First Snap

First day is almost in the books and the adventure thus far has been a great life experience...

I woke up for my flight in Chicago on Thursday morning to do some finishing touches to my packing. Next thing I know, I have: a shoe (yes just one), my toiletries, and a couple shirts that I refused to leave behind. Like any genius traveler, I continued to try and cram these into the non-existent remaining space in my last suitcase. It was a duffle bag, so the body weight strategy wasn't going to work on this one. Obviously, the zipper broke and duct tape saves lives. So, the duffle bag was now a beautiful flat silver in color. "Should be easy to spot in the baggage claim area though", was the first thought to run through my mind.

I show up to the airport a flawless 2 hours ahead of my flight and every time at the airport, the longest line is always the one you have to stand in. I shuffled along awkwardly with my carry on, duct tape duffle bag, and 2 standard suitcases. I was flying Polish Airlines to reach just North of Serbia by a couple hours so I was one of the few American-born people in line. I noticed random glances and people staring at me, so I started to think... "I am decked out in comfy Jordan gear with my large headphones carrying all this stuff." But that just wasn't enough of an excuse as to why these foreigners were shooting glances at me every time they thought I looked away. I walked by a kid and his dad and the kid took like, an 8 take of me. Not the standard double take. Then I hear a word that sounded like "Rafa" uttered under someones breath. Duh, my stupid long curls, headband, and tennis racket sticking out of my backpack in conglomeration with my Jordan shorts that looked eerily similar to Rafael Nadal's man-kapris was the reason these people were staring at me. I'm sure once they noticed the duct tape bag mid-way through their personal investigation, that the possibilities of me being Rafael Nadal were zero.

I hop on the plane excited to get my flight underway and over with. After about 6 hours we're nearing England and the pilot comes on the intercom and says these words, "Excuse me ladies and gentlemen, we have to make a security emergency landing in Glasgow." He said it in Polish first, so I got the privilege to see the expressions and responses from other people while I waited for it in English. What the **** is a "security emergency"?! Then all these people started to stand and turn around to look towards the very back of the plane and speak amongst themselves. We landed, 4 police officers came onboard, went to the back of the plane, did something, and removed someone. The curtains in the back were pulled as soon as the announcement was made, so who knows. After that, the flight was just dandy! (sarcasm font needed)

The 1.5 hour layover/security emergency removal made me miss my connecting flight to Sofia, Bulgaria so I had to make a change to catch a flight to Vienna, Austria then head to Sofia from there. At this point it was just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other, keeping my head down, and executing until I arrived. I remember repeating "It could always be worse." in my head over and over. People are extremely well dressed in Austria and my connection to my plane towards Sofia went smoothly. 

I arrived in Sofia, not knowing it was in Bulgaria not Serbia. Naturally, I waited for everyone to leave the baggage carousel area to snatch up my semi-embarrassing although extremely efficient duct tape duffle bag. I've never been that guy that can feel cool about having a white sheet of paper with black standard Times New Roman font listing his name, but this time I was. I had no idea if the guys I was being picked up by were going to speak English. An awkward split second went by and then Aleksander said "Can I help with the bags?" So refreshing to hear that. 

We hopped in a van and started to drive; slowly but surely the conversation grew into a masterpiece of exchanged ideas about the world, food and drink, customs, weird stuff the US does, etc. Serbians are extremely well educated people, far above the average person in the states. Not saying much, but still, I had no idea. We arrive in Nis and it's not much different from Iowa climate wise, besides the mountains surrounding the city. We arrived at the building, crammed into a small elevator and rode up towards our condo we'll be living in for the next 5 months. After the elevator, I didn't know what to expect. But, like anything in life, don't judge a book by it's cover. Wireless internet, cable, wood floors, full kitchen, 1.5 bathrooms, 2 balconies, 3 bedrooms, and a maid surprised me to say the least. I met my roommate and Cornerback Randy Fesser and so far he's nothing short of a great person.

The Head Coach, President of the club, a random friend of theirs, Randy, and I all went to a nice restaurant for some Serbian cuisine. It was a great way to start off the new life here with a variety of dishes and tastes I had never imagined. For example, meat jello. Salty, foggyish, nasty jello with meat in it. Even Coach Simovic doesn't eat it. But obviously, I gotta live life to the fullest. So I gutted it against his advice. It is just as bad as it sounds from my description. But, everything besides that was fantastic.

The first day of practice was today and coach came over to pick us up and show us a few things. We walk in the indoor facility and instantly my eyes hit the tennis court. It was clay! Never seen one before so I was like a little kid testing it out a bit on my walk by. We warmed up and started with drills on the turf side of the facility and instantly I felt that football warmth hit my heart. I was doing it! It had been so long since I had the opportunity to do this in a team atmosphere and I ate it up immediately. I was quiet to start but then Coach Simovich came over and reassured me to be vocal with our guys and help on ANYTHING I see that we could improve. 

Once he cut me loose, it was on. I switched up drills and worked a lot of hand speed with our d-linemen and edge blitzing with our linebackers. I visibly watched players get better throughout practice and that was so fulfilling. I've really started to find a passion for coaching and I now know it's something I want to do for the rest of my life.

