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Carter KarrasValwood SchoolValdosta, Georgia by Robert Preston, Jr. photography by Jonathan Chick |
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It’s one thing for a high school athlete to play a sport or two and maintain solid grades. It’s another thing entirely for an athlete to excel in three sports, all the while holding a nearly perfect grade point average. But that’s exactly what Valwood senior Carter Karras has done. He plays football, basketball and baseball for the Valiants and has generated quite a bit of attention on the field. He’s one of Valwood’s leading wide receivers, he’s the point guard on the basketball team and one of the Valiant baseball team’s aces (he picked up two wins in a three-game series to open the first round of the playoffs this season). All the while, Carter has held on to a 3.98 GPA – and earned an academic scholarship to Auburn University.
Of the three sports, baseball is Carter’s favorite. He began playing at the earliest age possible in tee ball. He busied himself playing at the Vallotton Youth Complex with the Valdosta Parks and Recreation Department as a youngster. He also played travel ball in middle school.
Over the years, he developed into a very capable pitcher. It didn’t hurt that he was a lefty, which automatically gave him an advantage over his right-handed peers (he does, however, bat right-handed). Carter has served the Valiants primarily as a pitcher this year, though he also plays first base and centerfield. He would rather be on the mound, stating that he feels as though he is in control of the game when he’s pitching. Carter utilizes three basic pitches – fastball, curve and change. “I hit the low 80’s last year with my fastball. I haven’t been clocked this year, though,” he says. The fastball is his go-to pitch. “I throw it about 70 percent of the time.”
Carter made the varsity team as a freshman, though an injury limited his playing time. He bounced back his sophomore season and played the whole year. For his entire career, he’s been an invaluable asset to the Valiants. Take the first round of the playoffs, for example. On Friday, May 8, Valwood traveled to Savannah to play the Memorial Day School Matadors in round one.
The Valiants throttled the Matadors 29-0 in game one. Memorial Day came back and beat Valwood 11-7 in the second game, forcing a deciding game three. Valwood took the rubber game 15-6. Carter started both games one and three, and picked up the win in each contest. In the third game, he hit three home runs and drove in eight of the Valiants’ 15 runs. “It was a good weekend,” he says.
Both his sophomore and junior years, Carter was named to the All Region team.
Basketball is Carter’s second sport of choice. He’s a 6’1”, 150-pound point guard for the Valiants who shoots over 80 percent from the foul line and averages about 14 points per game. “I like the action of basketball and I like handling the ball. I enjoy running the floor and shooting,” he says. In the fifth grade, Mike Patrick, who was coaching Valwood’s middle school hoops team, saw Carter playing a pick-up game in PE. He thought Carter could play and encouraged him to go out for the team. Carter made the squad and played on Valwood’s middle school team as a fifth grader. He’s played every year since and he’s done a good job – Carter made the All Region basketball team as a senior. Throughout his formative years, he shunned South Georgia’s number one sport – football. In the ninth grade, the gridiron bug bit and he went out for the Valiants football team. He earned a spot on the roster but didn’t see much playing time for two years. Valwood made the playoffs during Carter’s tenth grade season and went all the way to the state championship
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   Favorite:
I drive a . . . Green Ford Explorer Last book I read: John Steinbeck’s
Most surprising quality: “A lot of people think I’m lazy. But people would be amazed at the amount of time I put into my school work.” |
game. “We received a lot of attention that year,” he remembers. And with good reason: That season, the Valiants were the only football team in Valdosta-Lowndes County that made the post-season. The Valdosta Wildcats, Lowndes Vikings and VSU Blazers all missed the play-offs, and all the football attention in Titletown turned to Valwood. Unfortunately, the Valiants lost to the Trinity Christian Crusaders of Dublin in the title game. Carter remembers Colby Jackson, who is now a fullback for the North Carolina State Wolfpack, “running all over us.” Carter didn’t see the field much in the championship game, so he didn’t feel Jackson’s wrath personally. However, Jackson was a junior at the time, and Valwood faced Trinity Christian again in 2007. “I had lots of chances to tackle him then,” he says. His junior season, Carter caught nine touchdowns and led the Valiants in receiving. This season, he caught three touchdown passes. He also plays defensive back for Valwood.
In keeping with the theme he established in baseball and basketball, Carter earned more All Region honors in football; he made All Region as a junior and senior.
Carter has played three sports for four years, and made All Region five times. One would think with a resume like that, his biggest sports moment would come from varsity competition. But that’s not the case. His favorite moment came eight years ago during recreation league play. He played on the Mudcats, and the team went an entire year without losing a game en route to winning a state championship. Carter also says the round one playoff wins on May 8-9 against Memorial Day are up there, too.
Maybe the biggest question concerning Carter’s athletic career revolves around balance: Just how does he play sports year ‘round and maintain a nearly-perfect grade point average? “It’s not easy. I come home every night from practice and get started on my homework around eight or nine. I’ve also had some good teachers,” says Carter.
His parents, Mark and Patti, instilled in him from an early age the importance of making good grades. Carter knows that if he wanted to play sports, he had to do well in the classroom. Because sports are so important to him, that was motivation enough. “I also don’t want to let my teammates down. If my grades slip and I can’t play, that would hurt the team. So I feel pressure from both my parents and my teammates,” he says.
Carter’s favorite subjects are math and science. He plans to study engineering in college, and that has forced him to make a tough decision about his education: Would he or wouldn’t he attempt to play college baseball? To continue his playing career would mean attending a small college, quite possibly a two-year school, in order to play. Thing is, Auburn University has offered Carter an academic scholarship that pays for a large portion of his education. He’s always wanted to go to Auburn, but that would mean no more baseball. “I’ve always wanted to go to Auburn. My dad went there, and my sister is there right now,” he says. Carter’s father, Mark, says this about his son’s decision: “We let him make that decision. Academics have always been very important to him, and he decided that he would rather pursue academics over athletics. We’re very proud that he received the scholarship. We’ve never pushed him to play college baseball, but we would support him if that’s what he decided to do. We’re going to finish these playoffs, go as far as we can and then move on to the next chapter.” • | |
January 2012
Robert Preston Jr. 
Micki K Photography 
