Challenges often present opportunities and conditions that create excellence. Austin Gumucio knows that his successes are a result of battling a small defect he was born with: a cleft lip.

After several surgeries and speech therapy, he didn't learn to talk until he was past the age of four.

At two years old, a tractor lawn mower ran over his left foot, where it was left dangling by the skin. The doctor, upon first examination, announced he was going to lose his foot, but after surgery, "it was healed," said Gumucio. "It was a miracle."

He added, "That would have prevented me from doing sports."

And without sports, Gumucio would have been lost.

"I love sports," he said. "It's my life."

But on the other hand, at the age of 18, this young man is not one-dimensional. True enough, he garnered first team All-State honors as a running back and linebacker for Grantsville, but he also sings, dances and acts in all the school plays.

He played drums in the school jazz band as a freshman and sophomore, but time constraints caused him to give that up as he started on the Cowboys' basketball team until he suffered a high ankle sprain.

In the spring, this gifted athlete went out for track.

"I went to state in the long jump," he said.

He earned a 3.73 GPA and still found time for a girlfriend. But, he says, during the season the coach instructed: "put 'em on the shelf."

Gumucio claims he followed the coach's orders. Tony Cloward doubles as the football coach and a school counselor. Besides all his accomplishments in sports, Cloward thought the student had something even more impressive.

"He has never missed a day of school in his whole career," said Cloward.

His mother Kimberly, vouches for that fact, and in light of his pre-school physical skirmishes, it is even more astounding that no lingering effects interfered with his perfect attendance record.

"He has always been a fighter," said his mother of overcoming his speech problems, but she could just as well have been referring to his football prowess, where his 157 tackles led 3A. If not for missing one game with an injury, he might have led all classifications.

Nevertheless, college recruiters came calling and his 6-foot-4, 205-pound frame attracted many before he settled on a full-ride scholarship at Southern Utah University — he will wait to enroll there until after serving an LDS mission.

Meanwhile, he continues to bulk up in the weight room. He was asked what his favorite class was or what field he might pursue in college.

"You mean besides weightlifting and football?" he replied.

His mother calls him "a football fanatic" even though he played his share of little league baseball and Jr. Jazz basketball. Grantsville High awarded him 2009 Most Inspirational Male Athlete and he served as captain on both the football and basketball teams.

"I've always had to work hard," he said, "My whole life."

E-mail: wjewkes@desnews.com