FROM BATS TO CATS

When Matt Szczur got the word last fall - he was a match, his bone marrow might save the life of a sick little girl - "The first thing I said to my mom: 'There's no doubt in my mind. This girl is going to live.' "

Whatever he had inside, Szczur wholeheartedly believed it could be of use to this little girl. Szczur's friends had the same exact thought.

"We said if it worked for anyone on the team, it would be him," said John Dempsey, Szczur's Villanova football teammate and four-year roommate. "People call him the Golden Child, like what can't he do?"

The do-everything, play-everywhere star of Villanova's 2009 I-AA national championship team is back playing football - ready to take on Temple on Friday night at Lincoln Financial Field in the opener for both schools - after a summer on the baseball field, playing minor-league ball for the Chicago Cubs organization.

At Villanova, they've grown accustomed to Szczur's multisport feats. Coach Andy Talley calls Szczur the most talented football player he's had since Brian Westbrook. The senior's a wide receiver and Wildcat-formation quarterback who ran for 159 yards and two touchdowns and caught four passes for 68 yards in Villanova's 23-21 title-game victory over Montana. He lined up all over the field and also was on the punt, punt-return, kick and

kick-return teams.

"A lot of it sounds made up; it's like Tim Tebow-type stuff, like, 'C'mon, that can't be true,' " said Villanova wide receivers coach Brian Flinn.

Like how Szczur hit in 21 straight games as an outfielder this summer in the Cubs organization, although he'd never used a wooden bat for a full season before.

"I broke probably six or seven bats my first three games," Szczur said. "They would throw inside and I would continue to get jammed. I broke three bats in one game. I had to learn how to hit the inside pitch."

When Szczur reported back to Villanova for the start of football camp, his coaches took it easy on him, mostly sitting him out for the second session of two-a-days.

"He comes back here, all that acclaim, he says, 'I need to be in football shape right now.' He's as gung-ho and full-bore as he ever was," Flinn said. "He wants to be on the kickoff team. He's adamant. He goes to our special-teams coach: 'Put me in the same spot. I came here to play football. That's what I do. I run down and make tackles on kickoffs.' "

Szczur was born a little different.

"When the doctor pulled him out, he's stretched out - he's got biceps, calf muscles. He had definition," said his father, Marc. "I was like, 'What do we have here, Arnold Schwarzenegger?' When he was 1 or 2, we'd put him on monkey bars and he'd go across like he'd been doing it for years."

Szczur grew up at the Jersey Shore, in Erma, just north of Cape May. The first year Szczur was allowed to pitch in Little League, after T-ball, he threw no-hitters in his first three games. Two things happened. Some coach wanted to see a birth certificate, which really frosted Szczur's mother. Then league officials moved him back to the mound used by the older Little Leaguers.

"I didn't care," Szczur said. "I still remember my first game. I had a first baseman's mitt on the mound."

Szczur became a catcher at Lower Cape May High School because he was the only guy who could catch his older brother, Marc. He went for a round of golf with a buddy and it took awhile to get the hang of it. He shot 67 for his front nine, typical enough. Then he got the hang of it. He shot 45 on the back nine. He also played street hockey, and was a pretty good wrestler until a coach suggested he lose 15 pounds. Szczur's father went in and told the coach, "You realize if you want him to cut 15 pounds, he's got to cut a limb off." He took up track instead.

"He was 10th fastest in the state of New Jersey his senior year in the 55 [meters]," his father said.

In the fall, Szczur played quarterback in high school. He was confident, but never a look-at-me type.

"It's funny, Matt didn't think he was any good," said his high school football coach, Lance Bailey. "Before every game, he would vomit."

"I still do that," Szczur said. "That's me being nervous about the game. I started doing it halfway through my senior year. I just put a lot of pressure on myself."

"He probably left this out," Szczur said about his old coach, who has become a close friend. "But he was right next to me throwing up. I remember one time I was in the stalls and he comes walking in after me. We just walked out. We didn't say anything to each other."

Szczur hardly ever watches sports on television. No Monday Night Football, no baseball.

"He just watches movies," said Dempsey, his roommate. "The dude has five duffel bags full of movies. We've probably watched Wedding Crashers and Step Brothers over a hundred times."

Szczur didn't have any other football offers other than Villanova. Part of that is because he'd gone to Villanova's camp since eighth grade and when the school offered a scholarship for football and baseball, Matt didn't see a reason to even visit anywhere else.

