AUGUSTA, Ga. — Carter Meadows is, admittedly, concerned about feeling a void.

He knows his future is in football. The fifth-best defensive end in the 2026 class and the No. 29 player overall according to the 247Sports Composite, Meadows is a rising senior at Gonzaga College High School in Washington D.C., who entertained offers to play at football powerhouses like Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Auburn, among others. On June 29, he committed to Michigan, bolstering UM’s class as the Wolverines’ top recruit.

But basketball was Meadows’ first love, a sport he says is “in my blood,” which is why 16 days after picking football, he started his first game at Peach Jam.

The premier Nike EYBL showcase event of the grassroots circuit, Peach Jam, is where college recruiters and NBA royalty pack the sidelines each summer to watch the next generation of basketball stars. It’s the event, Meadows said, that kids dream about, the highlight of many players’ club experience. If you can play well at Peach Jam, you can play anywhere. Meadows couldn’t imagine skipping it.

He was also curious who might be there watching him.

“Whenever we’d be walking around the gym, I was keeping my eye out for the maize and blue,” he said with a laugh.

Does that mean Meadows, who is 6 feet 7, 235 pounds and averaged 9.0 points and 9.6 rebounds per game at Peach Jam, wants to play both sports in college?

Specialization has become so common across America, it’s not unusual for elementary-aged kids to focus all their energy — and parents’ money — on one sport. In college, playing multiple sports is rare, but doable: Oregon linebacker Bryce Boettcher led the Ducks with 94 total tackles last season and will play his final year of football this fall, despite being drafted by the Houston Astros in the 13th round of the 2024 MLB Draft last July. At Notre Dame, Jordan Faison caught 30 passes for 356 yards as an Irish wide receiver last fall; he also plays on Notre Dame’s lacrosse team. Texas freshman Jonah Williams, the top-ranked safety in the 2025 class, enrolled early and started 15 games last spring for the Longhorns baseball team. Football players who double often do so by also competing in track, like Florida State All-ACC sprinter Micahi Danzy, a receiver on The Athletic’s Freaks List this year.

In Augusta, Meadows wasn’t the only two-sport star thinking about his future. Kendre Harrison, the No. 2 tight end in the 2026 class from Reidsville, N.C., is a starter for Team CP3 who averaged 13.0 points, 10.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game at Peach Jam. Harrison committed to Oregon in November and plans to play both football and basketball for the Ducks.

They’re not the only dual-sport stars in the 2026 class, either. In early July, Syracuse scored a recruiting coup when Calvin Russell of Miami, one of the best receivers in the country, committed to the Orange. He is expected to play both football and basketball in college.

Dual-sport dreams on display

At Peach Jam, Meadows and Harrison, who are friendly, kept an eye on each other. They’re familiar with each other’s games and know the advantage they each bring to the court — a big, strong body that basketball-only athletes aren’t used to banging into — would have likely been negated against each other had their teams matched up. (They didn’t.) They admire each other, too, because they know how time-consuming it is to juggle two sports, school and a social life.

As of now, Meadows is planning to focus solely on football in college — he’s excited about having a simple, straightforward schedule, he joked — though he wonders sometimes how easy it’ll be to give up basketball.

“That’s lingering on my mind a lot,” he said, adding that he believes Sherrone Moore and the Michigan football coaches would be “open” to him playing both “if it was something I really desired.”

“There’s no thinking about, could he do it, he absolutely can, he is absolutely good enough,” said Steve Turner, who coached Meadows in basketball at Gonzaga College High, previously coached NBA star Kevin Durant and knows a thing or two about how good someone has to be to play college hoops. (Gonzaga also produced Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams.)

“He’s a different kid. He could’ve gone to any Ivy League he wanted — he can really do anything and handle anything. The discipline it takes to be involved in both made him better at both.”

Sometimes Meadows thinks it might be worth trying both “just to prove people wrong.” That was part of his motivation in playing Peach Jam, he said. He hears the doubters. And he loves shutting them up.

