Bishop Miege’s Justin McCay receives elite honor

Source: The Star

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Photos by Shane Keyser | The Star

A banner (above) congratulated Bishop Miege football player Justin McCay for his selection to the U.S. Army All-American Bowl all-star football game in a ceremony on Wednesday. McCay celebrated with coach Tim Grunhard (below, left) and his classmates. The game is scheduled for Jan. 9 in San Antonio.

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With his classmates filling the bleachers, Bishop Miege High School football standout Justin McCay stepped in front of a microphone Wednesday morning inside the school’s gymnasium.

“From the first time I laced up my cleats, I dreamed of playing the game of football at the highest level,” McCay said to the gathered crowd.

Wednesday marked another highlight in that quest, as McCay, a 6-foot-4 receiver who has committed to Oklahoma, was formally introduced as a selection for the 2010 U.S. Army All-American Bowl.

The 10th annual edition of the national high school football all-star game, featuring 90 of the top players from around the country, will be played Jan. 9 at the Alamodome in San Antonio and will be televised live on NBC.

Past participants in the game include marquee names such as Adrian Peterson, Reggie Bush, Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow, among others.

“I’m very proud to be walking in the footsteps of the Tebows and the Adrian Petersons and people like that,” McCay said after the ceremony. “It means a lot to me.”

McCay has led Bishop Miege to a 6-2 record through its first eight games (the Stags were scheduled to play again Thursday night), and the U.S. Army All-American Bowl honor was received Wednesday as a source of pride — just not for McCay, but also for the school.

“Like the representative from the Army Bowl said, there’s a million athletes out there playing football, and for us to have one in the top 90 of that is just a once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment for Bishop Miege,” Stags football coach Tim Grunhard said.

McCay used to think he was going to be a basketball player.

Then he had an encouraging sophomore football season and the scholarship offers started flowing in — first Wisconsin, followed by many, many others.

He settled on Oklahoma this past summer and has backed up the preseason hype that surrounded him entering his final varsity season.

“He scores once every five times he touches the ball, and we can’t give him the ball enough,” Grunhard said. “He takes pride in his kickoff returns. He’s run for touchdowns, he’s passed for touchdowns and he’s caught touchdowns. Any way you can score a touchdown, he’s done it — except defensively, and hopefully we can get one of those before it’s all said and done.”

submitted by RYAN YOUNG - 2009-10-29 19:45:02