In just his sophomore year at Enterprise High School in Redding, David Nichols faced a tough decision.

The current Male Indoor Field Athlete of the Week in the Big Sky Conference, Nichols had to decide between basketball, track and field, or football.

Even with the popularity and temptations that go along with high school football, Nichols quit in order to focus on track and field, a decision he said was unpopular among his peers. “I just didn’t see a future in football for me,” Nichols said. “I saw track as what I wanted to do and I started to take it as, ‘I want to be a professional at this.'”

Now in his second year at Sacramento State, Nichols has proved to himself and his high school classmates that he made the right choice.

Already a two-time Junior All-American based on his performance at the USA Track and Field Junior Nationals last summer — fourth in the shot put and seventh in the discus — Nichols said he now hopes to win the Big Sky championship and compete well at the NCAA national meet.If his recent results are any indication, Nichols is well on his way.

In two indoor meets this year, Nichols has broken the school record twice, thrown the best put in the Big Sky by 4.25 inches, and he became the first Hornet to win the conference athlete of the week honor since Derek Baumer in 1997.

“It’s really fun and exciting to see him get recognized and it’s well deserved,” Hornets coach Kathleen Raske said. “I know Dave has high goals and he’s very, very capable of achieving them.”

Nichols said the confidence the coaches have shown in him has been a big key for his recent success.

But nobody was expecting the performance he had at the Husky Classic on Feb. 12.

“Going into Washington, I just wanted to feel fresh and have a good meet because of the high caliber talent that was going to be there,” Nichols said, referring primarily to BYU’s Niklas Arrehenius and Arizona’s Sean Shields, two of the top collegiate shot-putters in the nation. Nichols recorded a throw of 59-01.25, reaching the NCAA provisional standard to qualify for nationals. That mark gave Nichols a fourth place finish in the meet, behind unattached competitor Dylan Armstrong (61-02.75), Arrehenius (60-11.50) and Shields (60-03.25).But more remarkably, the throw was four feet, three inches longer than his previous best of 54-9.25.

“To have over a four-foot personal best is very rare in our sport,” Raske said. “So we’re really excited for him.”

Throwers coach Ross Richardson, in his first year at Sac State, shared that excitement.

“I think both Dave and I felt like the distance was a little bit of a surprise,” he said. “I mean, it’s only the second meet, but I had definitely seen the ability in him to throw this far.”

Richardson said he and Nichols worked on some technical changes throughout the fall, and he feels Nichols’ ability to stray away from old habits is a testament to his discipline.

“It was really good to see that when he got into the pressure situation of a big competition that he held his technique together and stayed so focused,” Richardson said. “That shows the mark of an athlete who’s not afraid and really feels like he belongs.”

According to Nichols, that confidence in his abilities began back in his senior year at Enterprise High. After dedicating himself to the one sport he loved most and training for two seasons, albeit with some distractions and debate, Nichols had a strong showing in his final state meet. He placed second in the discus and fourth in the shot put.

“That was a good indicator that, ‘Ok, I can do this. I can compete with these top guys. I can be somebody,”” Nichols said.

Although he knows it will be extremely tough, Nichols said he has hopes of competing in the next Olympic trials, trying to make it to the Beijing games in 2008. And if it doesn’t happen in 2008, then he says he plans to work even harder to be able to compete in 2012.

“I want to be the best,” Nichols said. “This is what I want to do the rest of my life.

“I have Olympic dreams and world championship dreams, so hopefully I’ll be doing that.”