DURHAM — Senior Morgan Paschall ofNorthern High Schoolin Durham is an impressive young man in a program that is one of the state's best each year.

Football coach Gary Merrill says Paschall is the team's heart and soul with excellent leadership ability.

"He is an all-state type of linebacker who we moved to tailback to help the football team win," he says. "There has never been one complaint about it at all. Everything he does for us is a positive for the football team."

Paschall says the younger players are going to look up to him because he is a senior on the football team.

"If the younger guys see the older guys slacking off, they are going to think that it is OK for them to slack off, so you lead by example," he says.

When Paschall first entered high school, he did not place a high priority on academics, all he wanted to do was play football. That belief has changed in a positive way.

"In my first couple of years, I did not realize how much grades would actually affect you," he says. "As you get older, you start to realize, and you start to see through examples of other people of how your grades can either make you or break you. I don't want to end up as one of those players that stops at high school."

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

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