Alterraun Verner – Football Player and Math Major

The worlds of football and mathematics rarely cross paths, but in one recent case I’m pleased to find the fusion isn’t entirely impossible. Take student-athlete Alterraun Verner, member of the UCLA football team, as an example. Verner is a star senior cornerback and two-time academic All-American majoring in mathematics/applied science. He is as successful in the classroom as he is on the field. It is great to see how collegiate athletics can blend well with mathematics.

Verner may be one of the few on the defensive unit who can calculate the trajectory of the ball required to make an interception (one of his fortes). But then I’ve always held that a distinguishing characteristic of professional athletes is their brain’s innate ability to perform differential equation calculations in real-time.