Four years before he enrolled at the University of Michigan, Blake Corum’s parents had a tough decision to make.

One that wasn’t made any easier by the nearly nightly news reports coming out of Baltimore.

The violence. The drugs. The corruption.

But the Virginia couple knew the city was also home to one of the top high school football programs in the country and could make the difference for their son’s future college career.

Their son, Blake, was already a dominant running back on the field and had garnered scholarship offers from three colleges as an eighth grader.

Located in the heart of east Baltimore is St. Frances Academy -- a private boarding school that has produced some of the nation's top high school talent over the past few years.

St. Frances, now led by co-head coaches Henry Russell and Biff Poggi, who spent one season as an assistant with the Wolverines in 2016, took notice and was interested in Blake.

Although the option of watching their son play for a national powerhouse was appealing, James and Christina Corum believed enrolling him in school in one of the most dangerous cities in America as a freshman was not the best choice at the time.

Instead, they enrolled their son in St. Vincent Pallotti, a private school in Laurel, Maryland.

But a lot can change in two years.

Christina would drop him off every morning, while James would leave Warrenton by 3 p.m. to get to the school before practice ended at 6 p.m.

"I would sit in traffic both ways," James told MLive in a phone interview. "We wouldn't get home until 8:30-9."

But the commute was worth it. On the field, Blake's football career continued to ascend. He had about 18 offers by the end of his sophomore season as achieving his goal of playing at the college level was becoming closer to reality.

However, the team began to break up after the season as coaches departed for new jobs and players transferred.

The Corums now had another decision to make. They discussed Blake going to school closer to home, but St. Frances came calling once again.

This time, they were more receptive to the idea. James said Blake -- the oldest of the Corums' four children -- displayed maturity beyond his age.

"He is pretty much a leader," James said. "He knew what he had to do. He was there to compete and get to where he wanted to go, and that was to college. That was his focus. There was not one time where I worried what he was doing."

The Corum family.

Christina showed a little more concern -- not because she didn't trust Blake -- but because of the danger the city could present. There have been more than 300 homicides in Baltimore in each of the past five years, according to FBI’s Crime in the United States reports -- a number that is annually among the highest in the nation per capita.

But Blake stuck to his routine. He would train in the morning, go to school, go to practice and then return to his dormitory. After games on Friday nights, James and Christina would bring him home for the weekend.

"My wife, she feared some," James said. "She would read the papers all the time and would talk to me about it. I would just let her know, 'Blake is fine.'

"Even though I saw some things while we were there, the prison is right across the street, and you put the news on, and every day you are hearing something about someone getting murdered in Baltimore. But not one time did I ever fear that something was ever going to happen to my son."

One of the top running backs in the 2020 class

As soon as Blake arrived at St. Frances, he put his head down and went to work. There was an adjustment period, as he now was practicing with more than a dozen players who will be playing on Saturdays for some of the top college programs in the country -- many of whom come from rough backgrounds.

Russell said some of the players' family members have either been incarcerated or have fallen victim to gun violence. The players come to St. Frances because they know football is avenue to earn a college education.

“Life is not easy,” Russell, one of the coaches for the high school Under Armour All-America game on Jan. 2, told MLive in Orlando, Florida. "You are going to face uphill battles and you have a choice to either let that knock you down or you can knock those barriers down and climb over that hurdle. Our kids do a great job of doing that. They don’t back down; they are not intimidated by anything. They are not afraid to work, and they know it’s not easy to succeed

"Being able to play football, being able to be at St. Frances is an opportunity to change their lives, more importantly off the field than on the field. It is very rewarding to see these kids have success and go on and go to college."

RELATED: How Michigan’s early enrollees have benefited from practicing with team

Unlike most prestigious high school programs, St. Frances isn't equipped with state-of-the-art facilities. It doesn't even have its own designated practice field.

To Blake, one of six St. Frances players who participated in the All-America game, the opportunity to receive high-level coaching and play against elite competition was paramount. Ten of Maryland’s top 25 players in the 2020 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings, are from St. Frances.

“It prepared me a lot,” Blake told MLive at the All-America game media day on Dec. 28. “At practice every day, we played against the best. When I went out to practice it felt like -- it was a little faster, but it just felt like I was playing against the best.”

St. Frances also played one of the toughest schedules in the country in 2019. The Panthers (11-1) faced two teams that finished in the USA Today Super 25, losing 34-18 to No. 4 Santa Ana Mater Dei (California) and winning 35-7 over IMG Academy (Florida), which had won 53 of its previous 54 games. They also opened the season with a 49-13 victory over Miami Central, which went on to win a state title in Florida.

Blake wasn't fazed by the competition. The 5-foot-9, 195-pounder racked up more than 1,600 total yards with 25 touchdowns, helping him earn Gatorade Player of the Year honors in Maryland this season.

