High School Sports
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Mount Airy's Dobson commits to East Carolina football
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Published: August 20, 2008
Michael Dobson, one of the most talented athletes at Mount Airy High in recent years, has committed to East Carolina to play football.
Dobson, a 6-1, 185-pound senior running back and defensive back, had seven scholarship offers. In the end, he said he decided between ECU and Duke and that ECU just felt right.
"It was a hard decision, where you want to be for the next four years," Dobson said. "Me and my family did a lot of talking and praying about it, and ECU just felt right.
"They have got a great football program, and as far as academics from my sister (Monique Hines) graduating from there, I know a little more about that. The area is nice, the school is nice, and they have great coaches. What it came down to, it just felt right. It felt like that's what I needed to do."
Dobson made the Journal's All-Northwest Team at running back last season despite playing sparingly in the second half of games for a team that finished 13-1. He ran for 1,639 yards and 30 touchdowns as a junior, averaged 10.7 yards and was the offensive player of the year in the Northwest 1-A.
Coach Kelly Holder said that Dobson was timed at 4.38 seconds in the 40-yard dash at a combine, but that realistically, Dobson's normal time is about 4.5 seconds.
"If you compare him to maybe your average high-school player, he is fast," Holder said. "But as a kid that's going to college, he still pretty quick, but he is not a blazer. But he has other tools to go with it. He is a little bit of a glider. He can make you miss without making some big, huge move. He has the ability to make kids bounce off of him kind of."
Dobson, who also had offers from Akron, Marshall, Western Carolina, Richmond and Ohio, said he isn't sure which position he'll play at ECU.
"What I got from them when they first offered me was running back," Dobson said. "But once they got my defensive tape, too, they were battling back and forth between offense and defense. So I really don't know what will happen.
"If I had my choice I would want to play running back, but if they put me on defense, that's fine. I just want to be able to play."
Dobson said he felt relieved Monday when he called ECU's coaching staff to commit. He can sign the binding NCAA letter of intent in February.
"There's a lot of pressure on you when you are in this type of situation and to finally commit and know where you are going feels good," he said. "Now I can focus on my senior year in high school and doing what I need to do for my team now. It takes a lot of pressure off to be committed and to know where you are going."
Mason Linker can be reached at 727-7324 or at mlinker@wsjournal.com.
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