Golden Boy

"When he was 11, playing for his Little League all-star team in Utah, he hit seven home runs in seven consecutive at bats," Drew's father, Dan, says. "I remember a woman suggested to my wife, Carol, that maybe this was something that SPORTS ILLUSTRATED might be interested in for FACES IN THE CROWD. Carol wrote a little letter and sent it off. A month later we got a letter back saying something like 'Congratulations on your accomplishment, but, sorry, it's not good enough for FACES IN THE CROWD.' I remember thinking, Gee, I don't know, seven home runs in seven at bats seems pretty good to me."

The family genes suggested some chance of success at the start. Dan was an athlete and a coach, Carol was an athlete and a coach. They met at Central Michigan, where Dan played defensive back on the football team and Carol won seven varsity letters, in basketball, volleyball and track. They were off on the traditional Chutes 'n' Ladders path of college coaching, five houses or apartments in six years by the time Drew was born. (He has lived in 14 houses in 18 years.) The lessons of athletics began almost as soon as he could talk. Maybe even before.

"He was always with us," Dan says of the older of their two kids. "We'd eat dinner, and Carol would talk about her day with her team and I would talk about my day with my team. We would talk about the kids who were succeeding and what they were doing. We'd also talk about the kids who could be doing better but were messing up. I think Drew learned almost by osmosis. It wasn't like we had to tell him things directly. He knew how much work goes into success."

Dan was hoping to land in the NFL as an assistant, or maybe a head coach, someday. He thought the best route was by learning the intricacies of the passing offense and by coaching quarterbacks. This took him from tiny Hope College in Holland, Mich., (where he was a football assistant and Carol was women's basketball coach), to San Jose State, to Utah, to Arizona State and finally, in 1995, to Eastern Michigan.

Drew was along for all of this, a ball boy on the sidelines of the Division I big time. He loved it. Dan told him at age 10 that whenever he wanted to hit baseballs he could ask and Dan would pitch. Drew always asked, 100 pitches, 150 a night, swinging away with those aluminum bats that make a ball jump. He was a big kid, always big for his age—too big, in fact, ever to play quarterback in Pop Warner but not to play basketball. By eighth grade he was playing forward on an AAU touring team that played 70 to 80 games a year. He was very good at whatever he did.

"I'm in this business, so I always was realistic," Dan says. "I've seen a lot of kids who stand out and then move along to the next level and become ordinary. I kept watching for this with Drew, but each time he moved up it was the same. He could always handle the challenge. By the time he was 12, I knew he was different. He had the mental makeup to go with the physical abilities."

The job as offensive coordinator at Eastern Michigan opened in the middle of Drew's ninth-grade year at Brimhall Junior High in Gilbert, Ariz. Dan took the job and gave Drew the option to finish out the year in Arizona, living with his sister, Brittany, and Carol for the final 3½ months while they closed up the house and finished unfinished business, or to come immediately to Michigan with him. Drew went with his dad.

Father and son lived in an office in the field house, two beds fit between the furniture and clutter. They ate breakfast together every morning at the Mobil station across the street. At night Dan graded films of recruits on the big-screen television while Drew slept. More osmosis. "I think that was a good time for him, a good time for both of us," Dan says. "I think it was a time when a lot of things came into focus. Don't you think so, Drew?"

"I think so," Drew agrees. "I think my whole life, moving around the way we have, always adjusting to a new school, new friends, has helped prepare me for what's ahead. I've had to learn how to live with new people."

After careful consideration, they chose to live in Brighton so Drew could play at the high school there. Dan had researched a bunch of Michigan schools, grading them for their athletic programs, scholastic test scores and coaching staffs in all sports. He liked Brighton's large size (more than 2,000 students), athletic tradition, academic excellence and coaching stability. The Bulldogs were chosen to receive this unexpected gift.