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Wednesday, July 16

Still focused on football

By Kristie Ackert
SchoolSports.com

After his first year at Huntington Junior High School, Michael Vick knew it was time to make a decision. He may have been only 13 years old, but his future was waiting for him. Vick had to decide how he was going to get there.

The young boy from Newport News, Va., took this decision very seriously. He weighed all his options, talked with his mother and eventually followed his heart.


	Michael Vick is a Heisman favorite.

"I liked baseball, but I really wasn't too good a hitter," says Vick. "I didn't really see basketball as being my thing, so I figured football would be my future. Even then, I knew in my heart that it was the right decision."

Years later, it has become obvious that his decision was the right one. Entering this season, the 6-foot-1, 214-pound sophomore quarterback at Virginia Tech is an early favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. But at the end of this year, he could again be facing another life-altering choice: stay in college or make the jump to the NFL.

For now, Vick is still a simple college kid who sticks firm to the choices he made years ago. Just this summer, the 20-year-old was tested. Based on his obvious athletic ability -- he won an ESPY as the 1999 College Football Player of the Year and was the runner-up for the Associated Press Player of the Year award -- and some amazing stats from his days at Huntington Junior High (the last time he played a full season of organized baseball), the Colorado Rockies selected him in the 30th round of the MLB June Amateur Draft.

"It was a complete surprise," says Vick, who used his quickness to amass 585 yards rushing and eight touchdowns last fall. "I thanked them, but said, 'No thanks. I've decided not to play baseball.'

"Football was the sport that I knew I could go out there and learn something new each and every day. I loved the game; it was in my heart."

Most people who watched Vick on the gridiron


	Vick is 26-for-44 passing for 412 yards and four TDs.

at Warwick High in Newport News would say it was in his blood. He was a three-year starter at Warwick, where he threw for 4,846 yards and 43 touchdowns -- including 1,668 yards and 10 touchdowns in his senior season.

"He was unique in that he was focused on what he wanted to do," says Warwick athletic director Marilyn Watkins, now in her fourth year on the job. "He decided football was his ultimate goal. He trained year-round -- when he wasn't playing, he was in the weight room or hitting the books."

That dedication, coupled with lightning-quick speed (1,048 yards rushing and 10 TDs his senior season), made Vick one of the most highly recruited scholastic athletes in the nation three years ago.

In his first season playing with the Hokies last fall, the redshirt freshman completed 90 of 152 passes for 1,840 yards, 12 touchdowns and just five interceptions. He led Virginia Tech to an undefeated regular-season record, the BCS National Championship Game in the Nokia Sugar Bowl -- it lost to Florida State, 46-29 -- and received more votes in the Heisman Trophy balloting (he finished third) than any other freshman in the history of the award.

Through Tech's first three games this fall (3-0), Vick has run for three touchdowns and an average of 73 yards per contest. He's 26-for-44 passing for 412 yards and four more TDs.

But even after everything he has accomplished, Vick doesn't seem all that different from the young boy who passed on baseball and basketball for a chance to succeed on the gridiron.

"I see agents all the time already. They are there, but I have to just ignore them," says Vick of the possibility of turning pro at the end of this year. "I know I still have a lot to learn. Every day I want to keep getting better and better. And I just want to keep playing football."

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