THE FRONT ROW with BRUCE BOURQUIN, May 30, 2014

To give you an idea of how bright Timberlake High valedictorian and two-time state champion Preston Rhodes is, one only needs to take a look at what the senior accomplished this past June.

After earning a "A" grade and becoming one of the top scorers in an aerospace engineering online course offered by Boise State, Rhodes was flown by BSU to visit the NASA Ames Research Center, one of 10 NASA field centers in the country, located in Mountain View, Calif., about 35 miles southeast of San Francisco.

"We explored (some) of their facilities," Rhodes said. "We got a walkthrough of their main missions in the past, we got to see their Arc Jet complex and their wind tunnel, which is the largest in the world. We also got to see the G-Force simulator."

He also earned a 4.0 grade-point average this past year, all while excelling in football, wrestling and the pole vault in track and field.

Rhodes got the engineering bug in his system after watching "Apollo 13", the 1995 movie based on a true story about the aborted space mission in 1970 to land on the moon.

"I want to be an aerospace engineer," Rhodes said. "I thought maybe I could work either for the government or for private companies."

By the way, the 18-year-old three-sport athlete also just wrapped up a senior year to remember, in which he won state championships in both wrestling and the pole vault.

IN THE pole vault, at the state 3A track and field meet two weeks ago at Middleton High, Rhodes won a tiebreaker by not missing any of his vaults at 14 feet, while Nik Fagen of Fruitland missed on two while also landing a 14-foot vault.

Rhodes attempted an earlier vault of 14-6, and nearly made it count, but his triceps hit the bar as he let go of the pole.

"I think you have to have a lot of speed to be a pole vaulter," Rhodes said. "Like wrestling, you have to have a lot of mental toughness. I knew coming in that Nik and Colebee Ransom of Payette, they both beat me last year. I was really focused."

Timberlake track and field coach Brian Kluss put it in a more colorful way.

"You have to have a bit of kamikaze in you," Kluss said. "He doesn't have much in the way of fear. You have to have a bit of craziness, to launch yourself that high in the air, turn sideways and not really know if you'll land safely in the pit or not."

Rhodes said he plans to attend the University of Idaho, as he earned a Go Idaho! Platinum Level academic scholarship. The scholarship is valued at $4,000 per year and can potentially be valued by as much as $16,000 over four years. While Rhodes isn't 100 percent sure which major he'll choose yet, he is leaning toward mechanical engineering.

He also plans to walk on to the Vandals' track and field team as a pole vaulter. The Vandals are looking for a new head coach after Wayne Phipps left earlier this week to take over the program at Washington State.

Rhodes had numerous scholarship offers, among them one to play football at the College of Idaho and another to wrestle for Bacone College, an NAIA school in Muskogee, Okla.

"I've got to prove myself," Rhodes said. "It sounds like I'll have a good chance, they have a really good team. "I talked to their coach (at Idaho), Julie Taylor, and she said that if I cleared 14 feet, I'd make it to the next tryout."

RHODES ALSO used his smarts, strategy and a bit of scouting to defeat Dustin Kistenmacher of Weiser handily, 7-1, to win the state 3A wrestling championship at the Idaho Center in Nampa.

"I knew his main strategy was to come out hard in the first period, to score a lot of points so I couldn't come back. I knew from watching his matches that's what he was (likely) going to do. I came out in the first period, hold my neutral position and I tried to keep it slow and controlled. It was kind of a boring first period, it was 0-0 afterward, nothing really happened. I could tell he was tired, so I turned my offense on."

Another nice side story is the fact Rhodes came back this past season from a torn knee ligament suffered toward the end of his junior season in wrestling.

"He was having a great season, so it was pretty devastating," Timberlake wrestling coach Ryan Montang said. "It meant a lot to him to win the state title. He didn't miss a practice or a meet (this season)."

Rhodes, who was also the team's starting tailback in a crowded backfield that included teammate and friend Daniel Buck, is 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds. But Rhodes simply put in the time and effort, coming in with Buck around 6:30 in the morning to work on extra sprints and weightlifting and other tools football players need to get an edge.

"I'm a little small," Rhodes said. "It wasn't a big deal for wrestling or track. For football, I've been our smallest running back. I think it goes to mental toughness."

That mental toughness took Rhodes and the Tigers far this season, as they finished 6-4 and reached the quarterfinals of the state 3A football playoffs, losing 35-21 to eventual runner-up Fruitland.

Rhodes, a second team all-state selection, led the team last season with 630 rushing yards, nine rushing touchdowns, 20 receptions, 479 receiving yards (third all-time among Timberlake players for a single season) and seven receiving touchdowns.

He is also seventh on Timberlake's all-time career rushing list with 1,475 yards, fifth on the all-time career receiving list with 551 yards and ninth with 2,026 total yards.

BORN IN Salmon, located 2 1/2 hours south of Missoula and near the entrance of the Bitterroot National Forest, Rhodes' family moved to Orofino when he was 4. When he was 10, they moved to Athol and Rhodes went to school in Spirit Lake. Next Friday, he'll graduate from Timberlake.

Preston's father, Mark Rhodes, works in Coeur d'Alene as a District Conservation Officer for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. His mother, Kelly Rhodes, is a chemistry teacher and assistant track coach who coaches hurdles, among other events, at Timberlake.

"If I get a B, I know about it," Rhodes said. "It (being the valedictorian) is really nice, it's nice to see all that hard work getting rewarded. That's what has been my goal since seventh grade."

And if Rhodes achieves his goal of becoming an aerospace engineer, his future could be limitless.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, or via email at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @bourq25