Russell Wilson was in Raleigh, N.C., on June 8, having just wrapped @#$%& ffxiv item up the 2010 college baseball season with North Carolina State a few days before, when he received the news @#$%& ffxiv item he had been waiting years to hear. That was the day Wilson was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the fourth round of the Major League Baseball draft, a goal he had long shared with his father, Harrison Wilson @#$%& ffxiv item III.
The next morning, Wilson drove home to Richmond, Va., to be with his family.
"I told him I ff14 item had been drafted,'' Russell Wilson said of the conversation with his father that day. "I told him all about it. I believe that he heard me. "buy ffxiv item And then he slowly passed away that night.''
On June 9, Harrison @#$%& ffxiv item Wilson finally succumbed to complications from diabetes after battling the illness for years. He was 55. That his passing came one day after the draft was @#$%& ff14 item not lost on the Wilson family. "It was almost like he was waiting for that day,'' said Harrison Wilson IV, Russell's older brother.
But the beginning of Russell Wilson's life @#$%& ffxiv item as a professional baseball player did not mark the end of his quest to become a pro football player as well. That dream he ff14 gil shared with his father remains.
So after buy ff14 item spending a month this summer with the Tri-City Dust Devils, a Rockies farm team in the Class A Northwest League, Wilson is back on campus at N.C. State and going through two-a-day practices in preparation for the Wolfpack's ff14 account season opener against Western Carolina on Sept. 4.
An All-ACC first-team ff14 gil selection as a freshman in 2008, Wilson is on the preseason watch list for the Davey O'Brien Award, given annually to the best college quarterback in the country. He @#$%& ff14 item led the conference with 31 touchdown passes last season.
"I think certainly his dad wishes that he would be an NFL player or a Major ff14 item League Baseball player,'' N.C. State coach Tom @#$%& ff14 item O'Brien said last month during the annual ACC media days. "I believe he's coming back this year to try to solve the issue: Can he be an NFL player? He's buy ff14 item already got his opportunity to be a Major League Baseball player. I think that keeps him focused and keeps him driven.''
Right now, Wilson isn't ready to choose which way to go. "I buy ff14 item love baseball and I love football both,'' he said, refusing to hint where he is leaning.
@#$%& ff14 gil Maybe that's because Wilson, 21, has never had to choose before. He has been a starting quarterback, a starting buy ffxiv gold baseball player and a top scholar-athlete in his three years at N.C. State, never allowing one to diminish the others. Wilson has @#$%& ffxiv gold already graduated; he is now studying for his master's in communcations.
"He has a weird clock in his head,'' N.C. State @#$%& ffxiv gil teammate and friend Owen Spencer said of Wilson's ability to excel in so many areas. "That's just his drive and that's what he was @#$%& ff14 gil blessed with. ... That's just Russell. He does everything.'' "He has a weird clock in his head. That's just his drive and that's what he was blessed @#$%& ff14 gil with. ... That's just Russell. He does everything."
-- Owen Spencer on ffxiv gold N.C. State teammate Russell Wilson It's a family trait. His father was a two-sport star at Dartmouth and had a tryout with the San Diego Chargers before becoming a lawyer. His grandfather was president ffxiv gold of Norfolk State University. Wilson's brother, Harry, was a two-sport athlete at the University of Richmond.
As if he wasn't preoccupied enough, Russell Wilson recently added fiance to his buy ffxiv gil many titles when he became engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Ashton Meem, in July.
Ultimately, ffxiv gold Wilson probably won't have to choose between baseball and football. That decision might be made for him. At 5-11, Wilson is @#$%& ffxiv gil undersized as a pro quarterback prospect, and that's the position he insists he would want to play. Dana Bible, the N.C. State one buy ffxiv power leveling offensive coordinator who was a former quarterbacks coach with Cincinnati Bengals and offensive coordinator with the Philadelphia Eagles, hedged when asked if Wilson could make it in the buy ffxiv gil NFL.
"I don't have a crystal ball so I don't know what the future holds, really, for any of our players,'' he said. "I know that in our offense, he gives us an outstanding chance ff14 power leveling to be successful and I also know that at the next level, they're looking for good football players. Coaches, personnel people, they're looking for buy ff14 gold people that can be productive and be successful on the football field and you know, time and opportunity is going to determine what he buy ff14 gold future holds for Russell and I can't speculate on that.''