Seeing young athletes with the ability to play more than one sport in college makes me wonder what decision I would make if in their shoes.

I think they most commonly side with the sport they are more passionate about, and I think that’s what I would do if I was a senior in high school and was asked to pick between two or more sports.

But now, well into my 20s, I think I’d probably look at things from more of a business perspective. I think I’d chose the sport that would be most profitable to me, whether through scholarship funds or the possibility of going professional after college.

Watching ESPN recently and realizing Millbrook’s Keith Marshall committed to the Georgia Bulldogs is what prompted me to wonder. And while I’m sure Marshall, a running back for the Wildcats, had little issues deciding football was his primary sport, I began pondering how athletes with the ability to compete in various sports at the collegiate level make their decision.

Look at the Knightdale track team, for example. The first thing I told Knightdale head football coach Robert Senseney when he took over the program two seasons ago was he had a lot of speed at that school. Whether or not they became football players was up to them and the coach’s recruiting.

But the Knightdale track team has won titles up to the national level in his time as football coach, and it isn’t uncommon for football teams to look to track stars to fill wide receiver roles.

Mar-Keo Jones, Burkheart Ellis Jr. and Da’Quan Smalls — to name a few — could certainly fill some role on the gridiron and run with the best of them, I’m sure, with a little training. But they’ve stayed on the track, where they call home.

They are in a rare situation, however, because their national talent won’t go unnoticed. Unless something wild happens, I expect they’ll be offered nice packages to big programs in the track world and even take their skills to the next level when the time comes.

Griffin Heffner is another example of an eastern Wake athlete with the potential to play more than one sport after high school.

His leg strength alone would pave the way for him to kick for a college team at some level. He might not have got into kicking 50-yard field goals as a freshman, but he’s been kicking a soccer ball that far for years.

He calls the soccer field his home, and competing at the youth National Team level I’d find it equally rare his talents don’t earn him a spot on a collegiate soccer team of his choice. With his national background I’d say he, too, could end up playing at the next level on down the road.

These local guys don’t exactly help make my point since the sport each chose is the one they love and will likely have the most success playing. But they do help make my point in that few prep athletes are as fortunate as they are.

Some are good at more than one sport, but not outstanding at one of those sports. Those are the players I think have a big decision to make when colleges begin sending out letters. They have to weigh their options and determine what is more important to them — playing the sport they love or playing the sport they think will take them the farthest.