{"id":8672,"date":"2016-09-02T21:55:36","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T21:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idsunmedia.com\/?p=8672"},"modified":"2016-09-02T21:55:36","modified_gmt":"2016-09-02T21:55:36","slug":"family-and-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2016\/09\/02\/family-and-football\/","title":{"rendered":"FAMILY AND FOOTBALL"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY JONATHAN KANE<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Wood
Wood River High School senior Travis Swanson poses with his father Rob Swanson. Photo courtesy of Amy Swanson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Wood River High School senior Travis Swanson, carrying a 4.16 grade point average and a member of National Honor Society, it\u2019s all about family and football.<\/p>\n

Besides excelling at football \u2013 Travis received scholarship offers from John Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon and Hamilton \u2013 and playing lacrosse, he has taken Advanced Placement U.S. History, Macro and Micro Economics, Calculus A&B, Language and Composition, and Physics. This year he will take Calculus B&C and Government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about family,\u201d Travis said. \u201cI love to spend whatever free time I have with my family. My dad wanted to see Cambodia and Vietnam, so we went for two weeks. I can only describe it as life changing and a real eye-opener.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to see how blessed we are in America and in this Valley. After the trip, when I got back, I stopped taking so many things for granted. We are really blessed to grow up here. A lot of kids don\u2019t like it here and say there is nothing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Travis said he now appreciates everything around him, such as \u201cbeing able to drink water from a faucet and not have to struggle to find it. Also to have the freedom to go out and do what I want without worrying about stepping on a land mine or being arrested.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real positive realizing that everyone is human and that there is only one race \u2013 the human race. It was also amazing to see a completely different world 15 hours away and see how similar the worlds are but also different at the same time. We all share love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both of Travis\u2019 parents are teachers at Wood River Middle School. Besides academics, Travis\u2019s world revolves around football.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love having a second family,\u201d he said. \u201cI can go to anyone on the team and talk to them about anything. It\u2019s also an escape from life, and basketball and lacrosse don\u2019t do the same thing. When I go to practice, it takes me away from everything that stresses me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love practice and it\u2019s a huge relief for two and a half hours. But there\u2019s nothing like the experience of \u2018Friday Night Lights.\u2019 The whole thing eases my mind. It isn\u2019t racing and there is just one focus and that\u2019s football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Travis started playing at the age of 7 and now plays linebacker, wingback and tight-end for the Wolverines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched games with my dad on Sunday afternoons my whole life and that\u2019s what got me into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also loves the physicality of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved it when we started hitting,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the only place where you get to hit people and be physical. It relieves a whole lot of stress. I love the sound of pads cracking against each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Travis admitted he also loves the \u201csound of teammates and the crowd cheering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note<\/i><\/b>: Anyone who would like to recommend a Blaine County School District student for The Weekly Sun\u2019s \u201cStudent Spotlight\u201d feature should contact Jonathan Kane at jkjonkane@gmail.com.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY JONATHAN KANE For Wood River High School senior Travis Swanson, carrying a 4.16 grade point average and a member of National Honor Society, it\u2019s all about family and football. Besides excelling at football \u2013 Travis received scholarship offers from John Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon and Hamilton \u2013 and playing lacrosse, he has taken Advanced Placement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,38,41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8672","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-schools","8":"category-sponsored","9":"category-student-spotlight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}