What were you doing in your last semester of your senior year of high school? Cruising the main drag, maybe thinking about where you would go to college and trying decide whether you were going to take Susie or Stacey to the senior prom?
Odds are, you weren't dealing with nasty fastballs and sliders from ACC pitchers, but that's exactly what Levi Michael is doing at North Carolina. You see, rather than deciding what kind of tux to go with at the prom, Michael graduated from North Davidson high school a semester early, and now he's donning Tar Heel blue in Chapel Hill.
Michael's journey is not unprecedented. It's become common for college football players, like Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen, to enroll a semester early for a jump start on the college playbook. Former USC QB, John David Booty, even left high school an entire year early. But spring football is PRACTICE. We're just talking about PRACTICE.
Kyle Parker took it a step further last year when he enrolled at Clemson in January. Parker not only practiced with the football team during spring drills, but also hit .303 with 14 home runs and 50 RBIs in 2008, during what would have been his senior year in high school. However, Clemson finished seven games under .500 in the ACC and missed the NCAA tournament. Parker sat while four other quarterbacks took snaps for the Tigers last fall, but he'll compete for the starting job next season.
Michael stepped out of high school gym class and into the fire when he enrolled at UNC in January, just in time for the first season of his college baseball career.
North Carolina is 35-11 overall and 16-7 and in first-place in the ACC's Coastal Division. The Tar Heels are ranked number one in this week's USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll and NBCWA Poll, not to mention three straight trips to the College World Series. Pressure anyone?
You're probably saying to yourself "Ok, but he's hitting eighth or ninth in the order", right? Wrong. UNC head coach Mike Fox has Michael batting in the middle of the line-up, and he's not just surviving, he is thriving. Through 45 games, Michael is batting .314 with 11 home runs and 42 RBIs. His home run and RBI totals are second only to two-time All-American Dustin Ackley.
Michael has a .605 slugging percentage and .412 on-base percentage with 23 walks, 35 strikeouts and a team-high ten times hit by pitch. He just finished a week in which he hit .533 (8-15) with four doubles, a triple and a home run with 4 RBIs.
His high school finals are a thing of the past, and Michael and the rest of his college teammates are off this week while they take their college final exams. It'll be worth it for Michael if he trades cruising the main drag in his Welcome, NC home town for a trip on the team bus on S. 13th Street past Bob Gibson Blvd. and into the Rosenblatt Stadium parking lot about five weeks from now.
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