By AARON PAITICH, Special to the Minneapolis Star Tribune
New Life Academy football standout and recent graduate Adam Krause started hooking up computers and downloading software in the second grade.
Standing at 6-3, 285 pounds, a young man of his stature is not hard to find. But for the past several years he's been everywhere at New Life Academy, lending a hand in daily activities as an electronics connoisseur.
"I like having a computer around," said Krause, an admitted tech junkie.
As soon as he learned the sound board in seventh-grade drama class, he took over the boys' and girls' basketball and volleyball games, managed the state champion softball team and set up for the school's chapel every Wednesday.
While his attraction to computers and electronics came at a young age, it wasn't until sixth grade when he found himself on the football field -- towering over everyone else. It took some convincing from the coach to get him signed up: Krause was always a fan of the game but never saw himself actually playing.
"At first I didn't know how hard to hit them. I was tentative because I was the biggest guy and I didn't want to hurt them," said Krause, who is committed to playing for the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology this fall. "It was kind of comical at times, but then I got over that."
Krause's niceties on the football field wore off quickly. He made the varsity team as an eighth-grader and never had to deal with older players pushing him around.
"He has the command and presence of an upperclassman, even as an underclassman. So people readily followed him because he knew what he was doing," head coach Paul Mork said. "He was dedicated to it and would do it with enthusiasm."
When he started hitting the big boys, it gave him some reassurance that there was a future for him in football. In his five-year varsity career, playing on the lines at New Life Academy, he was named all-conference twice.
"He's built for football," Mork said. "He was just a stalwart in the trenches for us at tackle. He would also play on special teams. And on defense, he was the guy people ran away from."
It ended up taking him far. Once Krause visited the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, it was a natural fit for the gentle giant to find his next home.
"I've always been just a small-town kind of guy," Krause said. "It's a smaller campus but also a top-100 school, and that was a big draw as well."
