Better late than never for Waubonsie Valley senior Sam Mika.
The 6-foot-5, 300-pound Mika, who plays left tackle on the Warriors’ offensive line, certainly looks the part, even if this will be his first full season in just his second year in the sport.
So what took so long?
“I was worried that I would get hurt,” Mika said. “I’ve always been a track guy — shot put and discus — since freshman year. I threw in seventh and eighth grades too.
“If I got hurt playing football, I worried it would probably carry over, and I just didn’t want to ruin my track season.”
Let’s rewind to March 2020.
Tom Baumgartner just had been named to succeed retiring Waubonsie Valley football coach Paul Murphy after working as Murphy’s assistant for 15 years.
Days later, sports were shut down as the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic swept across the country.
It didn’t keep Baumgartner from doing what he would consider his due diligence. Like most high school coaches, Baumgartner always kept watch for potential players.
Mika, a sophomore in one of the history classes Baumgartner taught, had been impossible to miss.
“(Baumgartner) really pushed for me to come out,” Mika said. “I had kind of always wanted to do it, but I didn’t think I was good enough. By that time, I kind of felt like I was.”
Turns out he was right.
The Warriors didn’t have any organized activities until coaches were allowed contact days, without pads, in July.
Baumgartner initially turned Mika over to Jim Braun, a veteran football and track coach who recently had retired from Metea Valley after working at both District 204 schools.
“Anytime you’re a football coach and you get a kid who is 6-5, it makes your heart go pitter-pat,” Braun said. “And when (Mika) said he was a rotator in shot put, it meant he’s got good feet.
“Sam’s a nice kid, fast learner. You can’t coach size. His high end is better than the average kid who’s played four to six years.”
After Braun moved to work with the tight ends, Mika fell under the tutelage of offensive line coach Ben Manzella during contact days in the fall and again in the spring, when the team finally had its delayed season, though shortened to six weeks.
“We knew with his size and good feet, he could be a factor,” Baumgartner said of Mika. “He just needed to get his feet wet.”
The Warriors (1-3) canceled their final two games due to COVID-19 protocols, but Mika was named all-conference special mention in the DuPage Valley.
“I had watched (football) before, but it was a whole different experience on the field, and I think that’s what got me hooked,” Mika said. “It was as tough as a I thought because I don’t like conditioning. I’m not a big runner. I don’t think any lineman is.
“Once you get past the conditioning, it really is a fun sport.”
He will never forget taking the field for the first time.
“Really exhilarating,” Mika said. “I never had that type of adrenaline rush where you could feel it. It’s like a ‘kill or be killed’ experience. If you do bad, you feel like you let everybody down.”
It’s not exactly like shot put or discus, where self-motivation is key.
Mika qualified for the Class 3A state meet in the discus this past season, even though he thinks shot put is his stronger event.
“I got really nervous at sectional in the shot and just couldn’t make the mark,” he said.
With weight room availability limited during the past school year, Mika has been trying to make up for lost time.
“I didn’t get as strong as I wanted going into my junior year,” he said. “I’m putting in the work and hope to keep it going during football and then hit track harder.”
He said he’s “open” to pursuing either track or football in college.
“I think I’m embracing it,” he said.
Mika has next-level potential.
And, of course, the time is always right.