With Josh Williams, former runningback for the Guilford College Quakers……
This is a continuation of our weekly star athlete series… I will share the story of one of our earliest clients and then I’ll share a little about my own life.
This week’s star athlete is a true success story. Comes from nothing, parents split up while he was young. He lives with his mom who works 2 jobs and despite his situation, he earned a scholarship to a prestigious D2 school up north. He was my first client. He and his mom didn’t have the money to pay for the services in full when he first came to me. I was in college and wasn’t pressed for money at the time. I chose to waive his costs and I personally worked with him on his speed and agility.
It takes something abnormal to fully believe in yourself and your abilities. I don’t know where his motivation comes from but his drive was unheard of. He grew up in a difficult situation but his ambition was similar to my own. Even though he was 4 years younger than me, we would share visions of success and what that looked like to us. He told me about about his dreams of being financially free. Dreams of taking care of his mom. Traveling the world. Imagine a high school freshman speaking these things. It was powerful.
He wasn’t the best in the classroom, which I think ultimately held him back for earning one of those big time scholarships. We stayed on him constantly. I don’t want to put too much fault on his shoulders but he knew what he had to earn in order to be eligible for a major D1 school to consider him. One thing I did see is the lack of reinforcement within the household. His mom was preoccupied with taking care of the bills. We would beat the subject of grades when we had conversations with the kid but things didn’t seem to change. Which is funny because, every tip we gave to enhance him athletically, he absorbed and got better. There could be so many factors to contribute to a kid just not getting it in the classroom.
I would talk to him and I would hint to him rearranging his priorities. He is a popular guy. He is the big man on campus at his high school. That’s a pretty high pedestal for 17 year old. I think he may have had his brain power in too many areas. Of course the majority of his attention went to being an all-star on the field but he was also juggling a job, school work, a social life, girls, etc. Something was going to have to give in order to see excellence in one or two of those categories. We tried beating it through his head but he only seemed to catch our guidance when it came to the athletic side.
Ultimately, he had so much potential to be great. He will be enrolling into college next fall which I am proud about.
As for me, things are good. At Janesh, we are rolling with our High Schools Showcase Jamborees coming up in the fall. I will continue to keep you all updated on the progress. I see this becoming a huge recruiting deal for local athletes. Hopefully we can create an environment that will attract a few college scouts. Oh and our sponsors have bent over backwards to see that this vision of mine comes true. I have received so much support moving forward from the community. Very thankful. For so long, it was only me driving this thing. Now I see why they say it takes a village to raise a child.
In other news my mom has been hounding me about finding a girl friend latley. She has convinced me that my biological clock is starting to tick. I think she is just looking forward to a grandchild. Either way, she’s starting to persuade me that a girlfriend won’t be such a bad thing.
I wanted to say thanks to all of my peers. Past and present. The only thing about becoming dedicated to a goal is that you tend to tune out the rest of the world and their needs of you. I’m not justifying my actions by any means. My social life is an area that I feel I have room for improvement. I do miss my friends and I do appreciate the time that we did spend together. You guys are busy building your life just as I am. I don’t think the love will ever die. I just think everything has a season.
Closing, I want to thank our sponsors for their support in our pursuit to provide college exposure to as many athletes as possible.
Until next time,
– Josh Williams