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Meyer took Elk Grove higher

This was the year Nick Meyer became a household name among Chicago-area high school football fans.

But that didn't give Meyer free reign under his own roof. It was a lesson reinforced after a moment that firmly entrenched him in the spotlight.

Elk Grove had just come away with a 36-34 victory at Schaumburg, which was the state's top-ranked Class 8A team at the time. Meyer had produced one of his many spectacular performances.

So, his mom Diane was coming up afterward to congratulate her son on this huge victory, right?

Not exactly.

“During the game there was a bad call and I said something I shouldn't have and she heard it,” Meyer said with a smile. “It was the first thing she brought up, that people are always watching you and watch what you're saying.

“She does a good job of keeping me in check.”

It would have been easy for Meyer to lose that balance as the acclaim grew during his senior season. But he never did in the final leg of a remarkable three-year varsity career.

Meyer's accomplishments on the field and in the classroom, and the way he went about it, made him the choice as the Cook County honorary captain of the Daily Herald's 2010 All-Area Football Team.

“I told Nick after his last game, the only other athlete I've been around at his level is Matt Lottich,” Elk Grove coach Brian Doll said of the New Trier basketball, football and baseball standout of a decade ago who went on to hoop success at Stanford. “And Nick was a better football player, so he's the best football player I've been around and coached.

“I told him it was an honor to be a part of two seasons with you.”

Because it was a successful start to Doll's head coaching career not only with a pair of 7-win seasons but also without any unnecessary headaches from his best player.

Meyer embraced being looked up to by the next waves of Elk Grove players. He worked with the youth camps and teams in the community and with the underclass quarterbacks.

He understood how he was watched by his family with deep roots in the school. His dad Jim was an all-area football player for the Grenadiers and he lettered at Purdue in 1980 and his mom was a swimmer at Elk Grove.

And he knew people all over the community were watching closely as well..

The fact it was all a byproduct of the Grens' success with consecutive 7-win seasons meant more to Meyer than all of his individual successes.

“To turn that around, that's kind of special,” Meyer said. “It's kind of exciting and I'm kind of proud about it.

“A lot of guys work out at the Pavilion and people still talk to you about it. It's exciting, where sophomore year they wouldn't have said two words to you.”

But after Meyer's sophomore baptism under fire at quarterback, the demands for his time increased along with his offensive numbers, even though he was playing full time at safety.

Newspaper, Internet and TV reporters wanted to talk to the guy who passed for 1,807 yards and 15 touchdowns and rushed for 962 yards and 16 scores as a junior.

They wanted to ask about a senior season where he threw for 2,258 yards and 20 touchdowns and ran for 1,011 yards with another 20 trips to the end zone.

“It was interesting to see how he handled all of the attention and pressure,” Doll said. “He handled it with a lot of class. He never got too big in the head about it and never walked around like he owned the place.

“With the amount of interviews the kid did, I never saw it go to his head or saw him get off the phone like it was a burden. He enjoyed it.”

And the times of joy are what Meyer has tried to focus on after losing a rematch with Schaumburg in a Class 7A first-round playoff game.

“If you are going to bow out to a team, bowing out to Schaumburg isn't too bad,” Meyer said of the Mid-Suburban West co-champs.

Now Meyer is focusing on his future and the understanding he's not going to be playing on Sundays in a few years or quarterbacking a Mid-American Conference team at only 6 feet tall.

MAC schools such as Northern Illinois, Ball State and Miami (Ohio) have been interested in him as a defensive back or wide receiver. But with a 4.75 grade point average and a 27 on the ACT, Meyer can see himself succeeding on and off the field at one of the prestigious Ivy League schools that have showed interest.

And once again, being kept on the right path in his own house made a valuable impression on Meyer.

“My dad, since I was little, made sure I maintained my grades,” Meyer said. “One of his lines was, ‘Keep your grades up.' I put that in the back of my head and it's funny how it works out.”

Pretty well like a lot of things in recent years for Nick Meyer.

mmaciaszek@dailyherald.com