BOULDER — He was an infrequent participant in offseason conditioning for Fairview basketball. It was too difficult to climb out of bed to stretch and run at 6 a.m. after regularly hitting the sack after 2.
He has missed practice this season and will be absent again today, so don’t be surprised that he was a starter a year ago and now comes off the Knights’ bench.
Michael Grant, or Michael G., as he is called, has an attitude, but it’s not a problem — the native of New Jersey and son of Polish immigrants is attempting to select his destination for the next eight years, a whirlwind tour of college interviews for a pre-med student fascinated by surgery.
One of Colorado’s genuine student-athletes is in the International Baccalaureate program, 20th in his class, vital to the Knights (16-0) — No. 1 in The Denver Post/9News Class 5A poll — and gets stressed like today’s stockbrokers.
Who says kids have it easy?
“Obviously, I feel like the team is my second family,” Grant said. “I don’t want to be doing something that would hurt it. I just feel that if I didn’t have their support . . . I feel like my teammates are my brothers, but there’s almost a feeling of guilt when I’m not being there for the team.”
Fairview coach Frank Lee has no such worries: “You know what? It’s really important to give kids the opportunity to excel, to find their niche.”
Lee has been down this road. In 1999, Fairview was in the midst of a nice run and Jesse Crain, now a pitcher for the Minnesota Twins, asked to miss an important league game in order to visit Texas. Neither was disappointed.
“(Crain) came back even more committed,” Lee said.
Grant’s path is more of an autobahn. After the Knights beat Northglenn on Tuesday to remain atop 5A as well as the Front Range League (4-0), Grant headed to Miami. He spent the past weekend at St. Bonaventure. Two weeks ago, he was at Baylor. South Alabama will be a stop within two weeks. He’s waiting to hear from Rochester, Stevens Institute, Saint Louis, Northwestern and Brown.
Due back for Friday night’s key Front Range matchup against Rocky Mountain, it will be as if Grant never left.
“Our kids are pretty understanding, pretty mature along those lines,” Lee said. “Michael’s so relentless when he gets on the floor. He’s the type of kid who’s driven.”
Grant didn’t speak English until kindergarten, yet eats difficult academic courses for snacks (4.702 grade-point average). He’s up to all hours handling homework and has tested the patience of more than one teacher. While worrying about where he’ll be in his mid-20s, he frets about where he should be at the moment, particularly when his teammates are practicing and he’s in another state being grilled about his justification as a top-flight student.
Grant hasn’t blinked . . . yet.
“These are the stresses of the school year,” he said, “but very exciting at the same time.”
Exciting? A big rebound or taking a key charge has to get in line for a teenager who was in the operating room for an open-heart surgery this past summer.
“It was one of the most amazing experiences,” Grant said. “I was touching distance away from an open heart.”
Lee can only smile and shake his head when discussing probably his most interesting player: “This rarely happens to this degree.”
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
