Editor's Note: This week's feature on Combs is the first of a series on recently-graduated and soon-to-be senior Marion and Linn-Mar athletes preparing for the coming season. The Times will run the series in the weeks leading up to the fall sports season.

Standout four-sport athletes show up at Marion High School with the regularity of ants at a Fourth of July picnic. They just keep marching, marching, marching down the school's hallways and across its athletic venues.

The latest in a long line - and certainly not even the only one in the Class of 2010 - is recently graduated senior Dalton Combs. His four-year, four-sport career at Marion came to an end last week when the Indians' baseball team lost in a substate tournament final to Independence, bringing a premature halt to another banner year on the diamond.

"It started out a little bit slow, but we accomplished a lot of great things," Combs said last weekend. "We won the conference title, which was one of our goals, and it's a shame we came up a little bit short in the end, but other than that, we had a pretty successful season. I think they're only going to get better as the years go on. I know there are a lot of good kids and they want to keep playing."

Combs, who stands 5-feet, 11-inches and weighs in at about 190 pounds, was a four-year starter for the baseball team and also was a starter in football, basketball and track.

As the Indians' starting quarterback on a district champion team in 2009, Combs completed 119 of 187 passes (63.6 percent) for 1,775 yards and 10 touchdowns, with 10 interceptions. As a starter on the conference champion basketball team, Combs averaged 4.7 points and a little over two assists per game.

In track this past spring, Combs teamed with Nathan Livingston, Cale Cannoy and Dusty Albaugh to finish eighth in the 4x200-meter relay at the Class 3A state track meet.

It was on the baseball diamond Combs made his mark, even more so than in football. He hit a team-high .414 (53-for-128) with six home runs, five triples, 11 doubles, 34 RBIs and 38 runs in the WaMaC Conference championship season that just ended. It capped a brilliant four-year career.

"Dalton has meant a lot to our baseball program," Coach Steve Fish said. "He's started since he was a freshman for us and he's been a part of some real good teams, and we're definitely going to miss him. He had the passion to play baseball, and he's somebody who participated in four sports at Marion and excelled in all of them."

Combs will play in the Iowa All-Star Baseball Series Aug. 5-8 at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids. It will give the potential all-state selection another opportunity to work on his game, a never-ending endeavor in Combs' mind.

In the last couple of weeks, Combs has earned all-Metro, all-WaMaC West and Class 3A all-district recognition. All-state voting takes place this weekend.

"I definitely improved from last year, and that's all I wanted to do was get better every year," Combs said.

Combs won't go far to continue his education and his baseball career. He plans to attend Coe College and study business (although that is subject to change) and concentrate - for the first time in his life - on one sport.

"I kind of wanted to play football, too, but I've never really focused on one sport," he said. "I just want to see how far I can go and how good I can actually get if I just do one the year around and spend all the time I can on one sport. I'm really looking forward to just doing that."

Fish is also looking forward to watching Combs play baseball and baseball only.

"He's never really had a chance to put in some extra time on baseball," Fish said. "He's planning on going on to Coe and play baseball, so I'm interested to see with that extra time, that extra concentration on baseball, how he's going to progress at the collegiate level. He's an awesome young man."

He owes his development as a player and a person to the last four years he spent at Marion High School.

"I've had some great teammates and great leaders that have really set the path for me and given me a great example to lead by," Combs said. "That's all I tried to do, was lead by their example. I like to compete and have fun, and I've had great teammates that just really contributed to my success. I've had great coaches, and my parents (Mike and Beth) let me be a kid and taught how me how to be a leader.

"It's been the best four years I could ever ask for," he said. "All the success I've had and all the great people I've met, it's just been awesome."