What a long yet short weekend. One of the things I had planned to do this weekend was meet with some recruits in Eugene Friday. I had attempted to meet with some of the same kids when I was in California last month, but the timing did not make it as productive as I had hoped. This was about relationship building.
Truthfully, there is so much in the world of recruiting that goes on, that I know these kids get a lot of different perspectives. I told them that I felt anyone can tell you about stars, stats and schools, but that I think there was a story behind every recruit and I want to be able to tell more and get to that ‘rest of the story’ so to speak about each of them.
What meeting with them meant was I had to wait until they were done with their campus tour of Oregon. I left Portland at 11:00 Friday morning and hung out in Eugene for much of the day. At around 8:00 at night, I got a call from their coach and I was ready.
But then we got to talking and suddenly it was 11:30 pm. Now, this might night have been a big deal, except I had an appointment in Beaverton at 5:30 the next morning – so I had to drive home. I got home at around 1:30. that left a whopping three hours of sleep time before I got up, went to my appointment and then drove straight down to Eugene for some tailgating and spring game coverage.
I used to be like this every Friday and Saturday when my youngest son was in high school. I would travel all over the state to watch him play on Friday night, get home at one or two o’clock in the morning and then get up early to head to Eugene. But I felt like Danny Glover’s character from lethal Weapon yesterday ‘I am too old for this stuff’ I thought to myself.
But I am really not. Once I got a little food in me yesterday, all was good.
The reason for this post? I met with a group of incredible young men yesterday. One of them commutes an hour each way to play for St. John Bosco. They all were incredibly polite, engaged and really loved taking the time to talk to someone in recruiting who just wanted to get to know them. We shared stories, laughter, some fun times, some deeply personal stuff. I showed them the photos of me when I was a powerlifter and we talked about the world in general.
They really gave me some great insight into their recruiting which is a part of what I do, but they gave me an opportunity to continue telling stories. I got home at about four in the afternoon yesterday and was already going crazy with tweets, retweets, direct messages, texts and information flowing. I think I finally settled down to sleep at around 10:30 – and it was lights out instantly.
I slept long, but feel so energized this morning. Definitely worth all of the time, hours on the road, sleep deprivation and groggy semi-awareness yesterday morning because these were some really great kids. Thank you to first to Coach Terry Bullock for all of your positive energy and excitement. You made this whole thing possible. Most importantly, thank you to Stephan Blaylock, Colby Bowman, Josh Delgado, Jake Bailey DJ Uiagalelei and Suaava Fagale’a Poti for taking the time to speak with me. Your respect and attention to a guy rambling on is a testament to your parents, coaches and the family that is your football team.
