Drake Wolf has a scholarship interview at Eastern Illinois University tomorrow. He doesn't know yet whether it'll be a full ride or something smaller, and the answer matters — he's got an older brother already at EIU studying business, and a younger sister in eighth grade coming up behind him, and the family math is real. But tonight he's still in Newton, and next fall he’ll be heading to Lake Land College.

He went to a couple of Hoosier games this past season with his dad and his brother. They drove to Iowa City for the Iowa game. "It was really fun."

Drake is a three-sport senior at Newton Community High School — football in the fall, basketball now, baseball coming up. Baseball is where his heart has always been. He plays middle infield, shortstop, or second base, and pitches when the team needs it. Football is big at Newton, but if you ask him which sport he'd tell his kids about someday, "if I were to say my favorite growing up, it was baseball."

He was named an Illinois State Scholar this year — one of nine in his class. He's been through injuries along the way, times when it would have been easy to let the academic side slide. He didn't. "It's like a relief almost getting the award. You take a step back and see what you've done in the classroom."

The career path he's aiming for connects directly to his father. Dr. Adam Wolf — Craig interviewed him for an earlier issue and walked in today already thinking about him — is Newton's optometrist, in his mid-forties, with years ahead of him in the practice. Drake's mother works there too; both parents are Newton natives. Drake's plan is to study biology, attend optometry school as his dad did, and come home. "I'm hoping to work with him when I get older." His description of why: he wants to come back to the community he grew up in and "provide health care and make sure they can see well."

He knows it's been done. He mentioned Luke Bloomberg, the young chiropractor in town who trained and came back to practice alongside his own father. "Yeah, I've gone to him before." That's the template.

The teachers and coaches who make his VIP list — the people who'd get through the velvet rope, as Craig put it — come quickly: Tim Bower, the best math teacher he's ever had. Mrs. Baker, who was good when he took chemistry. And John Lidy, the football coach, whom Drake goes to not necessarily for career advice but for conversation. "I just like talking to him." He described why coaches matter differently from teachers: "You spend a lot of time with them. Building a good relationship with them, while guiding you, is really crucial." Football games mean hours together, summer work, all the time outside the classroom, where coaches see everything — including the bad days.

He and his older brother are best friends. They've shared the same sports interests growing up; the brother ran track, which Drake doesn't love. Since his brother left for EIU, Drake has grown closer to his eighth-grade sister — a bond he didn't notice as much when all three were home. His family has been in Newton for generations on both sides.

Describing what Newton is: "I feel like everybody in this town knows each other. You go into a store or a restaurant, you're going to know somebody in there." And describing what he wants to do with his education when it's done: come back to that same town and take care of the people in it.

Senior year is wearing on him a little — waking up early, the long calendar. "Right now, I'm ready for it to be done. But I bet I'll look back on it and miss it."

Tomorrow, a scholarship interview. After that, baseball season. And somewhere beyond that, the long road back home.