When people think about professional sports teams, they usually picture the star players of that team. Whether it be the running back for the football team or the point guard for the basketball team, people like to picture the star athlete. But what happens when those people move on? Rarely do people look into the next stars in training. Sophomore Thomas Creed is one of those aspiring stars.

“I want to push myself as far as I can go in all challenges” said Creed.

Creed represents George Mason on the Football, Basketball and Baseball team. Inside each one of those sports he puts huge amounts of time into training to better himself for future competitions. Almost every day Creed is training for one of those sports. What motivates this extreme amount of effort? What keeps him from physically and mentally breaking down?

Now standing over 6 feet, Creed has always been known for his height, along with being a f2ootball player. Ever since he was in third grade he has been playing the sport. Whether it be receiver or quarterback, Creed has probably played it at some point. In his sophomore year, Creed became the varsity quarterback for the Mustangs, one of the most vital members of the team.

“I play it because I really love doing it and I love being with my team. I think it is definitely worth the risks,” said Creed. For the last two summers, Creed has been training in a special Quarterback Class at Perfect Performance in Tyson’s Corner, constantly working to push himself to his limit. Out of all the sports he plays, Creed enjoys playing football the most.

If Creed isn’t training for football, he’s working on Basketball or Baseball. He has played basketball almost as long as he can remember. “I used to play other positions but over the years as I grew, I began to stick more to playing Center” said Creed. He now plays Center for the JV team and hopes to play it again in Varsity next year. It is a similar story for Creed with Baseball as well. He plays first base and center field and sometimes pitches for the varsity team. Over the last months, Creed has put many hours into perfecting the art of pitching. “I want to be the main pitcher when I’m older but there is a lot of competition for that spot.”

Now what is it that keeps this athletic engine pumping? The answer is one of the biggest challenges Creed has ever had to overcome. In December of 2014, Creed was diagnosed with Strep Throat, however it quickly progressed to the point of hospitalization for Toxic Shock Syndrome and a big case of Pneumonia.”At first it was just a sore throat, then in a couple hours, I found myself being rushed to the hospital with a 106 degree fever.” said Creed. He was in the hospital for twenty one days and after that, was not allowed to leave his house for another two weeks. He couldn’t walk and had to be plugged into an IV during those first couple of weeks. He ended up missing most of his basketball season and went into baseball with an extreme lack of endurance. Not only was he hit hard with not being able to play sports, but he had to work to make up for the school he missed over the next couple months. A change was needed to set him back on track.

That change was something that Creed gained amid this catastrophe, something big: Motivation. “During my recovery I set a bar to get back to my old strength. Once I got there, I always tried to set the bar higher, even now I try to get over the last bar I set and set a new one.” Said Creed. Over the summer Creed pushed himself and the results were shown when he took his football team to a 8-4 record, something that his team hadn’t done in many years.

Sophomore offensive lineman Craig Hagigh describes Creed “A guy who knows how to lead a football team. That’s why he’s quarterback.” The team knows that without Creed’s efforts they wouldn’t have made it that far this season.

Creed plans on getting an IB diploma and has already began in the long rigorous process of choosing a college. “Next year is going to be hard, academically and physically” said Creed. He doesn’t seem to worry though, as he is one of the most motivated members of his school.