Photo by Steven St. JohnTribune

Tribune

Albuquerque's Ronnie Daniels greets the dawn during some early-morning footwork drills with the La Cueva High School football team. There is symmetry in the scene: In many ways, his impending arrival at La Cueva heralds the beginning of a kid who may become the most-hyped athlete in the city since Highland High great Bobby Newcombe more than a decade ago.

Photo by Steven St. JohnTribune

Tribune

Ronnie Daniels waits for a La Cueva High teammate to inbound the ball during a summer workout. Daniels, a Bears freshman-to-be, is expected to make an immediate and dramatic impression at La Cueva in football, basketball and track. "He's been the talk since he was probably in the fifth grade," said Sandia football coach Kevin Barker.

Photo by Steven St. JohnTribune

Tribune

Ronnie Daniels made a freshman-like mistake by standing too close to the edge of the pool and became a victim to a teammate's surprise push. Daniels and the La Cueva football team were at a pancake breakfast at a parent's house after an early-morning workout.

Photo by Steven St. JohnTribune

Tribune

Ronnie Daniels (center) and his mother, Carol, talk with La Cueva High football coach Fred Romero. Daniels' mother was telling Romero that her son had to miss a few workouts to play in an out-of-town basketball tournament. "I really haven't had anyone (a player) like this before," said Romero.

Photo by Steven St. JohnTribune

Tribune

Ronnie Daniels' workouts at La Cueva can be tiring for a 14-year-old - or an athlete of any age. His schedule includes early-morning drills for football and evening drills with the basketball team. Daniels also is playing on a traveling AAU basketball team.

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With a Super Soaker in hand, Ronnie Daniels leans over a pool to fill his weapon with liquid ammunition.

A La Cueva football teammate, following questionable - but typical - pool-party etiquette, pushes the unsuspecting Daniels in the water.

Daniels bursts from the pool onto the flagstone deck, soaked white socks and all, to chase the culprit to the driveway.

"Yeah, right, you think you're going to outrun (Ronnie)," someone yelled.

In this part of the Northeast Heights, it's already well known: Nobody outruns Ronnie Daniels.

Only 14 years old, barely out of middle school, Daniels is being talked about in Albuquerque's chummy sports circles with an almost mythic awe.

This is no children's story about little boys with water guns by the pool. Daniels is a 6-foot-1, 178-pound prodigy who could easily fit into any varsity team picture - and probably, many say, a lot of newspaper headlines.

Coaches, opposing players and fans have heard of Daniels' bravura kid-sports performances for years - about how his La Cueva YAFL teams lost one game in his six years of racking up touchdowns, 300-yard games and YAFL Super Bowl titles.

How Daniels' teams never lost a basketball game at Desert Ridge Middle School.

How he won numerous 100-meter heats in Southwest national meets.

"I've been hearing the word hype for a long time," Daniels said. "Maybe ever since I was 9 or 10, so I'm not bothered with the attention. But I want to be more than hype."

Still a month away from entering La Cueva High, Daniels is being touted as a hybrid basketball-football-track tour de force who could see meaningful varsity time in all three sports - as a freshman.

More than a few even dare to compare him to Bobby Newcombe, perhaps the best all-around athlete Albuquerque has seen in 20 or 30 years.

So, at this point, branding Daniels as "The Future" comes about four years too late.

"He's been the talk since he was probably in the fifth grade," Sandia football coach Kevin Barker said. "You don't want to put certain kinds of pressure on a kid, but this kind of athlete and talent doesn't come around too often."

Those close to him are careful with their words, afraid to create a problem for a kid who's not even old enough to drive. They talk about Daniels staying grounded, maintaining his grades, working hard.

He does those things already, they say, with a 3.75 grade-point average in middle school and the shy, humble demeanor of a Boy Scout.

But it's almost as if they know what they have on their hands.

"They all know they have something special," said YAFL coach Matt Schafer, who coached Daniels for six seasons. "Down the road, everything will probably be there for him. He might be able to go to school wherever he wants. There's a collective effort around him to teach him, but they won't have to go that extra mile because he's such a good kid and a team player."

