This week’s SCVTV and Wendy’s of Santa Clarita Student Athlete of the Week is Erik Stafford of Hart football. Erik carries a 4.41 GPA and scored 1860 on the SAT and 28 on the ACT, which he plans to take again this fall. To live the life he wants, Erik knows college is necessary.

“(Having good grades) is going to help getting into college because I want to (go to a good college),” Erik said. “I want to get a degree. I want to do what I want to do for the rest of my life. To get into a great college I need great grades.”

The 6-foot-3, 270-pound lineman has always loved football and both he and his parents have used that as motivation in the classroom.

“Since I was playing Warrior football they would always say the second I got home I had to do my homework,” he said. “I had to keep my grades up, I had to do everything because I am planning to (play football) for a long time.”

Erik wants to get into bio-medical engineering for one very personal, yet important reason.

“Freshman year I hurt my knee and now I have to wear knee braces,” Erik said. “I’ve always wanted to design stuff like that and prosthetics and just help other people.

“I’ve always loved tinkering with stuff and just like the mechanics of it. Whenever I see a prothetic leg or a prosthetic arm I’ve always wondered how it worked and I’ve just always wanted to design them.”

Among his college preferences are USC, UCLA and UC-Irvine, but his number one choice would be Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo.

“I love the school there,” he said. “They have what I want to get into, great academic school all around. It’s beautiful up there and I’ve always loved it.”

Congratulations to Erik Stafford of Hart High School, the SCVTV and Wendy’s of Santa Clarita Student Athlete of the Week.