Blessed and Appreciative
My first football season at the University of San Diego is over. We finished up with a 9-2 record overall, Number 25 of the top 25 FCS Coaches Poll, and most importantly the Pioneer League Football Champs. Technically C0-Champs but they know and everyone else knows who the real champs are, because we defeated the them. The PFL doesn’t have a head to head tie breaker. Although I don’t know why they wouldn’t .
As far as personal stats go I had 24 carries for 119 yds for a 5yd avg. on the year. My best game coming with 11 carries and 74 yds. against Valpo. Still didn’t do as well as I expected or as well as I would have liked. I had a pulled quad that really stayed with me throughout the whole season and would come up and bite me at the worst times. Then I would have to sit out for a week or two to try and get it better. Just goes to show that some things are out of your control, and that you have to give yourself the proper amount of rest and recovery from an injury so that it doesn’t stay with you for 11 weeks. Lesson learned.
Something unexpected was a lot of the attention our team received from having a former Navy SEAL on the team. I kind of figured I would just go play and live out my dream without too much being noticed. I was wrong. I knew that what I was doing was a little out of the ordinary, but I didn’t realize how much it inspired others around the country when they heard my story. I definitely felt honored and blessed to be able to inspire and motivate others to pursue their goals. High points would definitely be being on the Jim Rome Radio show, The LA Times Article, Local Sports Radio/News, and the ESPN segment that was put together for Veteran’s Day. They even wrote an article for my home town in the Albuquerque Newspaper.
With all this attention I have had people write the school asking for autographs (which I had no idea what I would sign or what I would say), movie producers ask to speak with me about my story(which I can’t follow forward with as an athlete until my eligibility is up), and probably my favorite the amounts of personal emails and messages from people around the country letting me know how much they loved my story and how motivating and inspiring it was to them. It made me feel as though what I’m doing is more than just playing football. Its great to know that people who don’t even know you support you and your team just because of who you are. Like I said before, I feel blessed that the Man above would allow me to affect people this way and am very appreciative of all the support everyone has shown me.
Thank you!
And a special thank you to the people who write me asking me to keep updating the blog. I know that sometimes I disappear, but I appreciate you guys staying on me.
Below are some of the photos and media pieces done this season:
Jim Rome Radio Show (starts at 10:30 into recording)
December 12, 2011 at 3:24 PM
Its a blessing to have you on our squad. Much respect.
December 12, 2011 at 6:26 PM
Keep it up JP!
December 12, 2011 at 8:54 PM
Great job J.P.
Some people do not ask to be role models and are just cast there by us, and carry the label well. Was a great pleasure working with you at SDVT 2 and remember the short time deployed in Rota. You have many people pulling for you and with just cause….you are what many of us value in life….a good story happening to a good person. Today with all that is going on, we need that !
Look forward to watching it all unfold my friend.