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Wildcats, top teams like Lancer a lot
Salpointe OL O'Dowd has talent to be a college star
JOHN MOREDICH
Tucson Citizen
Salpointe Catholic offensive lineman Kristofer O'Dowd is a Renaissance man of sorts.
The big, burly football player will smack the guy in front of him to the ground and open holes for his running back with the best of them, but there is more to one of the most highly touted recruits to play in Tucson for a long time.
The 18-year old tackle for the Lancers, a prospective guard or center at the next level, has plenty of other interests.
"My goal is to be a leader, and a well-rounded person," O'Dowd said. "I want people to say, 'He's a good guy, a leader and somebody who does things the right way.' On the field I want to be known as somebody who can really get after people."
Football is taking center stage right now, with top college coaches across the country calling the 6-foot-4, 310-pound five-star Scout.com recruit. But O'Dowd also appreciates the fine arts, a good Broadway play, and even an opera from time to time as much as a good pancake block.
O'Dowd certainly is not one-dimensional, and he has plenty of choices.
Arizona coach Mike Stoops would love to keep the hometown kid a Wildcat, with USC's Pete Carroll trying to convince him that the Trojans tradition and the Los Angeles-area lifestyle is best suited for him, or how Ohio State coach Jim Tressel can highlight the support of the Buckeyes' rabid fans.
"It is flattering that other people think so highly of me," O'Dowd said. "It is a high honor, but I'm not getting too caught up in that. If you do, you get your head stuck in the clouds, and I don't want that to happen to me."
Just one looks says O'Dowd is going to make an easy transition to college. He's very strong, bench-pressing 430 pounds and doing squats with 550 pounds through a workout routine that puts him in the weight room for almost two hours a day, five days a week.
Since birth, O'Dowd has been bigger than others his age. He grew at such a rate he did not meet weight restrictions for Tucson Youth Football, leaving him out of organized football until his freshman year at Salpointe.
"Whenever I would take him in, the doctors would tell me he was off the charts, literally, for his size and physical build," said Genie Gekas, Kristofer's mother. "He just has always been bigger than most kids."
He passes the eye test of a football player.
"He is used to the attention," his mom said. "We will walk into a restaurant or a store and people will be staring at him. They will ask, 'What college do you play for?' "
That's the question right now. O'Dowd says he has 2 1/2 boxes of letters and pamphlets from colleges, and 20 offers, including from UA, ASU, USC, Ohio State, Tennessee, Nebraska, Boston College, Michigan State and Oklahoma.
O'Dowd is getting plenty of pressure to sign with UA. The Wildcats are certainly a possibility, and could be among his top five when he trims his list in August.
"Everybody is talking to us about playing for Arizona," Gekas said. "Our mailman has even brought it up. (Kristofer) gets so much mail that it doesn't fit in our mailbox. The mailman is like, 'Who is the star in this house? Is he going to the UA?' "
Although he plays tackle for Salpointe, UA and other teams project him to play either guard or center. Rivals.com ranks him as the fourth-best guard in the nation and the 62nd-best player overall.
He's going to be a big catch for somebody.
Whoever signs him better give him ample opportunity for him to get his pre-med degree, and maybe some time to travel and experience the world, something he has already done by visiting Costa Rica as part of his mother's Habitat for Humanity volunteer work, or to head back to Broadway to watch another play. Football is his main love in life, but far from his only passion.
It's that diversity - and ability to "knock around the big boys" as O'Dowd says - that has everybody eyeing him.
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