By MICHAEL BOYLAN

Sports Editor

Six years ago, a young man from Fayetteville began attending Landmark Christian School in Fairburn. The young man was quite athletic and committed to his academic achievements. His name was Clint Waggoner and he wanted to be a doctor. "Coach Thorn stressed that to get to where you wanted to go, you had to work hard at it everyday," Waggoner said. " You have to be committed to getting better everyday."

In the fall of 1995, Clint began attending the University of Alabama and started playing football for the Crimson Tide. This season he played as a starting defensive endafter seeing some time on the scout team his freshman year and on special teams the year after that. Last week, Clint was named a Burger King National Scholar athlete, earning the University a $10,000 scholarship. Now, Waggoner is facing his final game with the Crimson Tide, a possible Peach Bowl appearance against Virginia.

"We went 7-4 this year and the Peach Bowl would be really nice because I could play my last game here," Waggoner said. Waggoner has a lot of local fans and for good reason. Aside from being a tremendous athlete who has captured several playing awards in games against Vanderbilt and Tennessee this year, he is also a finalist for the Woody Hayes Scholar Athlete award and has been on the President's List all four years at Alabama. The President's List requires a grade point average of 3.9 and above. Clint has been pre-med since day one atthe University.

"I have always wanted to be a doctor," explains Waggoner. "I do volunteer work every Monday with a rural doctor about 30 miles outside of Tuscaloosa. I also volunteer at other hospitals and teach a biology lab once a week." Growing up Clint played every sport imaginable and liked basketball the best. He never thought he'd play football in college, but says his father always knew he would. He didn't realize he would have the opportunity to play college ball until the opportunities came to him. Clint visited both Tennesee and Alabama, two perennial powerhouses in the SEC.

"There are a lot of positive things about playing football in college" states Clint. "There are life lessons learned everyday. You are taught that through perseverance you can accomplish anything. And the school is free, you can't beat that." The most memorable football experience for Clint was playing against Tennessee in Neyland Stadium. "It's so exciting because there are 107,000 people in the stands and they are such a tough team," Waggoner said. "All of the Auburn games have been pretty memorable too, especially this year's win."

Waggoner has one year of eligibility left but he will not use it. He has thought about going pro, but he wants to go to medical school and he knows the possibilities of getting into the NFL are slim. Clint has applied to Mercer, UAB and the Medical College of Georgia to further his education and as long as he takes the lessons he has learned from football, he should be just fine. Until then,Clint has one more chance to send someone to the doctor's without a referral.

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