Coach Wilson called me last week and the first thing he said was "Hey Scott, with the NBA finals over, its officially 100% football season." Spoken like a true 45 year football man, for sure.
We talked about our book The QB Mentor and how it was selling in the local bookstores and on our own website QBMENTORBOOK.COM, especially after our discount for Father’s Day. It feels like we have some momentum with the blogs and the hashtags, Twitter and Instagram. This could get real exciting!
Then he asked me had I ever stopped to think about how we got here? I paused, and he continued;
“Scott, here we are 3 years after Shawn's first ACL injury AND your leukemia diagnosis, and look at all we have going on! Together we are working with quarterbacks and coaches around the country from high school to the NFL and our work gives me a great opportunity to validate our quarterback process. We have in our stable some of the ‘best of the best’ quarterback students, athletes with all the ‘measurables’, the definition of ‘can’t miss’, and we get to find out how much those labels correlate with ultimate success on the field. We have a future projected #1 NFL draft pick, we have a top 10 national quarterback recruit, we have a current assistant head coach offense in the NFL working with a former Heisman winner. And then, we have your son Shawn and Kendall Hinton and Faton Bauta in the chamber at Vanderbilt, Wake Forest and Colorado State. And Vad Lee, FCS player of the year trying to overcome his foot surgery to get a shot in the NFL. And we have several talented but young high school quarterbacks who haven’t had the chance to play yet, and we get to see their careers unfold right before our eyes. We know all those guys have talent, but they don’t have the hype and accolades. They don’t sport the pedigree, but we have prepared them mentally for their opportunity.
“This upcoming season we are getting ready to find out in our own laboratory, what really matters when you develop a quarterback, whether in high school, a power 5 conference, or the NFL! And in July, we are part of the NYFO (National Youth Football Organization) National Championship Tournament weekend that we are hosting right here in Durham, North Carolina! This is as excited for a football season as I have been since I retired!“
So Scott, when I stop and asked myself ‘how did I get here?’ It reminds me of 1987 and standing in the end zone as a Denver Bronco player in Pasadena for Super bowl XXXI. I asked myself the same question then and recalled being a little boy watching the first Super bowl, and writing down on a brown paper bag for my mom that ‘I was gonna play in a super bowl one day.’ And there I was, and it was surreal.’
How did all this happen?
Coach went on to answer his own question, "The reality is that the key is always to follow your passion. And that’s all I ever recommend others do. After all the hours of classroom and field work with our quarterback students, you still never know who it is going to effect, or when you are going to inspire one to change the lives of thousands either on or off the field."
Coach finished by sharing one of his most clever and memorable anecdotes;
“You see Scott, when caterpillars go into a cocoon, they develop inside at different rates and they don’t all come out at the same time. Some come out sooner and some later. They come out when they are ready. That’s what we are seeing with so many of our quarterbacks around the country and I love it.”
The irony of that statement was that Coach Steve Wilson wasn’t even referring to our quarterbacks on the football field. He was talking about his quarterbacks’ in life.
The story of The QB Mentor continues; and as a student, I am so fortunate to be in the front row to see it play out for all of us.
Amen and AMEN.