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Link: www.norcalsportsroots.com/featured/tunnel-vision/

Two sport college athletes are uncommon. Julius Thomas' story is rare.

Julius Thomas was an excellent high school basketball player at Tokay High in Lodi. In his senior year he was a key player on the Tigers team which won the Division I Sac-Joaquin Section title and eventually lost in the NorCal finals to De La Salle. The Spartans went on to win the 2006 state title against Clovis West.

Thomas received a scholarship to Portland State. He had considered Santa Clara, Boise State and Sac State before deciding on heading due north. He decided to commit during the early signing period so that he could play his final year in high school without the distractions of playing to impress college recruiters.

"I really wanted to get to a school that was a little bit away from home and I just liked the Portland area. I liked the campus and it was also important to me to make sure that I go to a big city, I wasn't too interested in playing in a college town."

In his sophomore year (2008) the Vikings made it to the NCAA's as a 16th seed and drew #1 seed Kansas. There was no upset.

In his junior year (2009), Portland State accomplished a big December upset of then 7th ranked Gonzaga. They once again made the NCAA tournament, this time as a 13th seed, but lost to Xavier in the first round.

Although the Vikings made it as far as the semi-finals of the Big Sky tournament in 2010, they would advance no further. Thomas finished his basketball career strong in the final game with 18 points and 11 boards in a loss against Weber State.

His basketball career may have ended, but not his athletic career.

Thomas always had an interest in football and most of his high school friends played. Freshman football was his only experience. "There was always a part of me that wished I was out there on those Friday nights." He was 6'4', 205 in high school and envisioned that he would have played wide out and outside linebacker. Thomas, however, knew a Division I basketball scholarship was within reach and to earn it would require basketball focus.

When Thomas arrived on campus his freshman year he made inquiries as to whether he could play the two sports. Given the overlap of the seasons, the possibility was nixed, but the football coaching staff was aware of Thomas' interest. Once basketball ended in 2010, his opportunity finally arrived.

"One of the hardest things is going from being a pretty savvy veteran from four years of basketball. I pretty knew everything that was expected of me, I knew how to execute different things. When you start playing a new sport you start from the bottom. It's hard to go from being a senior, an experienced player, into being the rookie out there. here was a lot of terminology I didn't understand, how to execute routes, block, everything. I had a very, very basic knowledge of the game."

His teammates and coaching staff, particularly his position coach, got him up to speed.

His first college game was on the road at Arizona State in front of 43,000 in a 104 degree game time temperature. He remembers the excitement of waiting in the tunnel before the game. "I don't know if I was necessarily nervous, but I was really excited. I kept having to remind myself, 'You are really here, you made it through Spring, you made it through camp and you're really on the football field now. This is where it matters.'"

"You feed off of the crowd and the atmosphere. I felt I had the ability to make plays, to do certain things and I was really anxious to showcase that."

Thomas had two receptions that game, the longest for 17 yards in a 54-9 loss. Two games later the Vikings played now number one ranked Oregon on the road and suffered a 69-0 defeat. Thomas was the leading Viking receiver for that game with 4 catches for 48 yards. Two games later something special happened.

Against Montana State in Bozeman not only did Thomas have 7 catches for 143 yards, but midway in the first quarter he scored his first touchdown on a 55 yard play. Not surprisingly he remembers it very well:

"I lined up in the slot. We gave them a hard count and they jumped offsides. We work on that all of the time in practice. If a defender jumps offsides, our center does a great job of trying to identify that and snaps the ball, catch them in an offsides and we know we have a free play.

I just started to do exactly how I was taught to do it, run directly up the seam. As soon as I got past the outside linebacker, the ball was there, Connor (Kavanaugh) our quarterback did a great job of putting it on me.

When I caught the ball I saw a little bit of a gap between the safeties, made a play to go inside, slipped the tackle of the safety and then saw the offside safety coming toward me. just figured there's no chance you can let these guys catch you, you got to outrun them.

Just going up the field, I would try to do what anybody growing up in America probably does, the same thing you've been doing since you've played football in the park, just try to outrun those guys trying to catch you. That was probably my only thought: make sure you don't let anyone catch you."

They didn't.

He finished the season with 29 receptions, 453 yards and 2 touchdowns. He was a first team Big Sky All Conference selection.

Not bad at all for somebody who had not played organized football since he was 14. Thomas' focus now is to train to get to the next level. He plans to spend a lot of time in the weight room and to compliment that with increasing his knowledge of the game.

Hopefully, he will have other stadium tunnels to experience.