I was encouraged to post about this by Shanghai Mule several months ago and just could not do it at the time.
As I watched my son play his senior year of High School football it was apparent he had a gift for our small 3A school. He played RT and tackle on defense, our school ran the triple option a lot and 70 some odd percent of the time it went behind my boy. Our team made it to the District Championship and was defeated by one of the finest and most well coached teams around. My son earned all conference, all district and all state honors as RT for that year. Halfway through the season, 2 of his coaches stopped my wife and I after a game and told us that they thought our son had what it took to play college football and they would like to help make that happen. We were blown away, our plan was for him to go to a community college, use his A plus program and then transfer for his Bachelors. We began the recruiting process (which if you have not been through that it is an experience all of it's own). By signing day he had 3 MIAA schools and 4 private schools wanting him to play for them. We chose UCM for a number of reasons which I will not bore you with, he was offered a preferred walk on. He started his red shirt season the same way most do, he got a lot bigger, he got his but kicked on scout team a lot and he learned what it took to play football in the MIAA. He even got to run out of the home locker room at Arrowhead Stadium. He would send me film of him getting schooled by guys like Austin Miller, Michael Tannehill and John Embree, he was mentored by great Seniors like Chris Gomez and Kane Barker. During his red shirt year he received a concussion during practice, he went through the protocol and recovered just fine. At the end of his red shirt year he had a conference with the coaching staff, was given some goals in the weight room and was told he was right where they want him to be. His second year started well, he had no issues in camp and was #3 RG on the depth chart. On September 6th we got to watch him take the field against NE Oklahoma late in the game, as a father you cannot imagine the joy and I will leave it at that. That was the last time we got to see him on Kennedy Field, 3 days later he received another concussion in practice. This time it was not a big hit and he called me scared, he then proceeded to tell me he had two others in High School that went undiagnosed because he "manned up" and did not tell anyone. That brought the total to 4, after a lot of conversation and prayer he decided to hang up his cleats, while the coaching staff was frustrated about not knowing about the other concussions they were very professional and respected his decision.
I can't help but think that if he would have recovered from the first one properly this would have ended a little differently. Maybe that is why I am writing this.
As I watched my son play his senior year of High School football it was apparent he had a gift for our small 3A school. He played RT and tackle on defense, our school ran the triple option a lot and 70 some odd percent of the time it went behind my boy. Our team made it to the District Championship and was defeated by one of the finest and most well coached teams around. My son earned all conference, all district and all state honors as RT for that year. Halfway through the season, 2 of his coaches stopped my wife and I after a game and told us that they thought our son had what it took to play college football and they would like to help make that happen. We were blown away, our plan was for him to go to a community college, use his A plus program and then transfer for his Bachelors. We began the recruiting process (which if you have not been through that it is an experience all of it's own). By signing day he had 3 MIAA schools and 4 private schools wanting him to play for them. We chose UCM for a number of reasons which I will not bore you with, he was offered a preferred walk on. He started his red shirt season the same way most do, he got a lot bigger, he got his but kicked on scout team a lot and he learned what it took to play football in the MIAA. He even got to run out of the home locker room at Arrowhead Stadium. He would send me film of him getting schooled by guys like Austin Miller, Michael Tannehill and John Embree, he was mentored by great Seniors like Chris Gomez and Kane Barker. During his red shirt year he received a concussion during practice, he went through the protocol and recovered just fine. At the end of his red shirt year he had a conference with the coaching staff, was given some goals in the weight room and was told he was right where they want him to be. His second year started well, he had no issues in camp and was #3 RG on the depth chart. On September 6th we got to watch him take the field against NE Oklahoma late in the game, as a father you cannot imagine the joy and I will leave it at that. That was the last time we got to see him on Kennedy Field, 3 days later he received another concussion in practice. This time it was not a big hit and he called me scared, he then proceeded to tell me he had two others in High School that went undiagnosed because he "manned up" and did not tell anyone. That brought the total to 4, after a lot of conversation and prayer he decided to hang up his cleats, while the coaching staff was frustrated about not knowing about the other concussions they were very professional and respected his decision.
I can't help but think that if he would have recovered from the first one properly this would have ended a little differently. Maybe that is why I am writing this.
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