Brookwood High has college student on its football team
Brookwood High is playing for the state football championship in Georgia's largest classification with a college student on its offensive line.
It may sound like an unfair advantage, at first. Many teams have college prospects, seniors that have been offered athletic scholarships and will begin college next year. Brookwood has a half-dozen or more college prospects on its roster -- along with a senior who enrolled in college classes this year.
Elliott Graves is a part-time student at Georgia Gwinnett College and will start at offensive guard for Brookwood in Saturday's Class AAAAA championship against Colquitt County at 8 p.m. at the Georgia Dome.
"It's kind of like the All-America boy, right?" Brookwood coach Mark Crews said of Graves. "He works hard in all phases of life, like many of our other seniors.
"It's good to have a group like we have with this year's football players. They are good students, good kids and good players. We've just got to write one more chapter of the story here with them on Saturday."
The 6-foot-1, 235-pound Graves is a first-year starter in football for Brookwood. He wanted to get a head start on college as a high school senior, choosing to become a dual-enrollment student. To be eligible, a student must meet the participating college's entrance requirements and maintain a 3.0 GPA.
"I wanted to take college classes without having to take the AP exam that comes with taking AP classes [in high school]," Graves said.
A typical day will begin with Graves reporting to Georgia Gwinnett by 8 a.m. for freshman English and an algebra class (he has grades of B's in both). Then he drives 20 minutes to Brookwood by 10:30 a.m. for four hours of senior classes. There haven't been any conflicts with football except for one time during Thanksgiving week when Brookwood scheduled an early practice and Graves was 30 minutes late because of college.
The whirlwind schedule has its advantages and disadvantages.
"The best thing is that I get ahead in college without completely stressing myself out," Graves said. "The worst thing is that I don't get to see my friends as much anymore, and I won't see them at all next semester because I will be taking classes full-time at the college."
When Graves sees his classmates this semester, some of them express envy. "That's because I get to sleep in on Tuesdays and Thursdays because I don't have college classes on those days," Graves said with a laugh.
"I'm jealous," joked his football teammate, Adam Ledford. "I'm sitting in Spanish class, and Elliott is sleeping. It's just not fair."
Ledford and Graves are best buddies and key components of a dominant Brookwood offensive line that has paved the way for two thousand-yard rushers this season. On Saturday, Graves will return to the Georgia Dome, where he made his first career start in a season-opening win over Walton in the Corky Kell Classic.
"Elliott is a guy you can count on to know his blocking assignment and do what he's supposed to do every down," Crews said. "He's not necessarily one of those guys that is going to bury [the defender], but he's a very reliable and diligent player. He's the kind of guy that makes great high school players."
Graves is unsure about college football, but plans to continue classes at Georgia Gwinnett next year and then eventually "transfer to a Christian school such as Faulkner University or Lipscomb."
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