The AP's Mike Cranston has put up a nice piece on Panthers WR David Gettis that is sure to get even the most luke-warm fan excited. We've seen what the kid can do on the field and we are wondering whether it was simply a high point to be followed by a valley or is it simply the first step in the rise of a star?

Reading about Gettis' parents and their military background one might assume he grew up in a disciplined household. Gettis though offers a different cause for his ability to stay out of trouble growing up:

Gettis said he never got into much trouble growing up, but it wasn't because he lived in such a strict household.

"Honestly," Gettis said, "as a child, I never really did anything other than play sports."

Well I'm sure being a military brat in a sense created the work ethic he has shown in practice and in live action. Oh, and he is also known for this:

I don't know if all (receivers) start out that way and things change, who knows," quarterback Matt Moore said Wednesday of Gettis' quiet demeanor. "He's a good dude, man, I like him a lot. He's just kind of your normal guy who's got ridiculous skills."

What kind of skills are we talking about?

via t0.gstatic.com

Well there are these skills:

"He's got a lot of the skill set to be a good receiver as far as size, speed," coach John Fox said. "I've just seen him grow a lot."

Just how athletic is the 6-foot-3, 216-pound Gettis? The Los Angeles native didn't run track until his sophomore year in high school—and weeks later won the state 400-meter title.

Wow, three straight titles a mere weeks after starting to compete...Also, you can expect more 4th quarter heroics out of this kid...because he knows how to play in spite of exhaustion:

The 400 is a man's race as they say," Gettis said. "It's one of those races where you know how you're going to feel afterwards, but you still have to do it. I think you can carry that over to a game situation where in the fourth quarter your legs are heavy, you have lactic acid buildup and you still have to run your routes precisely and get out of your break and everything like that."

That does not bode well for the upcoming DBs assigned to cover Gettis in man coverage. More importantly, it bodes very well for the Panther offense as they try to dig out of a five game hole. One down, four to go.