COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Sitting on the porch four years ago, grinning about his high selection by the Kansas City Royals months after signing to play receiver at Clemson, Roscoe Crosby's path seemed clear - Major League Baseball success during the summer and football stardom each fall.

Now, Crosby lifts weights and trains in a gym hours away from that front porch, hopeful that after handling injuries, two withdrawals from Clemson, a harsh separation from the Royals and the tragic deaths of friends and family members, he can finally live up to the potential everyone saw at Union High School.

"I don't think I've ever been this focused in the last five years," Crosby said.

Crosby hopes the intense training gets him selected in the NFL's supplemental draft on July 14. If not, the 22-year-old Crosby thinks he's flashed enough form to hook on as a free agent before pro training camps start.

"He has story of the year written all over him, from where he's come from to where he's at now," said Shaun King, a former NFL quarterback working with Crosby.

"The only thing I'm looking for is an opportunity," Crosby said, "To show that I am hard worker and I can play the game of football."

That was never a question. Crosby, at 6-foot-2, 218 pounds, was a Parade All-American and had the combination of size, speed and strength that brought college recruiters from throughout the country to watch his high school games. Crosby, voted "Mr. Football" as the Palmetto State's top player his senior year, eventually picked the Tigers over Florida State, Georgia Tech, Auburn and South Carolina.

About the only thing clouding the NFL dream was Crosby's baseball skills. He was a strong-armed, big-hitting outfielder who once had 47 scouts at a playoff game to watch. He was a guaranteed top-10 pick in just about everyone's eyes in June 2001 - if only he'd drop his football plans.

Crosby wouldn't do it and the Royals selected him 53rd overall that spring, agreeing to pay his tuition at Clemson and indulge his football desires. The sides signed a $1.75 million contract, several million off what Crosby was likely to make if he was picked as high as projected.

Crosby and his family felt certain the Royals would support his goals. However, misfortune and bad situations soon picked away at Crosby's perfect two-sport plans.

A lingering elbow ligament injury kept him from much baseball that first summer. Then Crosby had several injuries with Clemson, including a broken nose from a post-game celebration at Georgia Tech. Still, he set a Tiger freshman receiving record with 27 catches for 465 yards and was confident things would only get better.

However, Crosby's physical and emotional struggles continued. In May 2002, three of Crosby's close friends were killed in a car accident as they traveled to see him play baseball in Florida. About a month later, Crosby had surgery to reattach an elbow ligament that ended his baseball and football seasons. Effected by his friends' death and his time away from the field, Crosby withdrew from Clemson to rehab and get himself together.

It was that summer when Crosby took classes to stay eligible at Clemson - and missed several Kansas City workouts - that he first thought the Royals wanted him to abandon football.

But in 2003, Crosby sought a medical waiver from the Atlantic Coast Conference and rejoined Clemson. His return lasted one game before he left again to concentrate on baseball. Crosby says he faced some personal problems and thought he needed to take care of his family.

State Rep. Mike Anthony, D-Union, was Crosby's high school coach. He remembers sitting with Crosby soon after his second withdrawal and hearing the emotional anguish the young man felt.

"I left there worrying more about Roscoe Crosby as a person than about him being a baseball player or a football player," Anthony said.

The next year, Crosby's brother Nathaniel Hill, drowned in Lake Hartwell.

By this time on the field, the Royals had become disenchanted with Crosby. The team told him he was in breech of contract and could not return to the club in 2004 until arbitration settled the issue. The decision finally came this past February with an arbitrator ruling against Crosby and costing him $750,000.

Anthony didn't think Crosby got a fair hearing in arbitration, characterizing as a "kangaroo court of baseball people dealing with baseball people."

Crosby says the Royals saw his football goals as a way out of the deal.

"Everybody in the major leagues knew that I wasn't prepared to give up football," Crosby said. "That's what came about in (2003). I still wasn't prepared to give up football. The Royals seen a way to get out of the contract and they challenged me."

By the time the arbitrator ruled, it was too late for Crosby to enter the NFL draft. So he concentrated on the supplemental draft, which typically features special-case players or those who have lost eligibility.

He has met with several NFL teams the past few weeks. However, the biggest questions of Crosby's mental makeup and decisiveness have been answered by how he's responded after the arbitration ruling, said Crosby's adviser Kevin Parker.

"He understands now it's a business. But when you're 18 you're not thinking about that," Parker said. "When it slaps you in the face, you either have to lay down and weep, or get up and do what he's doing."

There were scouts from at least 17 NFL teams who attended Crosby's workout in Columbia on July 1 - a session cut short when Crosby began cramping up in the Southern heat and trainers thought best to postpone pass-catching drills until July 12. Crosby had two 40-yard dash times in the 4.4-second range.

"You see the hunger in his eyes again," said Anthony, Crosby's high school coach.

King, who quarterbacked at Tulane for Tommy Bowden, who signed Crosby at Clemson, says the young receiver didn't get to showcase his strengths - his strong, powerful routes that NFL coaches will love. "Somebody's going to take a chance on him and they're going to be happy they did," King said.

The most difficult things for Crosby these days might be people at home who see him as flawed because he didn't bat cleanup for the Royals or catch 30 touchdowns for the Tigers. Or those who lump him in with other Palmetto State prospects like Derek Watson or Demetris Summers - both high school phenoms who were each kicked off South Carolina's football team - who had a hand in their own troubles.

"I kind of think people see me as a bad guy because they kind of had me on that pedestal, I was a household name," Crosby said. "I had a lot of people who were upset at me because I wasn't running touchdowns."

Crosby holds no bitterness for those detractors or the Royals. He understands they needed major leaguers and didn't have to time to develop him on his two-sport schedule.

He also won't spend time looking back and wondering if he should've chosen one sport or the other on his family's front steps years ago.

"I'm pleased that I gave it a try at both," Crosby said. "A lot of people told me I should go baseball, a lot of people told me I should go football, but ... I went on my own. That's what I'm proud about, I'm my own person."