The Spartans went on to a 10-2 record that year and then repeated that feat in 1987. The story could not have been written any better for me that year. I received conference player of the week honors playing against Cal State Fullerton in my old high school football stadium with many of my old friends there to watch, and beat my brother and CSULB the following week for the PCAA title game. We all know how things went for Mike and his awesome Spartan career, but my icing became a lot sweeter in the tenth game of the year when I received my first opportunity to start. Plus SJSU was coming off a 2-8-1 record from the year prior. There were no expectations on either one of us, since neither of us had started a major college football game before. It's almost funny to think that it really was a good battle, especially considering the level of success Mike had once he won the starting spot. Heading into the 1986 season Mike Perez and I battled for the starting spot. I did have mild success at Cerritos JC as we went 6-3 my sophomore year and I broke the school record for single season passing yards with a whopping 1591 yards!Ĭertainly that number has been doubled by now.Ĭlaude Gilbert gave me the opportunity to meet my goal at SJSU and put my "icing on the cake".Īny accomplishments from this point forward were just that… no pressure, no expectations, just give 100% and have fun. I was no longer playing to meet anyone else's expectations, but focused on having fun and played with a specific goal in mind. Little did I realize until later how the shift in thinking would play into success on the field. I hadn't thought about it that way but it sounded good. He was good friends with Coach Merkle from Cerritos Junior College, and the two of them told me to play for the opportunity to earn a free education. My dad encouraged me to continue trying but just set different goals. I was resigned to putting football behind me and getting on with life. So I came home with my tail between my legs. My only scholarship offer was to the Air Force Academy, where I lasted about 6 months before realizing football didn't mean enough to endure the rest of the agenda there. When my coach switched me to wide receiver my senior season it felt like my football career took a big step backwards. Just when things would be going well I'd break a bone or tear ligaments. I struggled to set aside the pressure and enjoy playing football. Playing as a freshman on the JV team, and being the only sophomore on the varsity team came with a high level of expectations. My brother Greg, a year older than me, set the school record at the time for Mater Dei High School for receptions in a season and later went on to become a Honorable Mention All-American tight end at CSULB.Īt Mater Dei I was groomed to be the guy, the quarterback of the future. I am the youngest of 6 kids with four boys, all of us played high school football. I grew up in Anaheim, CA with the game of football in my blood. There wasn't much to write about me and my bio was rather short. I remember reading the media guide about guys like Mike Perez and Kenny Lutz, where they could write a book about all of their accomplishments on the field. I'd never played for a championship team or set a bunch of records. I was the kid who had a ton of potential and worked harder than most to prepare, but for some reason struggled to put it all together on the field. See, my football career to that point had been littered with high expectations and squandered dreams. I decided to avoid putting so much pressure on myself and just have fun. Not because I had some spectacular career playing high school and junior college football leading up to 1986, but because any success I was going to have was secondary to getting a degree and enjoying college. This is what I told myself when I received a scholarship to play my last two years of college football for the Spartans. Playing football at San Jose State University was simply "icing on the cake". Well, it's 4:33am on a Sunday and I just woke up in the middle of the night to write this because my story just came to me. I felt strange writing an article/story about myself and wasn't sure what to say. I appreciate the opportunity to write a little something for It's funny how this took me so long to do, and I put it off a number of times.Īnthony Rocca asked if I would write about my experience playing football at SJSU and the impact it had on my life.
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