Plus, his high school was good but no powerhouse and a long way down the Garden State Parkway for big-time recruiters to drive. It makes perfect sense that Szczur played high school quarterback, but that meant recruiters needed to take a little extra time figuring out his skills, especially at 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds.

Luckily, for the Wildcats, they had that opportunity since Bailey brought his whole team every year for camp after one of his former players, running back Matt Dicken, went to 'Nova and ended up being a captain.

"He had never played receiver when I met him," said Flinn, the receivers coach. "He was here for four days. I ran him through every receiver drill I had. He hadn't ever gotten in a stance, hadn't run a route, hadn't done any of it. But you tell him once and he does it. It was like, 'Yeah, I'll take him in a second.' "

Never mind the vomiting. Szczur had a kind of fearlessness that can't be taught. One game, Lower Cape May's punter got hurt. The team had a lead of less than a touchdown and was pinned back deep in the final minutes.

"Mr. Do-Everything is our backup punter," Bailey said. "He's like, 'Let me run it. . . . Matt, punt the football. He must have said that like 10 times. Each time, no. As I run off the field and turn around to look, he does this little hesitation, reads the defensive end, takes off. I'm like, 'No, no, no . . .' "

Szczur got the first down.

"He stands up yelling over, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,' " Bailey said.

Talley's initial thought at Villanova was to redshirt him, and he talked to Szczur about it. But the freshman immediately made a name for himself on special teams. Then every quarterback in the program except for Chris Whitney got hurt during the season. So the coaches turned to the old high school quarterback to take some snaps.

"They needed somebody to fill that spot, to more or less take hits, and just to run hard," Szczur said.

Midway through the season, Villanova's coaches didn't know that Szczur needed his roommate's help just to get out of bed. Dempsey happened to be watching a Delaware football game and heard about a Blue Hens player with a sports hernia.

"He actually found the injury online, he went to WebMD," Szczur said. "He told me, 'You might have a sports hernia.' "

Dempsey told Szczur's father about it, he called Flinn and Matt finally came clean with his coaches. Dempsey's diagnosis had been correct. He got treated. But he kept playing.

"Coach calls me a rock head," Szczur said. "I don't want to sit out."

He rarely does. He loves being a jammer on punt returns, being a nuisance to opponents trying to race downfield. He really loves being on the kickoff team.

"He makes a lot of tackles on kickoff," Dempsey said. "He'll yell at the guy [after making a tackle], 'I'm a wide receiver!' "

A fifth-round draft choice by the Cubs this year, Szczur said he really enjoyed playing baseball for a living. The Cubs, realizing they are in a competition, treated him more like a first-round draft choice, bringing him to Wrigley Field for a game. Szczur met Eddie Vedder and John Cusack sitting right in front of him, and caught a foul ball. He tossed it back behind him, telling an incredulous buddy, "Man, I'm not a fan. I could be on the field in three or four years."

Last spring, Szczur got a $100,000 signing bonus from the Cubs but he gets another $500,000 next February if he chooses baseball over football. This whole experience really gave him a new outlook, he said. He could see himself playing pro baseball.

That said, Szczur's thinking is that football offers him an immediate chance to make the big leagues, and draw a big-league salary. If he stayed healthy and played well, he'd probably be on his second NFL contract by the time he reached the major leagues in baseball, Szczur said.

"It's a no-brainer, financially," he said.

And he believes in himself. Sort of the same way he's convinced his bone marrow has kept that anonymous little girl alive. He doesn't consider himself any kind of hero for donating. What kind of person wouldn't? Szczur was ready to miss a playoff game last fall if the donation had gone off as originally planned. As it turned out, he missed 10 Villanova baseball games in the spring.

On the football field, he's a favorite for national player of the year in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA). He was a first-team all-American last season. Preliminary NFL draft projections have him as high as the third or fourth round. From there . . .

"Just a confidence thing - if I get into a camp, I'm going to make a team," Szczur said.

When NFL scouts show up at Villanova, the coaches will tell them the exact same thing: You will want him on your team.

"There will be times at practices, you yell his name just to watch him run over," Flinn said. "Kids don't always do that anymore. That's him. He's as coachable as it gets. You say, 'Hey, sit up straight.' He snaps up like it's his first day."