Damir Collins had always been persistent. Collins was a 5-foot-9, 185-pound tailback from Portland, the subject of dozens of college football coaches' visits to Jefferson High. If nothing else, the four-star back saw the future, the opportunities football could grant him.

All he wanted was for his buddy to see the same thing. Oh, and for the Democrats to win some more games. So for two years, Collins tried to convince his 6-foot-7, 240-pound friend to join the football team. Only thing was, Nathan Rawlins-Kibonge was a basketball player and a basketball player only.

One day, Collins was on his way to newly-hired football coach Don Johnson Jr.’s first team meeting. It was one of the school year’s final days which meant there was no homework to attend to. And it was going to be a while before Rawlins-Kibonge’s uncle picked him up. In other words, he had no excuses. No reason not to go.

So he followed Collins into this foreign world where there were enough bodies to fill a half dozen teams and where summer workout programs were like gospel.

Johnson Jr. -- the son of former NFL assistant Don Johnson, who spent over a dozen years in the league and was a former recruiting coordinator at UCLA -- came off as a genuine figure. He preached that he was there for the kids. He had no agenda, he told the room, and would help them in any way possible notch a scholarship offer.

After the meeting, Rawlins-Kibonge found Jefferson’s new head coach. Johnson stared up and asked: “Do you play football?”

“No, Rawlins-Kibonge, now a three-star defensive line prospect, responded. “I play basketball.”

“You need to play football,” Johnson quipped.

Rawlins-Kibonge was sold. Only thing was, he needed to convince his mom of the idea. She had always been hesitant of her son playing football. There was more brutality in football, more concussions, more injuries. Soon his Aunt and Uncle, whom he lives with in Portland, spoke with her and shared his enthusiasm for seeing how far he could take football.

“Ok, you can play. But just promise me you’ll go to the NBA.” Rawlins-Kibonge said his mom told him before he added back: “Plans change, mom.”

That summer, before he had even taken a snap in a football game, he committed to Washington State to play basketball. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe Johnson or anyone else about his football future but why not play it safe?

Soon after schools saw his 6-foot-7 frame dart off the line like a sprinter and harass quarterbacks around Oregon, football practically became the safe play for his recruitment. As of now, he has 14 offers from schools like USC, Washington, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Miami which often have their pick of the litter.

Not bad for a guy who hasn’t even played football for a full year.

“I think a lot of people judged me on my first year playing,” he said. “I didn't know the technique 100 percent. But I feel like I got out there and got better every game. I feel like I have a lot to prove this season before I go off to college.”

But if all things go to Rawlins-Kibonge’s plan, he’ll be a two-sport star in college. It’s why he’s still committed to Washington State for basketball. The Cougars are still recruiting him in football, too, and Johnson told him because it’s only a verbal commitment, he can change his mind any time.

And so he’s still playing the field, while holding great interest with the school that first handed him a football offer -- Arizona State.

“I love Arizona State,” he said. “They have an elite coaching staff. An NFL coaching staff. They’re high on my list. Really high. I have great relationships with the coaches.”

Rawlins-Kibonge’s first contact from the Sun Devils was former defensive line coach Jamar Cain, who has since accepted a job with Oklahoma, which forced the Sun Devils to throw their newly-hired defensive line coach Robert Rodriguez onto Rawlins-Kibonge’s recruitment.

“He’s definitely really down to earth,” Rawlins-Kibonge said of Rodriguez. “It feels like I already have a connection with him. He’s not scared to be who he is and talks how he talks. He’s definitely 100 percent authentic from what I can see.”

A few weeks ago, Rodriguez asked the three-star defensive linemen if he wanted to play basketball in college. Rawlins-Kibonge fired right back. “I’d love to,” he told the ASU coach. Rodriguez said he’d see what he could do but, as of now, the Sun Devils haven’t offered him a basketball scholarship.

Most schools haven’t shown interest, Rawlins-Kibonge said, after he committed to Washington State. Regardless, he said he would like to play both basketball and football in college because, “It’s something not many people get an opportunity to do and I feel like it’s something I could do.”

Even so, as more and more football offers roll through the door, Rawlins-Kibonge seems less dead-set on being a future two-sport athlete. In a way, he looks at basketball as something he’s really good at, a sport he plays for fun. Football, though, can be a career.

“(My priority) is definitely football,” he said. “(There’s) just more opportunity and a higher ceiling.

“(Coach Rodriguez) has talked about my run-blocking, my run stops … I think people have said, ‘Oh every offer he has is just off potential.’ But this year I’ve put in the work for football so I feel like I can go out and prove a lot of people wrong. That I can come in before I go to college and be one of the most elite D-ends in the country.”

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rawlins-Kibonge has yet to go on an official visit. He had one scheduled with Oklahoma before everything shut down and was able to take unofficial to nearby Oregon State.

With the uncertainty the pandemic has caused, Rawlins-Kibonge still hasn’t a single clue when he’ll commit. Heck, even before then, he’ll need to iron out which sport he wants to play. Regardless, he said he plans to graduate in December which would put him on a college campus in time for spring ball.

“Education is big. Development is big. And relationships are big,” Rawlins-Kibonge said of his recruiting wish list. “Just being able to trust that they’re going to develop me right away to get me to the highest possible level that I can get to.”

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