Academic Problems Befall Fix : Canyon Lineman Says He Does Not Plan to Play College Football

Justin Fix, The Times’ Valley Lineman of the Year from Canyon High, said Tuesday that he does not plan to play college football next season, citing academic problems and his own misgivings about the sport.

Fix, a 6-foot, 3-inch, 235-pound senior, had been a hot property during the fall, drawing interest from Nebraska, Oklahoma and Washington State. But although he said that he might play in high school all-star games this summer, college is not in his immediate plans.

His decision to skip college is an unpopular one, he said. He says he receives criticism from his parents and friends but remains undaunted, adding that he never made a college education a goal.

“All through high school I played football because it is a great sport and because I like hitting people,” he said. “I never thought about college and I was never a great student. If I go to college, I might be (in) over my head.”

College recruiters changed their attitude toward him when they learned that he lacked the necessary core classes to meet National Collegiate Athletic Assn. qualifications, Fix said. Nebraska abruptly stopped recruiting him in midseason, he said, leaving him cynical about the recruiting process.

“They were talking about me starting as a freshman and all of a sudden they just stopped calling,” he said. “It makes you feel you’re being used, like you’re playing the game for other people instead of yourself.”

Still, Fix claims it is more than academics that is keeping him from football, a sport that both attracts and repels him. He quit the Canyon team for a week during summer practice and, although he helped the Cowboys win the league championship and gain a berth in the Southern Section Division II title game, other pursuits compete with football for his interest.

He plays bass guitar in a rock ‘n’ roll band and also talked about taking a paramedic class at an area junior college next fall.

“Everyone has stereotypes that if you play football that’s all you do,” he said. “But I’ve got a lot of other things going on in my life. Everybody I know is saying how stupid I am. They say if I were in your shoes . . . but they’re not. They’re not the ones out there playing the game.

“I might be messing up. And if I am, I won’t pity myself. I’ll go back to a junior college and play football. It may be a hard way to go, but that’s what I’ll do.”