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PROVO — A 13-year-old boy from Provo is all the rage on the Internet. A video he posted on YouTube shows that he is right on target when throwing a football.
Even in a stiff wind, Gunnar Legas is right on target. So much so, his dad has full confidence in Gunnar's ability to knock a pitcher off his head.
Gunnar is just 13, but his football accuracy is making news around the country. A few days ago, he and his dad, Adam Legas, created a 2 ½-minute video and posted it on YouTube.
"I'm Gunnar Legas and this is my trick shot video," he says on the video as he then throws the ball from 37 yards away right into a basketball hoop.
The video was edited, but it was all shot in one afternoon. Gunnar and Adam say it was meant for other kids in Gunnar's neighborhood to see.
"We did it just to have some of my friends see it," said the seventh grade student at Dixon Middle School. "I didn't think this many people would actually see it."
The number of people who have seen Gunnar's video is now in the hundreds of thousands.
"It was getting a couple hundred a day, and then all of the sudden it blew up," Adam said. "The third day, it had about 4,000 views; and then yesterday it went from 4,000 to over 130,000 views in one day -- and now it's getting a couple thousand to 10,000 (views) an hour."
If you are wondering, football runs in Gunnar's family. "My dad played football at BYU," Adam said. "I was recruited to play at BYU."
For Gunnar, it started when he was still in diapers and started throwing a tennis ball.
A longtime fan of Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts, Gunnar isn't letting all of this attention distract him from his junior high football team. "Right now, I am just focusing on being the best eighth-grade quarterback I can be," he said. "I just have to keep practicing and see what happens."
Gunnar is looking forward to playing on the 8th grade team next fall, and you can bet he is suddenly on the radar of college football coaches all around the country. He will be a freshman in 2016 and says he'd love to play at BYU.
Gunnar isn't the Utah teen showcasing his quarterback skills on YouTube. Michael Perry, a student at Judge Memorial Catholic High School, has posted a video showing his football targeting skills. Check him out in the video clip above.
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
