FORK UNION ??The legend began to branch out and branch out quickly. A pair of track shoes barely touched a strip of turf for a few blinks of the eye and it was like a wild fire mixed with a game of telephone.
?It spread everywhere,? said Fork Union receiver Austin Stone . ?There was somebody who was at the camp and he?s really into UVa. He went there and then he heard about it, and then he heard that he?s coming to Fork Union. And then he called my dad and my dad told me.
?I was just like, ?Wow!??
Dashing onto the scene
Prior to July 21, Malcolm Cook had never Googled his own name. He was a talented football player who spent three years at Armstrong High School in Richmond performing every task sans team bus operator. He ran, he threw, he tackled, he returned kicks, he picked off passes. And it was all for a squad that managed one win in 2011, three in 2010 and one in 2009.
Cook had the raw ability and makeup to garner big-time recruiting attention, but it wasn?t easy playing for a team routinely on the wrong end of lopsided results.
?Tough isn?t the word,? Cook said. ?It was hard. I tried to play my game, but it was hard when you?re losing like 63-14, 72-12 and you?re the only person scoring and you?re getting banged up. And you get on the bus and they?re still laughing.?
Those times made Cook return to a four-word phrase authored by many, but repeated by his mother.
?She used to always tell me, ?Your time will come,?? he said.
On a steamy summer afternoon in Charlottesville, the moment arrived. It was July 21, Virginia?s final one-day camp for rising high school juniors and seniors.
Cavalier defensive coordinator Jim Reid, who had kept Cook on his recruiting radar since he was a sophomore, was present. As was head coach Mike London.
Cook?s show-off period was to come in the 40-yard dash. This was where he could flash his natural skill.
He was prepared.
?I had track shoes and I was ready,? he said. ?I had come another year and had a disappointing 40 in which I slipped. I had punished myself that whole year. I was telling Coach Reid, ?This year I?m going to have a better 40.??
A deep breath and a quick burst later, he was right.
?I knew I had a good time once Coach Reid said, ?Now, that?s how you run,?? he said.
Cook blitzed in at a reported 4.40 seconds.
?A coach looked at me and held up two fours, and I was like, ?Yes! I knew I had it!?
First came the eye-popping 40, then came the offer.
?Coach Reid pulled me to the side and was talking to me and everything,? Cook said. ?He said, ?I told you your time would come.? And then Coach London was over there and was like, ?We?re going to offer you a full scholarship.??
And like that, Cook, a 6-foot-1, 196-pound safety, became Virginia?s 16th commitment for the 2013 class.
The Internet was buzzing. Calls, texts and tweets were being made.
Cook could Google himself now.
?Somebody called me and said, ?Malcolm, you know you?re ranked 22nd in the nation at safety??? Cook said. ?And I?m like, ?Huh? Don?t you call me lying like that.? And then I searched my name for the first time and I was like, ?Wow!?
?My overall ranking was 89 and I was 26th in the country at safety, and I was 17th in the state, overall.
?I think I really kind of took off.?
The next step
Cook sat at a square table across from a reporter in a gathering area outside a large gym. Patiently waiting his turn was a quarterback headed to Penn State. A future Eastern Michigan receiver had already interviewed.
Enclosed in a glass case to Cook?s right were shelves full of busts honoring legends of the program, among them Eddie George and Vinny Testaverde.
This is Cook?s home now. His pre-UVa stomping grounds rest some 30 miles south of Charlottesville.
For the 2012 season, he?s teaming up with Christian Hackenberg, Austin Stone and company at Fork Union Military Academy.
?This is going to do a lot to raise my level,? Cook said. ?I?ve never been around people who want it like I want it. Now I have people that want it like I want it.?
FUMA?s goal is to conquer a state championship. That?ll start Saturday when it takes on Hermitage as part of a nationally televised doubleheader at Oscar Smith High School.
?I want to win,? Cook said. ?Christian kept yelling about a ring and I saw one on the wall downstairs and I was like, ?God, I want one of those. I have to have one.?
?Every day we?re pushing to get that ring before I leave here.?
But there?s individual missions as well. FUMA coach Micky Sullivan is constantly fine-tuning Cook?s game to prepare it for life in the ACC.
?The guy makes you better coming off the bus just because of his athleticism,? Sullivan said. ?But his fundamentals aren?t real good. I hope I can say this, being in our program for a year is going to make him more fundamentally sound when he goes to Virginia than what he would have been if he hadn?t been here.
?He?s going to be a great athlete. He?s just got to learn. Little things like flipping your hips and how to drop your hips and come out of a break, things that you go over and over again.?
Pairing with an Elite 11 signal caller doesn?t hurt either. The 6-5, 220-pound Hackenberg sought Cook out after he performed at a Fork Union combine last year.
The two clicked during a camp trip to Penn State this summer and have returned to FUMA as roommates.
?Malcolm and I developed a relationship,? Hackenberg said. ?Being roommates, I look at him like a brother. He looks at me the same way. He?s a great player. A great add for this team. A great add for UVa. I wish he would have waited a little while for Penn State, but we?ll see where everything goes.
?He?s a great friend of mine. We?re sort of looking forward to this season.?
With his tremendous speed and developing ball skills, Cook might strike some fear into Hackenberg.
Could the Division I safety highlight a FUMA practice by picking off the Division I quarterback?
?It hasn?t happened yet,? the future Nittany Lion said with a laugh. ?He only talks about it.?
Of course, that could spark another legend.
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