Meet the Kid Who Received 150 College Scholarship Offers
It's one thing to be an all-star athlete, another to be triumphant on a musical instrument, and if you're 18-year-old Chad Thomas, even these accomplishments seem small.
The high school senior at Booker T. Washington High School in Miami plays nine different instruments and is an All-American defensive end on the football team. Accordingly, he's received a grand total of 150 scholarships to colleges around the country.
Thomas has already signed with the University of Miami to play football, with hopes to one day make it to the NFL, but it must be nice to know the field is wide open.
"I'm really excited, it's a big opportunity to show people the talent we have here at Booker T., not just football," Thomas tells CBS Miami.
According to the news outlet, Thomas led the Booker T. Tornadoes in back-to-back state championships and to a national title. He was named the third-best defensive end in the country by 247Sports.
Off the field, his passion for music began at the age of 3, while listening to his late grandmother's gospel CDs, and by the time he was 5, his grandmother had him performing on guitar and piano.
The Miami Herald reports that after his grandmother passed away when he was 7, Thomas would often care for himself because his parents were too busy working, and he'd entertain himself after school by creating his own beats.
By the time he was in middle school, Thomas convinced his father, Chad Sr., a computer technician, to buy him an MC-808 sound generator.
"It was over $1,000," Thomas says. "I told my dad there had to have been something in his brain saying this is going to make him and me money in the future."
Cut to present: Thomas now plays the guitar, piano, trombone, euphonium, base guitar, snare, tuba, trumpet and drums. He plans to study music while in college at the Frost School of Music.
"I'm going to UM for Music Technology, and I'm going to play football," said Thomas. "If I make it to the NFL, that would be a blessing for me." If forced to choose between the two, Thomas says he'd have to go with music.
He adds, "I have love for music and took it upon myself to learn and play the instruments I hear in the songs."
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