Micah Andrews is a star on the field and on the stage

By Andy Gray

While it is often said that there is no greater theater than sports, it's seldom noted that there is no greater sport than theater. Athletes do their thing on the playing field, actors do theirs on the stage, and the two rarely intersect. But don't tell that to Micah Andrews, a sophomore tailback at Wake Forest who is trying to cross over and star in both realms.

The Demon Decons' backup tailback for the last two seasons, Andrews is ready to be the primary ballcarrier. Brian Westerholt/Sports On Film

Andrews, the former ACC Rookie of the Year, will perform a reading of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech on Tuesday night in front of a packed crowd at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library on the Wake Forest campus. He was one of nine football players who took a theater class last spring that culminated with a production of "Our Reality," a piece that depicts the lives of student-athletes. Unlike his teammates who participated in the production, Andrews enjoyed it so much that he chose theater as his major.

According to Brook Davis, an Assistant Professor at Wake Forest's Department of Theater and Dance, Andrews may have found his calling. "He's terrific. He's got great natural talent," says Davis. "He's terrific at playing various different characters. He uses his body really well. He's really exciting to watch on the stage."

Davis is quick to point out that majoring in theater is not equivalent to "Rocks for Jocks" or other classes designed to make life easier for student-athletes. In addition to on-stage acting, Andrews studies dramatic literature and theater history. He is also required to take a playwriting class, in which he's already written his first play. It's called, "It's Not Goodbye, It's I'll See you Later," a semi-biographical piece about two high school sweethearts trying to escape the pressures of small town life.

"Bits and pieces of the play are extracted from my real life," says Andrews. "Though when I was in high school, I was probably the [last] person to actually think about theater. I thought those theater people were really weird."

Football came a little more naturally for Andrews. His father, William, starred at Auburn and played six seasons in the NFL for the Atlanta Falcons, gaining over 1,000 yards four times and more than 2,000 all-purpose yards twice. But football took a toll on his father's knees, so his mother was not keen on her son playing football. Micah preferred basketball until his junior year of high school, when he quit hoops to focus exclusively on football.

Andrews was recruited by LSU, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Boston College, Vanderbilt, and others, but chose Wake Forest because of the family atmosphere under coach Jim Grobe.

"I liked the way the coaching staff listens to the players," Andrews says. "They talk to us a lot. They're real personable people. Coach Grobe is not a headstone at a big college where you might never have a conversation with him. You can walk by his office and he'll ask you to sit down for a couple minutes and tell him how you're classes are going."