role in it.”
Since getting his license, Christian and his team have sold more than 300 homes in the Clearfield-Curwensville area. Of that total, he estimates more than 30 percent has been to out-of-town buyers that had no previous connection to the area.
“[Helping the area] means a ton to me,” he said. “Bringing new business here – selling commercial properties – or bringing new people into the area means something to me. Seeing that they want to start a family here and have their kids grow up the same way I did.”