Magee puts his talents to new use

When Gary Willison refers to Palos Verdes Peninsula Chadwick senior Andy Magee as his “accidental quarterback,” the Dolphins’ coach is kidding. But only a little.

Magee was once the among the best junior tennis players in the country, part of an elite group of youngsters being groomed by playing in top tournaments throughout the world and competing on U.S. junior national teams intended for the very best.

Now, he ranks among the top quarterbacks in the state.

“It makes me want to make all my quarterbacks go play tennis,” Willison said. “When he’s out there, it’s like he’s just following a little green ball.”

What Magee is really following is a new path, one undertaken in earnest after his father, Frank, died of lung cancer on March 28, 2005.

The date is there, penned in ink, on Andy’s powerful right arm during every game.

“I would say he was the best influence possible,” Magee said. “My mom’s real supportive and everything, but you know, guys definitely have a different bond with their dads.”

Magee, 17, was hitting tennis balls by the age of 2 and competing in tournaments only a few years later. Pick-up basketball, Pop Warner football and Little League baseball were fitted around his busy tennis schedule.

In 2004, Magee was No. 8 in Southern California in boys’ 16-and-under singles rankings. From 2001 to 2003, he was ranked No. 1 in Southern California in doubles in two different age groups, with two different partners.

Keeping up the globe-trotting way of life common to elite junior players, however, became tougher financially and was infinitely less enjoyable for Magee once his father died.

He played in only two sectional tournaments and was not ranked in 2005. He has never played high school tennis, and hasn’t played a junior event since April 2006.

“Everyone was so focused on the tennis, and everyone was so serious, whereas, we’d just have fun time together,” Magee said. “We’d go watch movies, we’d go to sites, and it’d just be like a vacation kind of thing. That’s the best thing there was.”

His mother, Carol, remembers a cold, family trip to Washington, D.C., and another visit to a manatee preserve in Florida, where Frank ordered his son to write up a report on what he’d learned.

“It was never just about the tennis. My husband made sure of that,” Carol said, her voice cracking slightly at the memories. “They played together, they’d study together, they were friends. Andy ended up not having that confidant, that playmate, to be with.”

The Magees’ favorite thing to do was to go to Clippers games, even in the weeks before Frank’s death. Andy vividly remembers those last outings.

“He was on an oxygen tank, and he would take me to Clippers games, still, even though he was so sick,” he said. “That definitely resonated with me -- just being able to go through that, and to want to.”

After Frank died, Andy turned his attention to football, a sport his father loved and had also played in high school.

“Tennis seemed like something he’d been doing his whole life, and, out of nowhere, just to stop, it was kind of shocking to us,” senior running back Josh Goldstein said. “But at the same time, we’re really lucky. He’s been the main leader of our team. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t know where our team would be right now.”

Magee (6-2, 210 pounds) played strong safety during his sophomore year and didn’t take over at quarterback until Willison watched him throw a ball during a preseason practice last year.

The arm strength, quick reflexes, footwork, balance and vision developed in tennis all translated to football, and split-second decisions come easily to Magee, who frequently calls audibles and checks off receivers while on the run.

“I don’t think I’d be half the player I am if I didn’t play tennis,” he said.

Magee helped Chadwick open its season with seven consecutive victories to match the school’s best start before the Dolphins fell to Flintridge Prep, 45-34, in a Prep League game Saturday.

Magee has completed 176 of 247 passes -- more than 71% -- and ranks second on the Maxpreps.com list of California state leaders with 2,660 yards. He is fourth on the state list in touchdown passes with 43, a total that puts him at least within a “Hail Mary” of the state record of 63 by Los Angeles Cathedral’s Robert De La Cruz in 1999. He has had eight passes intercepted.

“What I think he brings is how to flip on a switch,” Willison said. “He knows how to go from just cracking a joke to just full-on, ‘It’s game time.’ ”

It is something Magee learned from his father.

He said, “I actually think if he hadn’t passed away, I’d be even better at football, just because he was such a football guy.”

lauren.peterson@latimes.com