Middle-school athlete will get his kicks on national level

Several weeks ago I detailed the exploits of Evans Middle School seventh-grader Kevin Millward, who won his age division at the Punt, Pass and Kick state finals.

Apparently, the scores he posted at the Georgia Dome were above average - the 5-foot-11, 190-pound athlete had a winning total that was good enough to put him in the national finals.

After posting his scores more than a month ago, Kevin and his family had to play the waiting game, because the competition was set up so the top four scorers nationally earned a spot in the finals.

That meant Kevin had to survive top challengers from each NFL city.

When the dust settled, Kevin had the second-best score in the country for his age division - that achievement gives him a berth in the national finals.

Kevin will }compete for top honors Saturday in Nashville, Tenn., where the event will be held in conjunction with the AFC Divisional title game between the Tennessee Titans and Pittsburgh Steelers.

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As a lifelong Pittsburgh fan, I'm not sure who I'll be pulling for more: the Steelers or Kevin.

Familiar face

In another recent column, I did a piece on James Shanks. The former Greenbrier High School baseball star now plays in the minor leagues, and the column concerned Shanks being included in the 2002 Bowman Chrome baseball card set.

That story coincided with me doing something I'm sure to soon regret.

In August, after 10 years of going cold turkey, I fell off the wagon and once again started collecting sports cards and memorabilia.

In 1992, I'd sold my entire collection, which exceeded a million sports cards - I was addicted to opening the card packs, and I had to stop.

Well, that abstinence ended in August. Nearly five months and about 2,500 packs later, I'm hooked again.

Last week a package was delivered to my house - it was the factory-sealed box of 2002 Upper Deck minor league baseball cards.

I excitedly opened the packs and almost missed a familiar face.

In the next-to-last pack, there he was, looking slightly bigger and more mature than I remembered, but there was no doubt - if was J.J. Johnson, another Greenbrier product.

It was very cool to pull Johnson's card out of the pack. He is an exceptional prospect with the Chicago Cubs, but whether the card is worth a thousand dollars or just 10 cents, it's very special to me.