Carol Daniels started to understand her son's "special" athletic quality about four years ago, when she walked into the Wilson Stadium stands to watch him play youth football.

Random people started to notice her, she said. She was the mother of that monster bulldozing tacklers on the field like Herschel Walker.

"I knew from that point that everybody was going to be watching his every step for a long time," said Carol, a single mother of four. "He was 10 years old and people were asking for his autograph. For his age, he's done things that I can't imagine. He gets it from all angles about how good he is, but he stays humble. That's why he's got to work extra hard in the classroom and in sports. C's aren't allowed in this household. I'm very strict on him."

Daniels is already varsity-sized, though he runs and darts like a scatback. His raw athletic ability, coupled with hard work, had La Cueva's athletics department practically uncorking champagne bottles after he sent in his enrollment letter.

"I really haven't had anyone like this before," said La Cueva football coach Fred Romero, whose program has won two state titles in this decade and has more than its share of good athletes.

"If you wanted to make him the best running back in the state, he'll be the best. If you want to make him a wideout, he'll be the best wideout. If you want to make him a quarterback, he'll be a quarterback."

Daniels hasn't played a high school game, but his summer schedule still revolves around La Cueva athletics.

There's the football workout from 6-8 a.m. Then there's lifting weights, which Daniels started this summer. Summer workouts for the basketball team are from 7-9 p.m., and Daniels finds time in between to take his hoop game to Del Norte Sports and Wellness to work on his jump shot.

A rigorous athletics schedule is like just another day for Daniels, who learned at an early age that work trumps athleticism.

The mindset stems from Ronnie's brother, Ryan, a former La Cueva basketball standout who plays for Division I Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

Ryan, five years older and 6-foot-1, can still beat Ronnie in a game of full-court one-on-one, but Ronnie says he'll keep going at him until he can beat him.

This is beyond basketball. It's about working hard to dodge the possibility of becoming the great athlete who fizzles because of laziness.

"I'm looking for other people to say I'm great instead of me saying I'm great," Ronnie Daniels said. "That's why I need to work hard and be humble. I like being a point guard because I get to pass the ball and it takes attention off of me. That helps me stay focused. If I was scoring all the time, it wouldn't be the same."

Daniels' youth career all but begs comparisons to Newcombe, the former Highland High star who played football at Nebraska. Newcombe also was a standout point guard and track and field star for the Hornets a decade ago.

Area coaches expect Daniels to dominate. Cibola football coach Judge Chavez, Newcombe's coach at Highland, said he saw one game when Daniels ran for four touchdowns of at least 70 yards, with two other lengthy scores called back for holding penalties.

Chavez said it's difficult to compare Daniels with Newcombe because he didn't see Newcombe play until his freshman year. Daniels doesn't yet have a high school career to measure.

Still, Daniels' ability on so many fronts is close to shocking.

"He sees the whole court so well, finding open people off the dribble," La Cueva basketball coach Frank Castillo said. "He'll see a guy ahead of him who's open, when other guys would take the extra dribble, but as soon as he sees it he gives it up. He can also shoot and finish, so he's the whole package."

If Carol Daniels has her way, Ronnie might never know how good he really is unless he's bathing in millions as an NFL or NBA pro.

Carol and grandfather Chip Evans have raised Ronnie. Evans teaches the manly lessons. Carol, the finance manager for the New Mexico Activities Association - the governing body over high school sports in the state - spends a lot of her time driving Ronnie and his two sisters, Shayla and Sandra, to school and different athletic events.

Whether driving or working, Carol emphasizes the need for Ronnie to stay grounded and humble, to maintain those grades.

It's about not getting a big head - even if his potential for greatness is much larger than his football helmet size.

"Half the stuff I hear about how good he is, he'll never hear," Carol said. "He will never get that in my house. Once he's gotten through college and is a big-time pro, then maybe, maybe, maybe he can relax."