Hailing from Puyallup, Washington, new junior and football player, Micah Balzarini ‘24, first stepped onto the football field in the third grade. Football has remained a constant in Micah’s life since then. A true competitor, Micah’s drive to compete has allowed him to continue the sport for so long. “Football is the ultimate team sport. The more I play, the more I want to win.”
Many athletes look up to family members or other athletes as inspiration to have taken up a particular sport, but for Micah, his curiosity and open-mindedness led him to start playing football. Now, as a quarterback, Micah looks up to NFL All-Pros, Tom Brady and Joe Burrow.
“The way they carry themselves and their fiery competitiveness are the biggest things I look up to in their game,” he says. “When I’m on the field, I focus on letting my play do the talk.”
After a few years of attending Puyallup High School in Washington, Micah settled on Blair Academy because he wanted to be a part of a community where people had a common mindset as him to succeed.
“Unlike most people at public school, Blair students seem to all be on top of their stuff.”
Currently two games into the season, Micah believes the transition between schools has gone smoothly. He credits this with not only his ability to be cerebral and read defenses, but also with his natural gift to learn quickly and adapt. He also partly attributes the successful transition to his offensive coordinator, Coach Flora.
“One of the biggest reasons I was able to adapt so well was because of Coach Flora. Coach and I were able to develop a chunk of the offensive playbook to fit my playstyle.”
In five to ten years, Micah sees himself “either entering the NFL Draft or if football doesn’t work, pursuing a career in business in college.” However, as of now, Micah has his priorities straight: first, he wants to excel academically. Second, he wants to find the college that suits him best. A three-star recruit, he has already drawn interest from some of the biggest football colleges in the nation, such as Michigan and Oklahoma. Lastly and most importantly, Micah wants to be a leader on and off the field, win out the rest of his games at Blair, and have fun doing it.
