By Kevin Eckleberry

Sports Editor

So far, so good for former Callaway High athlete extraordinaire Quantavius Leslie.

Leslie is in school at Hinds Community College in Mississippi, and although he’s yet to play a down for the football team, he is already a success.

He recently completed a summer-school session at the school with a 4.0 grade point average.

That’s a major point of pride for Leslie, who signed with West Virginia, but is at  Hines because he was academically ineligible to play for the Mountaineers.

“It’s working out good here,” Leslie said. “It probably took a couple of days to get used to it. I can’t go home when I want to. I just had to suck it up and make the best of it.”

Leslie had hoped to be a Mountaineer, this fall and he signed with the school in February.

When he was unable to qualify, though, he looked at different options, and he figured the junior-college route would be the best way to go.

He signed with Hinds, and he has been working out with the football team this summer in preparation for the upcoming season.

“I’m looking forward to (the season) a lot,” Leslie said. “I’m ready to just see what the college level is like, get used to (college football) before I go Division I.”

Leslie said he has approached college knowing he’ll be given nothing.

“I realized it’s not like it is in high school,” he said. “They’re not going to give you anything. You have to earn everything.”

Leslie, in essence, has become a free agent again.

In February, Leslie will be free to sign with any school he chooses, and he said he has no idea what school he’ll go to next year.

Leslie said he’ll “open up” the recruiting process again.

For now, Leslie is ready to give Hinds his best, and he hopes to start at wide receiver this fall.

“I think I’ve got a pretty good shot,” he said.

In Leslie, Hines is getting an athlete who did some extraordinary things at Callaway.

He was a phenomenal wide receiver for the Cavaliers, and it was his remarkable catch near the goal line that set up the Cavs’ game-winning touchdown in a 35-31, second-round playoff win over Westminster.

After that game, Leslie said “I knew I just had to make a play for our team when they needed me.”

Leslie also played defensive back for the Cavs, and he rarely left the field during the three playoff games a year ago.

While it was Leslie’s football skills that attracted the attention of colleges from across the country, he’s just as gifted on the hardwood.

The 6-foot-3 Leslie was Callaway’s best player the past two seasons, and last season, he led the team to the state quarterfinals.

Leslie’s most memorable athletic performance at Callaway may have come in a loss.

In the second-round of the state basketball tournament in 2009, Leslie scored 39 points in a double-overtime loss to Dade County.

An exhausted Leslie, who played nearly every minute of the game, would like on the floor during timeouts, and then he would pop back up to make another sensational play.

The effort prompted his coach, Terry Hayes, to call him a “warrior.”

Leslie was also a standout sprinter at Callaway, and he and three of his teammates won the county title in the 400-meter run this spring.

Those high-school days, Leslie said, were times he’ll never forget, and he’ll always remain a part of the school.

“One thing about Callaway, once you’re a Cavalier. you’re always a Cavalier,” Leslie said.