Garrett Wack is playing his final season of baseball for Catonsville this spring, but it was his switch to football that helped him earn one of high school's most impressive awards.
Wack was one of five regional winners selected at the 52nd Scholar Athlete Awards Dinner on March 11.
The event, hosted by the Greater Baltimore Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, gave $4,000 scholarship checks to five athletes from different geographical areas for use at their colleges.
Also selected were: Jelani Roberts (Gilman School), Liam Butler (Winters Mill), Alexander Plotkin (Archbishop Spalding) and Andrew Visconti (Bel Air).
Seventy-nine players were nominated for the awards based on academic and athletic achievement.
Wack is the third Catonsville athlete to win the award, following Brandon Dixon (2013) and Chris Wilson (2001).
"I was surprised," Wack said. "They did a short introduction on all the kids before they called out the winners, so after hearing some of the resumes of some of the other kids I wasn't feeling too sure."
Catonsville football coach Rich Hambor gave it additional perspective. "You have to be successful at a high level on and off the field," he said.
Wack played soccer on the junior varsity team as a freshman, but while kicking field goals during gym class, his sports path changed.
"I had always had a good foot on the soccer field and there were a couple of kids on the football team down there and they told me to try out," said Wack, whose favorite sport is football.
Hambor liked Wack's potetial and his mental approach.
"He's so carefree in a good way, and that's one reason why he is a great kicker," Hambor said. "He doesn't let any situation bother him."
An advanced placement student with a 5.40 grade-point average who is a member of Spanish National Honor Society and National Math Honor Society, Wack punted and kicked for the football team.
He was a first-team all-county kicker after his sophomore and junior seasons, and was chosen first-team all-county as a punter in his senior year.
"You've got a kid that's succeeding in the classroom above most kids in the school, and on the football field since his 10th-grade year, he's been at the top of his game," Hambor said.
Wack attempted only 10 field goals in his career, making five, but three of the misses were over 40 yards.
As a senior he punted 31 times for a 34.0 average, and he had a career long of 60 yards as a junior.
"Kicker only, he's one of the best, but combination, he is the best," said Hambor, who has coached Catonsville for 11 seasons. "Tom and Dan Vanek and Eric Meininger were good kickers and Skippy Clary was a great punter, but combined, he's the best dual threat kicker since I've been there."
Wack kicked a 53-yarder in practice, but Hambor said his range is about 43 yards. Wack attended camps for punting and kicking and met former Ravens kicker Matt Stover on the Comets' turf.
"I was just down there kicking and he came down randomly and he gave me a few pointers too," Wack said.
Wack, whose longest field goal in a game was 32 yards, also liked to hit.
"A couple times he made some huge hits on kickoffs that just got everybody fired up," Hambor said. "He wasn't one of those kickers where you want to tell them to get out of the way as soon as possible."
Wack remembered one of his first hits during his sophomore year. "It was one of the first football games I played and it was a lot different than soccer," he said. "The guy was just running down the sideline, so I just met him and tackled him out of bounds."
It was his welcome-to-the-team moment, and his teammates let him know it.
"I guess they are not used to seeing kickers make tackles," Wack said.
In the fall he will attend the University of Maryland, where he plans to major in fire protection engineering.
"I'm still toying with the idea of trying to walk on (as a kicker)," Wack said.