It’s not easy to be a high school athlete these days.

If you want to continue an athletic career beyond the glory days of high school, it’s basically a full time job year round on top of science homework and report cards.

And in today’s world, recruiting has never been bigger and social media has never been more daunting. There is a microscope on any and every player who has plans of pursuing a career at the college level and beyond.

As we here at GPB introduce you to this season’s next highly recruited quarterback, let me first say, I’m really impressed with his determination and professionalism. As we spoke on the phone, he managed to fit me in in between a weightlifting workout on an idle day in the summer. School is out, football is just around the corner, and he’s in the weight room just trying to get better.

Meet Baron Radcliff of Norcross High school.
Radcliff is a dual-athlete but not just any dual-athlete. He has two options once he graduates high school: get drafted in baseball or play college football. No big deal.

But wait, it gets better.

His father, Vic Radcliff is a former Major League Baseball player and the chances of Baron following in his father’s footsteps are pretty good. (Radcliff was drafted by the Kansas City Royals and played professional baseball from 1995-2000 according to ninthinningbaseball.com).
Before we go there, let’s talk about his football potential first.

Radcliff currently has five official football offers from Boston College, Georgia Southern, South Alabama, Tulane and Vanderbilt. In addition, Notre Dame and Duke have expressed interest.
According to 247Sports, Radcliff is a three-star pro-style quarterback. He and his family moved to Georgia from South Carolina because of athletics and the competition level in Georgia. Talk about making it happen.

After his sophomore season at Norcross, he was declared the starter and started his entire junior year.
He is by far one of the top quarterbacks in the state and we saw Radcliff’s football skills live this past season on GPB Sports’ Football Fridays in Georgia. Radcliff led the Blue Devils to a 38-10 victory over North Gwinnett.

He can throw the football and he can run it. At 6’4” and 214 pounds, he’s a pretty powerful runner. When he runs with the ball, he bulldozes his way through defenses, making it next to impossible for defenders to drag him down. As good as he is at football, he’s even better at baseball.
Having a father who played at the professional level, Radcliff says that baseball does come a little easier to him than football. However, he’s still undecided on what his post-high school plans will be.

“For the most part, I’m somewhat entertaining football, but I haven’t really decided what I want to do yet,” Radcliff says.

Radcliff has played in 50 baseball games with a batting average of .262, 48 RBI and 5 home runs (According to Maxpreps.com).

And as for this football season, Radcliff says their football team isn’t going to look much different than last year.

The Blue Devils only lost 3 starters on offense and 3 on defense. “We’re looking really talented, a lot of guys are coming back. It’s basically the same team just bigger, faster, stronger,” he says.
Even though his plans for the future are still being decided, he doesn’t let the future steal his focus for what he wants to accomplish this season.

As the senior and the quarterback of the football team, a lot of teammates are looking to him for leadership. Radcliff says that he has matured a lot over the last two years and understands that cohesion is critical in having a good football team.

“You’ve got to have a brotherhood, chemistry and relationships. You’ve got to be okay stepping out of your comfort zone to get the job done,” Radcliff says.
He’s learned a lot from his father, who has supported him through his high school journey. The biggest thing his father taught him was in this statement- “talent isn’t enough, hard work is really what gets you to the level you want to reach.”

Radcliff takes that to heart as he puts in the work each and every day. Whether his athletic career leads him to the diamond or the gridiron, the same principle is true- hard work always wins.
The Norcross Blue Devils will open the season on August 20 at Walton High School. Get ready for a shoot out between two of the top quarterbacks in the state with Walton’s Addison Shoup and Baron Radcliff.