“It was a low-key location where I was able to really focus on my education. I knew that I was in sports, so it was really good to have a place without a lot of distractions. My professors were always really good at communicating, talking, being there, and really understanding who we were as student athletes. It was a great place for me to mature, grow up, and finally get stuff done that needed to be done in my life. I really enjoyed going there, playing football, and getting my degree in education. I liked the fact that it was an all-encompassing program. In California, we had to do our student teaching after we graduated. At UWA, I was able to do my student teaching as an undergraduate. When I graduated, I was prepared. I could go right into teaching. There weren’t a lot of educational programs that did that. We even had a school on campus for Education Program teachers and students to practice and get hands-on experience. I was an athlete and got two GSC championships back to back. I played under Coach Will Hall, set records, had fun, and made new friends I keep up with to this day. It helped open my eyes to what I wanted to do, which was coaching. It helped set the path to spark my love of football. It was the South; everybody loved football. It was a great place for me to be myself and find other people who were passionate about the game of football, athletics, and intramurals. I loved the fact that the campus was so large that we could walk on trails, get close to everybody, and go play tennis on the tennis courts, and ride our bikes down to the pond. It was a really cool environment, being one of the largest campuses in the country. I took full advantage of it and matured. I became a person who showed up on time, got his job done, paid attention to detail, did things right, and was polite to his community members. It’s a goal of mine to save money so that I could go back to a homecoming week or a ten-year reunion.”
