WARREN COUNTY — Marvin Townes is a three-sport star at Warren County High School. Townes will tell you that without sports, he has no idea where he would be.

"I don't think if I hadn't played sports at Warren County, I probably would have been some troublemaker out selling drugs or something like that, but it helped me keep my life together," he says.

Townes is good in all sports, but he is outstanding in football. A Prep All America who rushed for almost 1,600 yards this past season and 15 touchdowns, he has accepted a scholarship to attend East Carolina University.

"He's 6'1", 188 pounds, runs the 40 in 4.3, and like I said, he has that rare ability to explode at any moment once he gets the ball," says football coach Morton Jones. "The first three steps he takes, he's wide open."

Townes has become a solid student through a lot of hard work, and by realizing that there is more to life and school than playing ball.

"Coach talked to me about the SATs and stuff," he says, "because back then I didn't really know what the SATs were. I thought you could just play football and then go right to college or whatever. In my sophomore year that's when I realized I had to get up off my butt and do more than just get on the field and run the ball, or get on this basketball court and make a layup, or get on that track and run. It made me realize how hard you really have to work."

Townes knows character counts. "I want people to think of me as a good person," he says. "They don't have to think of me as a great person, but a good person, a person who likes to help people."

Senior Marvin Townes is this week's winner of the Extra Effort Award. Tom Suiter's Extra Effort award airs Wednesdays during WRAL's 6:00 News.

Do you have a nomination for the Extra Effort Award?Mail us your suggestions.