Who Am I?

In the past few weeks I have come into contact with a number of coaches who have lost pretty much all perspective on what youth sports are about. They have forgotten that kids want to PLAY sports, that kids develop little by little, that they build confidence through little gains on the PLAYing field.

It seems many coaches don't have the time or interest to develop players. As you can see by the examples below ... these two football players have developed over many, many years. Quite a few people looked past them, did not seem to think they were worth their time ...

Let's be a good example to our comrades in coaching that the purpose of sports is to build virtue, build willpower, build young men and women who will be excellent citizens who will serve others.

...

This young man attended High School in Houston, Texas, where he threw for 7,139 yards and 53 touchdowns in his high school career, and rushed for another 2,085 yards. He was also co-valedictorian of his graduating class in 2008. Regarded as a four-star recruit by Rivals.com, he was listed as the No. 4 pro-style quarterback in the class of 2008. 

Yet in the recruiting process he only received offers from Northwestern, Oklahoma State, Purdue, Rice, Virginia and the school he chose.

He is now unanimously considered to be the #1 draft pick in NFL this coming year with many calling him the most amazing player they have ever scouted.

Who am I?

Andrew Luck

...

Despite his record-setting statistics in High School, he garnered little interest from Division I programs, with only an offer to compete for a scholarship as a walk-on from Illinois. He declined the invitation, and considered quitting football to study toward law school. 

He was then recruited to play football at Butte Community College in Oroville, a local junior college in California. In his freshman season he threw 28 touchdowns while leading Butte to a 10–1 record, the NorCal Conference championship, and a No. 2 national ranking. While there, he was discovered by a Division 1 coach who was actually recruiting someone else. 

The coach was very surprised to learn that this QB had not been recruited out of high school. Because he had a 3.6 grade point average and SAT score of 1300 when he left high school, he was eligible to transfer after one year of junior college instead of the typical two.

Now professionally, he is the NFL's all-time career leader in passer rating during both the regular season (101.9), and in the post-season (112.6) – among passers with at least 1,500 and 150 pass attempts respectively.

He also owns the league's lowest career pass interception percentage for quarterbacks during the regular season (1.89%).

He is considered by many to be one of the NFL's top 3 QBs.

Who am I?

Aaron Rodgers