LATHROP – Lathrop High School senior Ross Downum has one tough choice to make in the next few days.

And what he is going to choose will impact his future in a big way.

While the choice is a difficult one, he can’t be happier to be caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

The decision he has to make: whether to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point in New York, or the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland.

The Spartan senior has been accepted to attend both academies following his nomination by Congressman Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced).

Whatever he will decide to do when he reaches that fork on the road, the words of his father will be a strong guiding force.

Darrin, a 24-year veteran of the Oakland Police Department, has always told his son: “Be whatever you want to be as long as it makes you happy.”

“I always knew I wanted to serve (in the military) in one way or another,” the Lathrop High senior said.

In seventh and eighth grade, Downum said he already had an inkling that he “wanted to go to West Point.” But it was during his junior year that he “really started doing something about it.”

He became even more determined after Matt Rogers, a Sierra High graduate, was invited by Col. (ret.) Venjie Gose to give a talk to the Spartans’ JROTC cadets about his experiences at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis where he is finishing his military education and training. Rogers was Gose’s former JROTC student at Sierra.

Wheeler’s own daughter, Brittanye, who is with the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, and son Chris Hurt who spent five years in the Army with two tours in Iraq, also came and shared their experiences in military life to the Lathrop JROTC students.

If the teachers at Lathrop School are particularly excited about Downum receiving the prestigious honors, it’s because the 17-year-old is the first Spartan student to be accepted to any of the service academies.

“The first one to be nominated and the first to be appointed at Lathrop High. It’s a pretty big deal for us,” said Linda L. Wheeler, Downum’s guidance counselor for the last three years who also wrote letters of reference for his applications.

Two of the five seniors endorsed by Cardoza were nominated to both the military academy at West Point and the naval academy at Annapolis, Maryland. Downum was one of two who received nominations for both academies. Being nominated, though, does not guarantee acceptance to any of the academies. The nominees still have to undergo further scrutiny, academically and otherwise, as to their credit-worthiness to be accepted as a cadet.

Born in Walnut Creek, Downum grew up in Lathrop. At Lathrop High, he played football for four years, two years in Varsity, and was captain for three years. He also played baseball for three years and one year in Varsity. This year, he is vice president of the Spartans’ FFA. He was also one of the actors in the school’s Every 15 Minutes, an emotional and highly charged program designed to demonstrate to teen-agers the potentially dangerous consequences of drinking alcohol and texting while driving presented by law enforcement officers and other safety and emergency agencies.

Downum is currently Lathrop High’s “No. 2 guy,” the nickname given to the executive officer of the JROTC battalion at the Spartan campus. He was cadet captain last year.

Ranked 28 in a class of 278 seniors, Downum is also a polite and impressionable young man, as Wheeler found out not too long ago. When he received his acceptance letters to both academies, he surprised Wheeler by leaving a bouquet of flowers in her office as his way of saying thank you for the letters of recommendation she submitted for his applications.

By pursuing a career in the military, Downum is following his family’s tradition in military and law enforcement service. His father was not the first in the family to serve on the Oakland Police force. His grandfather also was an Oakland cop and later served as a deputy sheriff in Calaveras County. Shari, Downum’s mother, is director of human resources in San Ramon. The Downums’ younger daughter also attends Lathrop High as a sophomore.

The future military or naval academy cadet enjoys a very close relationship with both of his parents.

Downum said his mother “played a major role in getting me to this point. She helped me practice for interviews,” thanks to her background in human resources.

As for his father, “I’m really close to my dad. My dad is an awesome guy,” he said.

His father fully supports whatever he decides to do for his future career, he added.

To help him decide which academy he’ll want to choose, Downum and his parents paid visits to both campuses last summer. He is also scheduled to pay another visit to the naval academy this weekend where he will stay for a few days.

Congressman Cardoza nominates talented young men and women from his district to the nation’s service academies every year. His Academy Selection Committee interviewed each applicant and then made the recommendations. Selection of the nominees is based on a composite of academic factors, including junior class rank and SAT scores, along with leadership potential.

Wheeler is confident Ross Downum has what it takes to become a “young man capable of becoming an officer for the United States military.

“Ross… has been planning a career in the military for as long as I have known him. I believe he understands the expectations and is ready to accept the challenge of a military academy and career,” Wheeler wrote in her letter of recommendation.

His parents are equally proud of their son. Wrote Shari Downum in an e-mail to the Bulletin: “I think it is a good opportunity for him to represent not only this Congressional district, but also our school district, the City of Lathrop, and Lathrop High School as well. We are so proud of him. He has really shown that when you put your mind to it and if you want something bad enough, you can achieve your goals and dreams.”