“He has the will to win, the will to compete," Russell said of Blake. "He’s very gifted. He has explosive feet, very shifty, great hands, great vision, extremely tough. I would be surprised if he doesn’t have a great career at Michigan.”

While at St. Frances, Blake shot up the national rankings. He currently is the No. 128 player overall and No. 12 running back in his class.

"To me, it was a great move for him," James said of Blake attending St. Frances. "He definitely matured a lot, even though he was always a mature kid. He got to play and practice against multiple other Division I guys. It was just a good experience."

'A brotherhood'

Blake said part of the maturation process was understanding the environment around him. He said the players always have each other's backs, especially knowing what is just outside the confines of campus.

"it's not really a great place to be," Blake said. "You look at the statistics and stuff, and Baltimore isn't the best place to live. But you when you have your brothers, you're safe. It's been great."

He is one of three Michigan 2020 signees from St. Frances, along with four-star linebacker Osman Savage and three-star linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green.

"We basically live together," Corum said of Savage and Green. "We're super close. We're really like blood brothers. It's something we talk about every day."

Three-star offensive lineman Micah Mazzccua, who was committed to the Wolverines before flipping to Baylor earlier this month, said most of the players who come to St. Frances have a chip on their shoulder. He grew up in Philadelphia and said going to school in Baltimore wasn’t much of an adjustment.

“That don’t really faze me,” Mazzccua told MLive after an All-America practice in Orlando last month. “I’ve seen everything growing up. I know how to keep myself on track, know what to do, what not to do. My brothers, all my St. Frances players, we are close, so we can know everything about getting out the hood, being successful. Our coaches implemented that in us.”

RELATED: Michigan OL pledge flips commitment to Baylor

Russell said the coaching staff's main message to the players is to never be complacent, whether it is on the field, in the classroom or in life. It was the same message Poggi had for him when he was his coach at Gilman School in Baltimore, where Poggi won 13 conference titles in 19 seasons.

"Never take a second off, because that's what it's like in life," Russell said. "You can't take breaks in life. You have to keep going, and that's what we talk about that's what we teach.

"That's what practice is like. Practice is hard, practice is very competitive. It's all about competition. It's all about making each other better. You can never be complacent."

As Russell made his rounds at the Under-Armour practices at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, he gathered a general consensus among the six St. Frances players who were participating.

"A couple of kids came up to me and said, 'Hey coach, we don't really notice too much of a difference in the practice level here compared to at St. Frances,'" Russell said. "I think that's a good sign of what it's like at a St. Frances practice -- the amount of talent, the amount of effort and athleticism that is on the field."

Running back Blake Corum, a Michigan early signee, talks with reporters during the Under Armour All-American Game media day Wednesday at Orlando World Center Marriott. (Ryan Zuke | MLive.com)

Blake also said the players pushed each other every day to be better.

"I think that's the difference between us and a lot of these (high-profile) schools," Blake said. "Like, we don't have a practice field. We condition in the streets, barely have a weight room -- we have two racks in there. I think it just humbles us, makes us want to go harder. It's really a brotherhood. Besides your brothers, there's really nothing there (Baltimore) besides trouble if you really want to get into it."

Blake, one of eight Michigan players to enroll early, is now in Ann Arbor, looking to make a strong early impression with hopes of season the field next season.

He is one of the team's highest-ranked running backs in the past decade, but joins a position group that returns its top two rushers from last season.

"Before I committed, I looked at the running backs that were previously there and stuff, and they've had some guys, but not like a big-time guy," Blake said. "I definitely want to try to leave my legacy and be the best running back to ever come to Michigan. Those are my goals."

RELATED: ‘Electric’ 2020 signee Blake Corum aims to become next great Michigan RB

Although Blake is in a new environment at a university with state-of-the-art facilities, James said his son maintains his unrelenting work ethic.

Blake talks with his family every day over Facetime, and James said he is enjoying his experience at Michigan thus far.

James said Blake has already made his family and community proud, but believes his son's story is just beginning.

“People used to come up to us all the time and praise Blake,” James said. “Like, 'Man this kid is going to be something, He is going to make us all proud, and he has. He stayed on track. He stayed on course. He knows what he wants in life, he knows how to get it and he knows what he is going to do to get it. I always told him, 'when you work hard, things happen. Nothing is going to be handed to you, nothing is going to be easy. That is kind of what he has done.”

MORE: Michigan’s Josh Uche helps his NFL draft stock at Senior Bowl

Michigan football has a battle brewing at QB

Michigan’s Shea Patterson throws 75-yard TD, 1 interception at Senior Bowl

Michigan football’s five burning questions this winter