Still, picking football, he said, was mostly a logical decision: “It would be difficult to balance both and keep my body in the best shape for football,” he explained. He anticipates Michigan strength and conditioning coaches pushing him to add 15-20 pounds of muscle once he gets on campus.

“Growing up in a basketball family, I always thought that’s the sport I’d want to do,” said Meadows, whose uncle Randy Ayers has coached in the NBA for 20-plus years. “But the way my body was developing, football took over. I mean, there’s a bunch of 6-6, 6-7 dudes in basketball now. That’s like the bare minimum at this point.”

Harrison thinks about his size, too.

“Height-wise, I don’t know,” said the 6-foot-7, 243-pound Harrison. “If I grow to 6-9 or 6-10, I might have to throw football out the window.”

Why picking one sport isn’t so simple

He’s joking, mostly. But basketball is important, to say the least. Harrison said schools that told him he wouldn’t be allowed to play both football and basketball — like Ohio State — were immediately eliminated from consideration. During his visit to Oregon, both staffs assured him they’d work together to make Harrison’s transition from football to basketball as smooth as possible. They also promised him “24/7 access to the gym so I can get shots up, whenever I want.”

Oregon has a history of multi-sport stars, too: Besides Boettcher, Oregon’s Devon Allen was a star receiver from 2014-16 who played for the Philadelphia Eagles and competed in the 110-meter hurdles at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics. Jordan Kent was a football, basketball and track athlete from 2002-06 who bounced around NFL practice squads for a few seasons.

But as a North Carolina resident, Harrison is much more familiar with former UNC two-sport star Julius Peppers, an All-American defensive end who walked on to the Tar Heels basketball team. Peppers eventually focused on football, becoming a nine-time Pro Bowler over a 17-year NFL career. Harrison has met and talked with Peppers, who encouraged the young two-sport star to “not let other people get to me or tell me I can’t do something.”

Playing just one sport in college is demanding as it is. This upcoming season marks the first time athletes will be paid directly by their schools via revenue sharing, with power conference schools expected to dedicate 70-80 percent of the $20.5 million cap to football. Theoretically, an athlete who decided to play two sports could get more rev-share money from his or her school by playing two sports.

Both Meadows and Harrison said NIL wasn’t a factor in their decisions to play one or two sports. Meadows said he “didn’t start playing football and basketball because I wanted to make NIL money when I was older, and I don’t want to lose sight of that. I’m grateful for any dollars I get.” Harrison didn’t ask specifically if playing both would mean more money, and isn’t concerned about it; from an NIL perspective, he said he feels taken care of and valued. Both declined to share details of what they’ve been told they could make their freshman seasons.

Regardless of how their college and/or pro careers play out, both Meadows and Harrison are adamant that playing two sports helped mold them into the highly coveted recruits they’ve become. Meadows credits basketball’s “fluidity of movement” with helping him change direction on the football field. Harrison said basketball conditioning has helped in football. “When you have to grab a rebound and go right back up to score, the explosiveness I have in football is from that,” he said.

Erik Teague, Harrison’s high school football coach at Reidsville, said the hand-eye coordination required in basketball helps Harrison excel as a tight end. Playing multiple sports also keeps athletes fresh from a mental perspective, Teague said.

Harrison’s path to playing both in college is already inspiring those around him. His point guard at Reidsville and with CP3, Dionte Neal, is a 2026 wide receiver who’s started to get offers to play both in college, too.

“Those young kids who are only playing one sport, they get overwhelmed,” Teague said. “Playing multiple sports, with different challenges and different goals, that’s good for a kid.”

It increases their popularity, too. In Reidsville, Teague described Harrison and Neal as “local celebs,” particularly with all the nearby elementary school kids. Fifth graders, for example, think it’s unbelievably cool to star in two sports.

Why limit yourself, Harrison figures, especially when no one knows exactly what the future holds? Maybe he’s destined for greatness in something else. After all, he said, if given the opportunity, he’s confident he could become a star lacrosse player, too.

He’s joking again. Mostly.

(Photo of Carter Meadows: Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)