When Kansas University football players report for the first day of practice Monday, Free State High graduate Walker Douglas won’t be one of them.

The 6-foot-1, 205-pound Douglas was one of about 10 players invited to report to camp along with the rest of the scholarship players. Those invited walk-ons usually are players that stay with the team four or five years, and may even earn a scholarship after a couple of years.

Walker Douglas, seen scoring against Olathe East last fall, has decided to decline an invitation from Kansas University to be a preferred walk-on for the football team. Douglas said he made the decision so he could concentrate on his academics.

Instead, Douglas plans on focusing his time on his architecture major.

“It’s a lot of work,” he said. “I thought if I tried to do both, I’m gonna have my head spinning.”

Walker went through freshman orientation in early July, learned how much work was involved, and made the decision right then. He hasn’t determined which aspect of architecture he’ll study, but it’ll will probably involve design.

Walker’s move isn’t an unusual one either. Depending on the coach and the state of the program, a dozen or more players might be invited to walk-on come fall, but coaches never know how many actually will until that first day of practice.

Douglas was a mainstay on the Firebird team the past three years, playing running back, linebacker and punting. He led last year’s 3-6 team with 641 yards rushing, and was elected to the Shrine Bowl, where he punted and played linebacker.

Though he made up his mind earlier this month not to play at KU, he relished his final go-round in the Shrine Bowl. The annual event was held Saturday in Pittsburg, where Walker punted five times, averaging just under 40 yards per kick. He also rushed for 10 yards on a fake punt.

“I had a lot of fun with that,” he said. “Played some solid defense and got my punting average up.”

If he gets a hankering for some football during his college career which he admits may happen Douglas said he may approach the Jayhawks coaches about suiting up again. If that happens, he’d probably do some punting and maybe even play some linebacker.

“They took the news really good,” Douglas said. “Coach (Dave) Doeren said the door’s always open.”