Bruins’ Selby has change of heart

Published 10:56 pm Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Midway through his senior wrestling season, Northwest Whitfield’s Trey Selby decided his football playing days were over.

Several weeks later when teammates Nathan Postelle, Adam Miller, Dustin Tate and Spencer Bragg — all Daily Citizen All-Area selections — signed national letters-of-intent to continue their careers in college, Selby realized his decision was a bit hasty.

“It hit me hard when I saw all of those guys sign,” Selby said. “I had told everybody over and over I didn’t want to play football. Me being hard-headed, I didn’t want to admit that I had made a bad decision.”

On Wednesday, Selby righted the wrong, signing scholarship papers with Western Carolina and becoming the 22nd player to join coach Dennis Wagner’s 2008 recruiting class. Postelle signed with Western Carolina in February.

Selby, a defensive lineman on the All-Area team, is back on the football field, practicing with the Georgia team for Saturday’s Tennessee-Georgia All-Star game at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga, but he revels in the fact he has the opportunity to play for Western Carolina in the fall.

“I missed (football) so much,” said Selby, a 6-foot-4, 250-pound defensive lineman. “Everywhere I turned something reminded me of football. I thought all the Division I-AA (now Football Championship Subdivision) would have all their scholarships filled.”

So, Selby set his sights a little lower. He made a list of smaller colleges like LaGrange, Shorter and Brevard for Northwest coach Mike Falleur to help him contact. However, Selby also put Western Carolina on his new list.

“I didn’t think they’d have anything for me, but I put them down just in case,” he said.

As luck would have it, Wagner had one scholarship left.

Selby visited the Cullowhee, N.C., campus again last weekend, talked with Wagner, walked away with the final Catamounts grant and a second chance to play football again.

“A couple of weeks ago coach (Falleur) called me out of class and I met him in the hallway,” Selby said. “He was bouncing off the wall he was so excited. He told me Western Carolina still wanted me to play and then I got really excited.”

Obviously, Falleur is thrilled about Selby rethinking his decision to give up football.

“He told me midway through the wrestling season he didn’t want to play,” Falleur said. “He was really struggling with it. I told him to wait before he made up his mind, but he said he just couldn’t play football. With time he changed his mind and seems very excited about it.”

That’s an understatement.

“I didn’t think I’d have the chance to play football again,” Selby said. “Now that I do, I’m very excited and want to make the best of it. When I told Nathan I was going to sign with Western Carolina, he was all excited too.

“Now I’ve got the chance to play against Miller and Tate, who’ll be at Tennessee-Chattanooga. I think I might pick a fight when one of them when we play.”

Selby helped the Bruins reach the 2007 and 2008 state Class 4A playoffs. They lost to Atlanta Mays, 20-0, in the first round two years ago, but defeated Douglas County 38-12 this past season before losing to No. 2 Tucker, 56-10, in the second round.

Selby also helped the Bruins capture the Area 7-4A traditional wrestling tournament title and earn a spot at state duals. Selby placed third at area and fourth at state traditional.

But the mental and physical grind of playing football and going right into the wrestling season led to Selby’s decision to give up football.

“I was just burned out,” he said. “I didn’t feel much like doing anything.”

Now, his thoughts turn back to the gridiron and trying to help Western Carolina turn its program around. The Catamounts have posted just two winning seasons in this decade, 7-4 in 2001 and 5-4 in 2005. In the last two years, the Catamounts were a combined 3-19 and have lost 15 consecutive conference games.

A week before the 2007 season finale, coach Kent Briggs was fired effective at season’s end and on Dec. 31 Wagner, a former offensive line coach at Nebraska, was hired as the school’s 12th head coach.

“Their program has been down lately,” said Selby, who had 59 tackles with six quarterback sacks and played in the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association North-South All-Star game his senior season. “Coach Wagner came in last year and told me everybody they recruited this year is expected to help raise the bar for the program. Everybody knows the conference is competitive with teams like Appalachian State and Georgia Southern.”