For Salisbury’s Wes Graham, a serious commitment means promising the next nine years of his life to Uncle Sam.

The 18-year-old Graham has accepted an appointment from Senator John Edwards to be part of the United States Military Academy’s freshman class this fall. That appointment means four years of academic rigors at West Point, N.Y., followed by a five-year service obligation. Graham will turn 27 before he’ll get to decide whether to make the military his life’s work or start a new career.

Graham’s friends — at least some of them —tell him that his brain cells must be absent without leave to choose West Point. They remind him that he’ll miss the parties that they’ll be enjoying at more conventional college choices. And there’s a decent chance, they tell him, that he might just get shot at on some distant shore before his hitch is finished.

Graham responds that his academy appointment is the equivalent of a $250,000 athletic or academic scholarship and that he would have to be crazy to turn it down. And while he understands there’s a chance he’ll be an officer on a battlefield someday, well, he’s smart enough to say he’d be scared, brave enough to say he’d be proud to serve his country anywhere it wants to send him.

Graham is unusually mature, unusually focused, one of those people who actually has you whistling “Be all you can be” after a five-minute conversation.

Ask Graham for the bottom line on his Army decision and he answers with four words: “It’s the challenge mostly.”

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By the way, there’s a reason why you’re reading about Graham on the sports page.

You may not have heard of him because he spent his four years of high school at Woodberry Forest, a Virginia prep school, but there’s no doubt he’s one of Rowan County’s better young athletes.

Last year, he was ranked 15th among N.C. tennis players in his age group, which explains why he’s been recruited by coach Steve Strome to play for Army.

“I went up there for a camp last summer for a week and they saw me play,” shrugs Graham.

The people Army contacts about playing tennis for the academy are an elite group. There are six prospects in the incoming freshman class, including the No. 9 singles guy in Florida, a Florida state doubles champ and half of the No. 5 doubles team in Texas. That’s fast company, but then Graham, team MVP at Woodberry, can play.

Graham’s dad, Wilson, got him swinging early — at age 5 — and he won a succession of tournaments as a youngster. A faded clipping at the Post tell of the USTA event he won in Newton at age 9. Another tells about the time he and East Rowan’s Robert Basinger, this year’s county player of the year and one of the best in the state, teamed to win the Salisbury Junior Invitational doubles event.

Army’s tennis season isn’t until next spring, but Graham, true to his gung-ho nature, is busy working on his game this summer with Country Club of Salisbury assistant pro Bobby Cristman.

Cristman, 24, who won the N.C. 2A doubles title with partner Richard Reinholz in 1994 at Salisbury High and later starred at Catawba, has been impressed with his pupil’s intensity.

“He has desire that you can’t teach,” says Cristman. “A lot of people see a ball go by them and don’t run it down. But he goes 110 percent on every single point. And a lot of times, that’s what you have to do to win.”

Graham and Cristman have played more than one three-hour match in 90-plus degree temperatures this summer.

“It’s fun, because he’s really good,” says Cristman. “He’s someone I can duke it out with and get after it.”

“It’s pretty much back and forth,” says Graham. “The winner is the one who has his head on straightest that day.”

Cristman likes Graham’s chances to compete at higher levels.

“Because Wes will put the time in,” he says. “There’s no telling how many thousands of balls he’ll hit this summer. And you know what they say: ‘It takes five years to make a player, 10 years to make a champion.’ ”

Graham’s tennis proficiency is all the more remarkable because he hasn’t been a year-round player for some time. He won a dozen letters at Woodberry. Four were in tennis, but there were also four each in cross country and swimming.

It’s no surprise, really, that Graham excels in the latter two sports. Both require the mental toughness to push to the limit, devoting endless hours of practice to improving by seconds or even tenths of seconds. And always with considerably more personal satisfaction than outside recognition. Graham finished eighth in the state meet in cross country. In the state swim meet, he finished eighth in the 500 freestyle and ninth in the 200 IM.

Graham also runs marathons. He finished sixth in Atlanta in his age group. But he’ll smile and tell you with a straight face that his best sport of all is water-skiing.

There may, in fact, be only one thing he’s not good at. That would be roofing, his dad’s profession.

“It gets awfully hot up there,” smiles Graham.

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Graham, of course, won’t get to spend much time on rooftops or on skis at West Point where free time his first year will be virtually non-existent. But that’s cool with Graham, who says that Woodberry has prepared him for the academic demands and the discipline required to be part of the corps of cadets.

“Woodberry wasn’t military in any way. We didn’t have uniforms or anything, but you still had to be disciplined,” says Graham.

Classes at Woodberry were six days a week and were augmented by mandatory study halls. But Graham did more than just survive. He was student body president in addition to his athletic and academic achievements.

Graham is not one of those kids who grew up wanting to be a soldier. His curiosity about West Point, ironically, was peaked by letters the USMA sent to his sister, Jamie, who’s also an accomplished tennis player.

But one thing led to another and now Graham finds himself on the verge of starting a nine-year adventure.

No one who knows him thinks he’ll be anything but successful. Because if there’s ever been a fellow who’s willing to follow the most demanding road, rather than seek the path of least resistance, Graham is it.