Wednesday December 19, 2007

The Lessons-Part I

The Lessons-Part I
Yesterday the blog centered on the former assistant football coaches at Clemson and I mentioned that I wanted to share some special stories on a few. Like many of you, I have been fortunate enough to become close to many of these former assistant coaches and have tried to take something from almost every minute I have spent with them. Today and tomorrow I want to share four of life’s lessons from four special friends from this group.

Billy Ware
I have been friends with Coach Ware and his family for years but I will never forget a special day this past summer.

For background leading into the lesson you might like to know who he is and how I came to know him. Billy Ware was a star high school athlete from a small town in the lower part of the state. He lettered at Clemson in football in 1966, 67 and 68. Coach Ware worked his way up the coaching profession and made his way back to coach at Clemson in 1978 as the defensive back coach. In 1979 he coached defensive ends and in 1980 he moved into the football operations office.

Coach Ware started a family and life on the road recruiting meant time away from home so he made the transition into the real estate field and today owns Ware Properties, a successful real estate firm that focuses on lake property on Hartwell and Jocassee.

I first met Coach Ware through his son Sanford who starred at Daniel High School and later as a wide receiver and kick returner at Vanderbilt. One could not ask for a more loyal and trusting friend than Sanford so I know Coach Ware and Mrs. Ware are proud of how he was raised.

The lesson I learned this past summer actually dealt with a real lesson. A golf lesson in fact. My son Ryan was 15 at the time this summer and he decided he wanted to take up golf. It is a very difficult sport to get into because it is so frustrating to the beginner. Ryan’s first few days were extremely frustrating to him and I was not as patient as I needed to be but thank goodness Coach Ware showed up on the practice tee one hot day.

We were in the middle of the record heat wave and all three of us were drenched in sweat. I could not tell who was getting more out of it Ryan or Coach Ware. I was amazed at the communication level and the bond between the two. They worked on a drill more seemingly a couple of hours and the hard work was paying dividends.

A few days later Coach Ware sent Ryan a package. In it was a picture of Tiger Woods with the golf club in the exact position that he was trying to get Ryan in. He also included some motivational material from his business like classic quotes from Vince Lombardi.

As I reflect on that day I think about the golf part of the lesson. I also think about the time and care it took for him to follow up with Ryan through the package he mailed us.

I now know who benefitted the most from that day. It was not Ryan and his golf abilities nor Coach Ware who got to be a coach for one more day. I was the one who benefitted the most. I learned about patience. I learned about following up later on a lesson. I learned a little more about fatherhood and hopefully I learned a little about how to continue to raise Ryan in hopes that one day he can be a gentleman like Sanford.

Rick Stockstill-I met Rick Stock still in 1989 and continue to be good friends with him today. I am fortunate to have a friendship that is going on 20 years here soon. From Ford to Hatfield to West to Bowden Stock was always a friend. It broke my heart the day he left for ECU but I understood. His time with Holtz and Spurrier in Columbia were strange but I understood. I never would have thought I would have been this big of a Middle Tennessee State fan but Stock is worth every minute I follow his program.

Stock taught me more than I could have ever written in this space. I remember sitting in his office one day and hearing him tell a recruit that he loved him. I thought it was strange but I knew he meant it and he had no problems telling the prospect. Stock asked me “Think anyone else in his life tells him that? How many people feel that way but never say it?”

But the lesson I wanted to share about Stock today deals with preparation and thoroughness. At the time he was recruiting Greg Jones the terrific running back from Beaufort, SC.

I walked into his office and he was on the phone with an airline company and Stock was asking how much a flight to Columbus, OH and Tallahassee, FL were. I panicked and thought Stock was leaving Clemson to take a job at OSU or FSU. Instead, he was compiling information on flights from Charleston, SC to those locations. Stock wanted to let Jones and his family know the benefit of going to Clemson instead of Ohio State or Florida State.

The way Stock figure it, Beaufort to Clemson was 270 miles or four hours by car. From Beaufort to Tallahassee was 340 miles or over five hours by car. Columbus, OH was 650 miles or ten hours by car. Stock wanted the Jones to know how much airline tickets were to Columbus.

He was only updating his airline files because all of the other information he had. There has never been a more thorough recruiter. Stock could tell you how many times each team he was recruiting against passed it, ran it, punted it and kicked it. He knew his opponents’ depth charts forwards and backwards. He knew every prospect his opponents were recruiting by position. He even knew the average temperatures for every school he recruited against.

Stock kept all of this information in folders and binders. If he was recruiting a player that was considering a school that played on Astroturf, Stock had a folder full of information on knee injuries and artificial grass.

He had an endless supply of binders and notebooks. If he was recruiting a linebacker Stock would pull out a folder on linebackers. In it would be pictures of the current Clemson linebackers in the NFL in their Clemson uniforms and their current NFL uniforms. In it would also be signed letters that each player had written telling how much he enjoyed his Clemson experience and how Clemson helped him reach his goals.

There was no situation where he was unprepared and no stone was left unturned. It is no wonder that when he left Clemson Stock had signed the school’s all-time leading rusher (Raymond Priester), all-time leading passer (Woody Dantzler) and all-time leading receiver (Rod Gardner). Dantzler was later passed by Charlie Whitehurst and Gardner was later passed by Derrick Hamilton but Stock recruited Hamilton also. Also, Greg Jones went on to sign with FSU but Stock fought the brilliant fight.

Roscoe Crosby was number 25 in high school and one day Crosby received 25 hand written letters from Stock on why he needed to sign with Clemson. The next year Kelvin Grant wore number 88 at Camden High School and he received 88 hand written letters. I joked with Stock that year that the following year he needed to recruit some single-digit numbered prospects to save his hand.

I learned many things from Rick Stockstill but one that day I learned how the more prepared you are, the more successful you can be.

Tomorrow I will have the second half of this blog that features two more lessons from two more great former Tiger assistant coaches.

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