Blog #6: Numbers May Be Deceiving Part 1

      This is the official starting point of this blog, as I begin the story of my college career up until the present.  I signed in the winter of my senior year with the University of Pacific, a small D-1 school in the Big West Conference. Even though the town of Stockon is one of the worst crime- ridden cities in the country, the campus was beautiful and they were offering me almost a full scholarship between athletic and academic. I also really liked the pitching coach Tim Dixon, who was actually a Fullerton Alumni.  Unfortunately, right towards the end of the season, I found out that the Pacific coach got fired. At this point, I started seeking some other viable options. After what had happened to a family friend on the USC football team., I started to reconsider playing for a coach that didn’t recruit me. My friend was recruited before Pete Carroll became coach, so Carroll recruited Palmer and he became his boy.  Deciding to wait for Palmer to get drafted and salvage a few years instead of transferring, my friend again got screwed as Leinart came in and ruined any chance for him to play. Things tend to work out if they are meant to be, as now this guy I am talking about, who patiently waited for his opportunity, just signed a 6 year 60 million dollar extension with the Kansas City Chiefs. As you will see with my story, things tend to work themselves out with hard work and the right opportunity. That’s all that luck is; being prepared for the right opportunity. This sensation waited patiently in the weeds for 5 years, working hard and biding his time. Then, at the biggest NFL combine (Workout/tryout), his preparation paid off as he was one of the best quarterbacks in the entire camp. The rest just fell into place. My friend could have felt sorry for himself and quit, but he knew he would have regretted giving up for the rest of his life.

      After my senior season ended, I received a phone call from a friend’s dad, asking about my interest of maybe going to a junior college and either transferring to a more desirable D-1 school or even getting drafted.  Four of my buddies from my team were already interested in going to Cuesta. This JC was very attractive because of their success and the fact that is in a great college town with the best weather in the world. So we all took a trip up to San Luis Obispo to check it out, and it all seemed too good to be true. This small town right off the central coast of California had way more to offer than the crime- ridden city of Stockton. And to top it off, I was going to being playing college ball with some of my best friends. It was an easy decision. Life was good until the day came that changed my life forever. The day before we all to leave to start our college journey, one of our friends died in a fluke car accident coming home from a dentist appointment. It devastated all of us. This catastrophe hit me pretty hard; as it was definitely not the way I pictured leaving the house for the first time. This guy was like an older brother to all of our friends and will be remembered in our hearts for eternity. So to make matters worse, three weeks later while walking on our way to one of our first college parties, we were bombarded by water balloons, one of them hitting my buddy’s girlfriend. At this point, my buddy was all riled up and confronts the three jerks sitting on their porch nailing random people as they walk by. The whole time I was just standing on the sidewalk just waiting for what was to come. The next thing I know, 10 other hooligans come storming out of the house, outnumbering us two to one. It was pretty ugly, resulting in me being out with a quadriceps pull for over two months. We later found out that these guys happened to be on the Cal Poly wrestling team and were trained by the Ultimate Fighting Champion Chuck Liddell. It was over before it even started!! For the next two months I just laid out on a futon in the middle of my living room, depressed and on muscle relaxers. It was the first of many battles that I would face in the coming years.