A Lifetime's Work for a Lifetime's Goals
Everybody wishes they could play the game they love forever. For every athlete who is truly in love with their sport, there comes a time when the issue of when their time on the field will come to an end is forced, usually outside of their own control. For most, this occurs after their last high school contest. For those who are lucky, their journey ends after college when the discipline and drive a college athlete learns of necessity become the foundation for lifelong employment. I was blessed and fortunate enough to continue playing professionally after college. After I graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2009, my four-year professional career began in the Dallas Cowboy training camp, taking me through productive stints with the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions and training camps with the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns, ending in another training camp, this with the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League. Understandably, I was at a bit of a loss when finally facing the end of my career. I had worked hard and studied and competed since I was a young child, and now it was time to find something else to do with my efforts and energy.
I had always known that my playing career would end, and that when it did that I wanted to give back to the game through coaching. I wanted to mentor and develop young players so that they, too might achieve their dearest held dreams through dedication and hard work, and also to help them enjoy the benefits of such effort, not least of which is a college education through scholarship. It occurred to me that I might also benefit from pursuing a coaching career in the educational sphere through a graduate assistant position that would allow me to learn how to educate youth both academically and athletically while continuing my football career. The coach who had recruited me to the University of Cincinnati, Mark Dantonio, had become the head coach at Michigan State University, and through this relationship I was able to secure my present position as a graduate assistant on the MSU defensive staff.
My goals, upon beginning my graduate program at MSU had to be refined. I first and foremost wanted to excel in my graduate concentration within the Masters of Arts in Education program, which is Sport Leadership and Coaching. This goal was established in order to assure that I could apply a broad range of knowledge to my craft in coaching. Second, I wanted to produce, through coaching, young student athletes of incredible character and skill, so that I could pass on to them the aforementioned opportunities (born of their own sweat and skill) that I enjoyed in my journey through sports. Third, and finally, I wanted work hard enough, study hard enough, and coach hard enough to earn a resume that would lead to a job as a Division One football assistant upon graduation from Michigan State University, my ultimate goal.
