MORGANTOWN — A big part of this sports writing profession is getting to know someone, figuring out who they are, what they are and what makes them the way they are.

You spend four, maybe five years, with them. You watch them play, see them under pressure, talk with them after practice, after games and then you take whatever insight you have gained and pass it on to your readers, the public, who are the players’ fans.

It’s a lot of responsibility, really, painting the picture of a young kid in college, putting a label on him before he has fully developed.

Take Wes Lyons, the former wide receiver at West Virginia University. Long and lanky, hurt far too often, never really reaching the potential they saw in him. You never could paint him heroically, never could really understand what he was or who he was, for he did not talk much, perhaps withdrawn because of his height or because he had to know he wasn’t able to reach his own goals in college, let alone those that others had set for him.

Well, Friday afternoon we came across him again, helping former Mountaineers Quincy Wilson and Grant Wiley at their West Virginia Legends football camp for youngsters.

Physically, he was hard to recognize, even if he was towering at 6-foot-8. This, however, was no longer a reed-thin wide receiver. He had bulk on his upper body, arms that were muscular and defined.

“I weighed in the other day at 263 pounds,” he said. WVU had listed him at 231.

The muscles were the first thing that seemed out of character. So was the spot where he weighed in — with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Here was a player who had caught a grand total of just 48 passes in 42 games. He had gained only 517 yards in his career, fewer yards in his best season — 263 as a senior in 2009 — than Dustin Garrison gained rushing in one game last year.

And he had not scored a touchdown, making him, probably, the only wide receiver never to have scored a touchdown to list an NFL team as his employer, even if it is on the practice squad.

“That amazed everyone,” he admitted. “At West Virginia, I made a couple of plays but unfortunately they got called out of bounds. Remember, we didn’t throw the ball that much, as much as I would have liked.”

In part, it is wrong to say he did not score any touchdowns. He got one, but that was in the 2009 spring game.

“Even in the preseason last year with the Steelers I scored a touchdown and that got called back. I don’t know what’s up against me,” he laughed.

Whatever it was, it stayed with him right to the last regular-season play of his college career, catching a pass in the 2009 loss to Pitt, struggling to reach the goal line, being tackled by his shoestrings and being called for pass interference in the process, a disappointing end.

The muscles and the added weight, that wasn’t his idea. It was the Steelers, who somehow envision him as a tight end rather than a wide receiver.

Like we said, sometimes you just don’t know someone like you think you do.

Lyons is certain that people really don’t know him. That’s why he offered up this surprise as he talked after Friday’s practice.

“I’m writing a book,” he said.

Football heroes write books, not members of the practice squad, not guys who don’t score touchdowns.

Yet Wes Lyons feels he has something to say, and the book will be out soon.

“It’s called ‘Pursue With Patience,’” he said. “It’s about pursuing a goal, pursuing a dream, being patient as you continue to work toward it.”

That certainly fits Wes Lyons like a tailored suit.

But what does he have to say? Why did he decide to write a book?

The answer gives you a look inside the man, showing a side he had never shown before.

“I want to get my story out,” he said. “We’re always dealing with all these kids. All I want to do is touch one kid, show them the ins and outs of what I’ve been through. If I can inspire one person, if I can touch him, that’s all I want to reach. I mean, I want to reach thousands and thousands of kids, millions ... whatever. But if I can change one kid’s life, one kid’s path just because they picked up something they may not have seen if I didn’t write it, I will be satisfied.”

You hear that and you have to know that you didn’t realize there was such a warm side to the man, that maybe he was churning about inside as he failed to reach stardom when he seemed simply calm and resigned to his role.

He had to go on with one setback after another, right to the moment the NFL draft came along.

“I actually killed Pro Day here,” he said. “The scouts were loving me. I was getting calls before the draft saying they were going to draft me in the late rounds. Unfortunately that didn’t happen, but I go into that in the book. This is just a short summary of it.”

And what is the point he wants to get across to the kids?

“You can achieve what you want, as long as you put your mind to it and believe,” he said. “No one has to believe and be behind you, as long as you believe.”

Email Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com. Follow on Twitter @bhertzel.