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College: University of Washington Some notable successes
Freshman year at UW I was recruited to play baseball when I was a junior at Lakeside. Then in the summer after my senior year, I just didn’t play well enough. I don’t know why. But it worked out well. I never really had time off from sports, but then at the start of my freshman year, all I had was school. It was nice because I actually got to be a student and hang out. But after about two weeks of that, I was bored. I missed the competition. Walking on the football team I started to work out in the athletes’ weight room at the beginning of winter quarter, and a couple of guys there, including Steve Entman, maybe the best interior defensive lineman in the history of college football, were very helpful to me. They told me they would get me on a program so I could try to get the coaches to notice me. One day while my weight coach, DJ, was helping me out, he told me there was a team meeting about to start and I should go along with two of the starters who were there in the weight room at the time. So as these two monsters were walking into the locker room, I kind of crept behind them and said, “Hey, I’m trying to walk on, and DJ said I could tail you guys into the meeting.” It was kind of intimidating, but they were cool. So I went into the meeting and sat in the back. Then I just started going to team functions, and everyone assumed I was already on the team because I was always working out with them, and was friends with a lot of the players. I did the actual walk on workout after spring ball ended, then worked out with the team all summer and finally got a letter inviting me to fall camp my sophomore year. Then it was official. Challenges The third day of camp, I dove on a fumbled ball, along with a bunch of other guys, and my arm got caught at an awkward angle. Something tore. All through the season it got worse, but when you’re a walk on, you can’t say anything. Everybody plays hurt. By the end of the season, my arm was popping out every day. At the end of the season, I had an MRI after my exit physical that showed the labrum [ring of cartilage] in my shoulder was torn all around. I went in for surgery and had nine anchors drilled into the bone. After sitting out of spring ball, I was ready to go to camp. Steps to success Everyone is given a certain level of talent, and you either take advantage of it or you don’t. At the college level, everybody is athletic so every day you just have to do the best you can. Our coach has a saying—“Every day you’re either getting better or you’re getting worse. You’re never standing still.” Everyone works hard—it goes with the territory. Lakeside’s impact I think everyone at Lakeside works fairly hard and has a good work ethic. In my class, we had consistent teams all across the board. With Coach McMahon, you had to work hard. He’s a great guy—a role model for everyone. McMahon’s the man! Staying motivated It’s hard. We spend 40+ hours a week on football in season and 20+ hours a week offseason. It’s a grind, and sometimes it is tough to stay motivated. But everyone is doing it with you. Most of the time, practice isn’t too much fun, but then when you’re out there playing, you remember why you love it so much. Impact of sports on personal/academic life I think being involved in sports is a good thing. My grades actually improved once I started playing football my sophomore year at UW. During my freshman year, I had a lot of free time because school was pretty easy for me thanks to the advanced classes I had taken at Lakeside. Once football came around, my life had a lot more structure, and when you have that kind of time pressure, it makes you more productive. Advice for current Lakeside students contemplating college athletics My route was a little different than most. Students who are at Lakeside now are going to want to talk to coaches, and get recruited. The only thing I can say is that as a college athlete, at some point you’re going to feel that you’re missing out because there’s so much going on outside of your athletic commitment. One thing you have to keep in mind is that as a student athlete, you are not an ordinary student; you’re unique. Not many people can do it, and there’s a reason why—it’s hard. Because of that, you have to give up things that other people may have the luxury to do, and that’s just the sacrifice you’re willing to make because it’s worth it. Like they say, anything worth having is worth working for. Goals I’m on pace to graduate this year in computer science. After that, I might want to start my own business, probably something with the Internet. I started a Web site with a couple of friends, cellarspot.com. Our site provides a way for small wineries who don’t have very good publicity or distribution to connect to new customers, and for customers to connect to new wines. It’s like an online social network geared toward managing a wine collection. Our site is a work in progress, but I think it has potential. Take a look!
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