Nevada QB Colin Kaepernick, The Draft Study
High School
According to WikiPedia:
"A three-sport star at Pitman High School in Turlock, California, Kaepernick passed up a promising baseball career as a pitcher in order to play football. Kaepernick was nominated for all state in football, basketball, and baseball his senior year. He was the MVP of the Central California Conference in football leading his school to its first ever playoff victory. In basketball he was a first team all CCC selection at forward and lead his 16th ranked team to a near upset of the number 1 ranked Oak Ridge Trojans in the opening round of playoffs. In that game Colin would score 34 points but it wouldn’t be enough as Ryan Anderson would score 50 to best the Prid"
As you can see, Kaepernick is one of those truly special players. You hear about someone like Lebron James, of the Miami Heat, or Allen Iverson, of whatever European team he found this year, growing up as multi-sport athletes and excelling at any type of athletic endeavor that they find, well Kaepernick did just that. MVP of his conference in football, WOW! First Team all conference in basketball, WOW! Then baseball, he could play baseball. Read this excerpt from the Turlock Journal in 2010:
"By the time he was a senior at Pitman High, Colin was an outstanding baseball player who had an intimidating presence at 6-foot-5 and the prowess to unleash 90-mph fastballs with great location. He received interest from nearly every college in the country, and was even projected to be selected in the 2006 MLB First-Year Player Draft. In fact, a representative from the majors sat in the Kaepernicks’ home and told them that much. But Colin didn’t want that. Yet he still excelled in baseball, highlighted by his leading the Pride to their greatest baseball triumph: the 2006 Sac-Joaquin Section Division I South Championship. But there was a truth that many people didn’t want to believe. His passion was in football."
We almost didn’t get him in the football world, but as the article points out, football is his passion. That’s key for any GM to make note of. It’s obvoius here. The guy could have played many sports in college, but chose his college based on where he could get a football scholarship. Continue reading the Turlock Journal’s piece. It’s very well written and extremely informative. Here’s a quote from Colin in that same article, regarding his choice to go to Nevada as opposed to walking on at Duke or other schools of the same football capacity:
"“Looking back, it’s almost satisfying it happened that way,” Colin said. “It was one team that trusted in me and wanted me for one thing.”"
Kaepernick, as evidenced to his recent invite to the 2011 NFl Draft in NY City, made the right decision. He loved football. He stuck with his passion and he WILL get to play it professionally.