“Because essentially, he didn’t touch a ball unless it was our season. He didn’t do a ton of off-season training. He’d pick it up in February and play until we were done in May, and then we’d say ‘See you next February.’ So, what he was able to accomplish with such a little amount of work was pretty special. It would have been cool in an alternate reality to see what he could have done, playing volleyball 11 or 12 months a year.”

But many high schools have those kinds of natural athletes, the guys who are good at anything, who can run fast and jump high and can turn their wrists over in a way that allows them to swing a baseball bat or a driver with equal aptitude.

Having that talent is one thing. Applying it is another, and Marrujo said that after coaching McMillan for three seasons of high school volleyball, he was always impressed by his grasp of a game he played as a part-time hobby.

“I think even the way he would ask questions and interact with coaches, right?” Marrjo said. “Any time he was in his competition mode, he just asked very, very specific, very direct questions. Like, hey, we need to solve this problem, all right? What do you see here? To me, that’s when it’s like, oh wow. The game is really slow for him to the point where he can ask questions like, hey, I saw this; what should I do in that situation? Or how do I respond well to that? I think that ability to have the game slow down so that you can process and ask questions and see things is just what separates professional athletes from high school athletes or college athletes.

“There’s a presence, that he’s able to get to like a flow-state that he gets to more often than than others. And when he’s in it, it’s pretty special watching, whether it’s on the football field, playing basketball or playing volleyball.”

And there were always other sports.

The first was baseball, which he picked up when he was 5.

“If you ask my mom, she’ll tell you that I was a better baseball player than I was a football player,” McMillan said with a laugh.

But that wasn’t the extent of it, as he played basketball, soccer, pretty much anything he could.