Colin Kaepernick - Early Life and High School

Early Life and High School

Kaepernick was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a biracial child whose birth parents both stood 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m). His blonde birth mother, Heidi Russo—19, unmarried, and almost broke—took care of him for five weeks while looking for an adoptive couple. His African-American birth father was out of the picture before he was born. Russo wanted to find a couple that was financially set, had kids, and loved sports. She chose Rick and Teresa Kaepernick, a white couple who had two kids already–son Kyle and daughter Devon—and were looking for a boy after having lost two other sons to heart defects. Kaepernick became the youngest of their three children. He lived in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, until age four, and attended grade school in Turlock, California. Kaepernick began playing youth football at age eight as a defensive end and punter. He then became his youth team's starting quarterback at age nine, and he completed his first competitive pass for a long touchdown. He went on to win several punt, pass, and kick competitions mainly on his passing ability.

A 4.0 GPA student at John H. Pitman High School in Turlock, Kaepernick was a three-sport star who passed up a promising baseball career as a pitcher in order to play football. Kaepernick was nominated for all-state in football, basketball, and baseball in his senior year. He was the MVP of the Central California Conference in football leading his school to its first-ever playoff victory. In basketball he was a first-team all CCC selection at forward and led his 16th-ranked team to a near upset of the Number 1-ranked Oak Ridge Trojans in the opening round of playoffs. In that game Kaepernick scored 34 points, although that was not enough as Ryan Anderson scored 50 to best the Pitman Pride.