"Army Brat," MPHS Senior Loves Calling Manassas Park Home

Editor's note: This is the fifth and final installment of our series on five Manassas Park High School seniors.

Nick Kolb has moved four times in his young life, but perhaps one of the best moves he’s ever made was to Manassas Park.

The 18-year-old self-proclaimed, “Army Brat” is a senior at and is 10 days away from walking across a stage to claim his diploma—an act that is also a symbolic walk into adulthood.

 While some see their high school years as times of endless peril thwart with  teasing, braces and bad acne, Kolb said he saw the last four years of his life in a much different light.

“I’ve actually enjoyed it. I actually like how small the school is and how everyone is close,” Kolb said.

 He lived in Texas, where he was born, Hampton, Va. and North Carolina before his family settled in Manassas Park when he was in the seventh grade. 

From there, he went on to participate in high school baseball and football for five years and play one year of basketball, Kolb said.

 Baseball is his favorite sport and while he has committed to attending Virginia Commonwealth University in the fall, he is hoping he will receive an offer to play baseball for Bluefield College in Bluefield, Va.

 As a VCU student, he plans to major in health and exercise science, Kolb said.

  “It’ll give me a lot of options, but I know I want to be around sports. I want to be an athletic trainer and I could teach biology or become the athletic director,” he said.

 He has no reservations about going away to college and is ready for the experience to begin, Kolb said.

 “I’m looking forward to getting out on my own. You don’t have to worry about parents and all that other stuff,” he said.  “You know, all of that. Just living on my own and doing what I want to do.”

 He does worry about his mother and how his leaving will affect her, Kolb said.

 “She’s taking it harder because my dad is getting deployed again. He leaves July 7 (for Afghanistan) so he won’t even get to see me go off. She’s taking it a little harder because she loses my dad and me,” he said.

 His father travels some for work, but has been stateside with his family for most of Kolb’s life.

 His father was deployed when he was a sophomore and was overseas when he was born, Kolb said.

 “It’s actually kind of weird because he wasn’t there for my birth, he was in Saudi Arabia; he was part of Operation Desert Storm,” Kolb said. “My Sophomore year was actually the only other time he’s been deployed.”

 When asked if he would like to follow in his father’s footsteps at some point and join the military, Kolb said it had been determined long ago that he wouldn’t be eligible for military service.

 “I’m deaf in my right ear,” Kolb said.  “They believe when I was in my mom’s womb I reposition myself as I was still developing and I laid my head against her spine, so my ear never fully developed. It’s call microtia.”

 “I always get the question if I’m a wrestler or not … the everyday term for microtia is Cauliflower Ear. If they (wrestlers) don’t wear a helmet, that’s what they get,” he said.

 Historically, Manassas Park has had a good wrestling team, so many people just assumed he was involved in the sport, he said.

 “When I first moved here, I started getting the question, ‘Are you a wrestler?’ I was like, 'What gives you that idea?’ and they were like, ‘Your ear, your ear,’” he said.

 The only treatment for the condition is an implant in the area, but Kolb said he isn’t interested in that because he hears just fine with his left ear.

 And the teen mostly likely is looking forward to hearing the sweetest sound in the world—the sound of his name being called on June 11 to accept his high school diploma.

 The ceremony will take place in the morning and school faculty are hoping to have the class of 2011 graduated by 11:11 a.m.

 “That’s the plan, but they aren’t guaranteeing it,” Kolb said.

 In addition to his parents and two brothers, Kolb said his grandmother and his uncle are planning to be there on graduation day.