FORT MYERS, Fla. — High school sports are officially on Summer break in Southwest Florida. Although our local teams may not be playing games right now, it is still a very active time for the student-athletes who plan on playing in college. Summer is an important time on the recruiting calendar, especially for football players.
Making it onto a college football roster is hard. Playing college football at the Power 5 level is extremely difficult. However, playing college football and college baseball at the same time at the Power 5 level is almost unheard of, unless you are Timmy Lawson.
Lawson, who is a rising senior at Bishop Verot, has committed to the University of North Carolina to play both football and baseball.
When Lawson was growing up, he was all about baseball. The first baseman and pitcher committed to the University of Central Florida in July of 2022. His sights were set on the collegiate diamond. However, the gridiron started to creep into the picture.
“I got committed for baseball, so I was ready to go,” Lawson said. “I was ready to play baseball. Football was kind of on the side. I just wanted to be good and play.”
‘On the side’ quickly turned into front and center. Lawson added 25 pounds in the last year and put together his second impressive season playing varsity for Bishop Verot football.
“I think it went in the college coaches’ minds from potential to he’s legit now,” Bishop Verot football head coach Richie Rode said. “I think that maybe flipped a switch in his mind, too.”
The switch did flip. Lawson de-committed from UCF and began to focus on the football side of things through the recruiting process. He garnered more than 20 Division I scholarship offers for football in six months. While most of the schools were showing interest in his football abilities, Lawson made it clear that he was still interested in playing college baseball.
“I told a lot of them and a lot of them brought it up to me,” Lawson said.
One of the many schools that offered Lawson a scholarship was UNC. The Tar Heels have a football team that has consistently ranked in the AP Top 25 Poll for the last couple of years and a baseball team that won its 24th conference title last year.
“I couldn’t find a single thing wrong with [UNC],” Lawson said. “They’ve got everything.”
North Carolina even has an assistant coach who used to be in Lawson’s shoes.
“Coach Freddie Kitchens, the tight-ends coach, he played football and baseball in college,” Lawson said. “So they’re all really into it and excited.”
With both sports on the table in Chapel Hill, Lawson committed to play football and baseball at UNC. He won’t be the only two-sport Tar Heel. Two other UNC student-athletes will also be playing baseball and football with Lawson.
Lawson is aware of how much extra work playing two sports at the Power 5 level is, but is excited for the opportunity.
“I’ve been juggling football and baseball for forever,” Lawson said. “So, it’s just extending it into a different life. It’s going to be a lot of work, but I think I’m excited for it.”
Before that exciting life at North Carolina, Lawson still has his senior year with the Vikings on Sunrise Drive.