NOTES AND QUOTES for a Friday in the Napa Valley:

Marquis Hundley said it doesn’t matter if he’s one of the picks in this weekend’s 74th annual NFL Draft or signs as a free agent.

All he wants is a chance — to be in someone’s training camp this summer, to show off his speed, coverage skills and tackling abilities.

“I just think I’m that type of player,” said Hundley, a Napa High School graduate and University of Arizona cornerback. “Once I get to a system, once I learn the plays and just get comfortable, I think I can compete with just about anyone. I’ve always kind of been like that.”

Hundley had only one year as a starter on Arizona’s defense, but the Wildcats senior made the most of it.

Playing the team’s boundary corner position, he tied for the team lead with four interceptions and had a career-best 47-yard return against Arizona State.

He also returned a fumble recovery 87 yards for a score against Idaho. For the season, he had 59 tackles with seven pass breakups and a forced fumble.

He also had a career-best eight tackles against UC Berkeley, USC and BYU.

Hundley was named as Arizona’s Defensive Player of the Week against USC and New Mexico. He got the Special Teams Player of the Week against Idaho.

He was injured late in the game after returning an interception 18 yards in Arizona’s 31-21 win over BYU in the Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 20. His fourth-quarter pick deep in the end zone stopped a BYU drive, giving Arizona its first bowl win in 10 years.

A few days later, however, Hundley had arthroscopic surgery to repair a lateral tear of the meniscus in his right knee. He spent the winner rehabbing the knee.

“Anywhere I’ve gone, I haven’t been highly rated — that’s sort of my life,” Hundley said. “But I’ll tell you what, when I left, never were they disappointed in my play or anything.

“Usually, I impress them.”

Hundley, a transfer from Santa Rosa Junior College, is hoping that he did enough to impress scouts from three teams — the Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers and New England Patriots — during testing on his very own pro day earlier this month in Tucson.

Given that he only had three weeks to prepare after offseason surgery, Hundley said on the one hand he was frustrated with the 4.5 time he ran in the 40 — “I’m a lot faster than that,” he noted — but said the results of his broad jump, vertical jump, 20-yard shuttle and 3-cone drill were solid.

“I didn’t have much time to prepare for anything,” he said Tuesday. “I just had to go out and freestyle everything. I still did pretty well.”

Scouts also took a look at Hundley (6-foot, 175 pounds) in different defensive back drills afterward.

“I did pretty well in the drills. I think I had a solid day — nothing too spectacular,” he said.

The NFL Draft will begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The draft consists of seven rounds, including compensatory selections.

The first two rounds will be completed on Saturday by approximately

7 p.m.

The draft will resume at 7 a.m. on Sunday and continue until the remaining five rounds have been completed.

Teams are allowed 10 minutes to make their first-round selection, seven minutes for second-round choices, and five minutes per selection in rounds 3-7. There will be 256 selections, including 32 compensatory choices that have been awarded to 16 teams which suffered a net loss of certain quality unrestricted free agents last year.

Hundley, a starter on special teams for Arizona in 2007, said he’s ready to take the next step in football; to advance to the next level.

“I just want the opportunity to get in someone’s camp,” he said. “Once you get into camp, it doesn’t matter what round you went in. Everyone’s going out to make the team or make that starting spot.

“Once you get in it and learn it, I think I can adjust to it just fine. I don’t think I’d disappoint them.”

Consensus Draft Services projects Hundley as a sixth-round pick.

CDS said Hundley is a “good-sized cornerback who can match up with the bigger wide receivers. Good ball skills and can track the ball in the air. Has the skills to run and mirror WRs.”

At Santa Rosa, he was an All-Northern California Conference player, a JC Grid-Wire preseason Second Team All-America, and was listed among the top 100 junior college prospects by SuperPrep.

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Becky Heimbigner is batting .265 as a freshman shortstop-outfielder for the University of Vermont softball team.

The former Napa High player has started 39 games and has eight doubles, a triple and eight RBIs.

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University of Texas-Arlington infielder/outfielder Tim Steggall has started 40 games and is batting .253 with eight doubles and 18 RBIs.

Steggall, who went to Justin-Siena, also has a .927 fielding percentage in 192 chances.

E-mail Executive Sports Editor Marty James at mjames@napanews.com or call 256-2223.