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DEL.ICIO.USPersistence pays off in scholarship
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s a takeoff on the world’s oldest story line. Only this fairy tale rings true: Boy meets football. Boy loses taste for football. Boy wins back passion for the game.
And in the end, a fine young man earns a college scholarship. Mill Creek senior Jerry Winfield may still be pinching himself.
“I’m surprised to put myself in this position,” Winfield said Wednesday. “I never thought I was capable of playing at the collegiate level. I always gave my best, but I always thought it was superstars who sign. Players who get all the hype.”
It goes to show that with effort (on the field, in the classroom, from parents and coaches) plus opportunity, even kids of modest reputation can parlay skill into promise.
Jerry Winfield, a slightly undersized tight end/defensive end playing for a 2-year-old Hawks program, is headed to Murray State University in Kentucky. If Jerry never saw this coming, plenty of others certainly did. And they assisted him every step of the way.
First and foremost were his parents, Jerry Winfield Sr. and April Johnson. Dad coached his son’s youth teams in their native Reading, Pa.
“Jerry’s come a long way, trust me,” his father said. “But I am not surprised. We had to push him, but he actually put forth the effort needed to achieve this goal. I’m proudest of his striving to get there.”
Mom, a data analyst, has another take.
“Football’s more of his father’s dream,” Johnson said. “I’ve never been the sports type. Jerry can do anything he puts his mind to, but I would have been looking for an academic scholarship” — of course, with Jerry’s 3.0 GPA and 1100 SAT.
“Murray is a good fit,” his mother said. “Small campus, and it is one of the top 40 public colleges. It’s really up to him, but they are going to do everything to make sure he comes out with a piece of paper.”
At one point, football lost its appeal to Jerry.
“When I first moved down here to Georgia a few years ago, the level of football was a lot harder,” he said. “I wanted to quit then, but I had to stick with it.”
Why? “It was one of those things where, if you quit now, you might be a quitter the rest of your life.”
Score one for maturation.
“Starting out, he was just a fun-loving kid,” coach Shannon Jarvis said. “Then it turned into where he decided to take every play seriously. Coach [Jed] Hodges rode him hard. But the credit goes to Jerry. He didn’t bow down and quit. He took on the challenge.
“Basically, Jerry grew up into a man this year.”
Jarvis, who started the Mill Creek program two years ago, passed along tapes of Winfield and others to college recruiters at an annual gathering sponsored by the Gwinnett Touchdown Club.
“What caught the college coaches’ attention was that Jerry never took a snap off,” Jarvis said. And so for the second straight year, a Mill Creek football player moves up. Zach Hugo took the same recruiting route to Morehead (Ky.) State.
Not bad for a fledging program.
“It says more about the kids than our program,” Jarvis said. “They have a God-given ability to play football, but more important, they have the academics to have the opportunity to play at the next level.
“I want our young kids to see if you have the grades, and you have the commitment, we’ll get your name out there. It’s what we owe back to them. They give us their time, their work ethic. It’s the least we can do.”
From there, of course, fate takes command.
“Obviously, it’s up to the colleges who they want,” Jarvis said.
And who wouldn’t want a Jerry Winfield?
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