 For it only being the first day, I'm so happy to be here and have had a handful of mini-adventures: managed to blow half the fuses in our condo (attempting to hook up my XBOX to the non-compatable outlets), took a cold shower (because I didn't know we had to turn on the water heater ahead of time), missed the exchange rate place's hours (because it's a Saturday and they close at 3:30? Who does that.), tried rushing the passer without any pads or helmet (1 pass rush=1 fat lip), and ran my own debit card at the grocery store (In Serbia everyone hands the card to the cashier and they run it for you, so I got some pretty hilarious looks after I swiped it.)

Everything that I thought I knew about Serbia was wrong. I'm glad that I get the opportunity to live and learn firsthand from this amazing place. I experience something new everyday and am trying to really focus on living every single moment to the fullest extent. First full week of practice approaches and I can't wait until I wake up in the morning and remember where I am.

-One Life

"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out." -John Wooden

Kickoff: I am more than just Shane Wong

When I was a kid, my favorite sport was basketball. If I made a mistake like a turn over or a missed lay up I would put my head down in shame for a few seconds, walk around, and then try to get back on defense. What I didn't realize yet was, that self pity party didn't help anyone on my team and especially not myself. As I grew older I realized that all of those times I had decided to give up, rather than to fight for something bigger than myself, was such a selfish act. Then, sophomore year of high school I got a call from my brother saying that a friend had committed suicide. This was the start of something in me that I hadn't found yet. Angie was the type of person that understood what it took to be the best. She was not only gifted, beautiful, and passionate, but had a work ethic that was unmatched.

I swore that day to live my life to the fullest so that she could watch me and know, that her life deeply inspired someone else to do great things with the time that they had left. Later, after using the tools that Angie had shown me through her own life, I earned a scholarship to play football for a small school in Illinois. Although small, they supplied me with the opportunities to enroll at a school where I didn't know a soul, it was out of state, and every season they opened against a D1-AA team. All of these fit the reoccurring theme "live life to the fullest", so I went.

I came in as a freshman and immediately had an impact, I finally felt that her "presence" in my mind was starting to show in my life now. But I just didn't like the team chemistry or the way that they did things. It wasn't enough, it wasn't a FAMILY that wanted to make the most of the moments they had together. They didn't want to struggle, to grow, or to set themselves apart from the rest of the world. They accepted mediocrity and that was the exact opposite of what my life was based on. I knew of a place where there was a winning tradition, a FAMILY, and a group of individuals who wanted to come together and who were willing to make sacrifices to be the best. This place was Central College, I let the coach know I was transferring and the excitement of Central was getting the best of me during workouts.

Everything was going great, I made life friends, was doing well in school, and even trying to recruit some of my high school teammates to play with at Central. One of the guys I was texting throughout the following months was Kyle Johnson. I had always admired his athleticism, work ethic, presence on the field, and his "never back down" attitude. Kyle was torn in-between track and football after having an injury plagued senior year on the field. He had the speed of a wide receiver, the quickness of a running back, the tackling ability of a middle linebacker, and a smile that only Kyle Johnson could have.

I was sitting in science class finishing up the semester when I get a message from my best friend Kyle McClain. He knew I was in Illinois and sent me a text that read "You need to get home." My stomach dropped instantly, only best friends know when to be short like that and my mind wandered. The next 2 minutes I stayed in my seat in class and started to shake and sweat. My phone blinked and I left to read the next message. All the same emotions came back from my sophomore year of highschool.

Two of the people that I admired in my life had chosen to end their own. After thinking about both of them and why they had been such a huge part of my life, I broke it down to what they had brought to the people around them. When Kyle or Angie were around, the room seemed a little brighter, the day a little shorter, and life a little sweeter. Angie would smile as she walked through the hall or Kyle would yell some random phrase he thought was hilarious on the football field at practice, and little did they know how those small acts made everyone around them better.

In life, you have a choice. A lot of them actually. Every moment there's a window for a choice to be made, it's our decision to make a choice that benefits or hurts the universe. I knew little about these windows of opportunity and how to apply myself to them appropriately before I met Jake Anderson, former Head Strength Coach at Central College. Jake is the kind of person that shares my passion for life and the limited amount of time we have to apply our best effort to it.

I had a couple of decent football seasons at Central my sophomore and junior year and it was time for meetings with the coaching staff to recap the past season, my thoughts, and where I wanted to be for my senior year. Prior to the meetings I felt pretty good about it and what I had accomplished so far in my collegiate career, my coaches felt the opposite. They all had the same theme, "you are playing great, but we all see something bigger with you." I was angry at first because I was doing what I had been doing all along, "living life to the fullest". But that was living life to the fullest in every aspect; the good, the bad,  and everything in-between.

Coach Anderson looked me dead in the eye in our one-on-one and said "Shane, I don't even think that you've begun to tap into your potential. You're not even close." That stuck in my mind like somebody had jammed a knife in-between my eyes and snapped the blade clean off the handle. Had I not done what I set out to do? What I promised myself I would base my life on had turned to dust in 2 sentences. Something had to change, so that summer, it did.

That summer I started to go harder, for longer,  and bring the people around me with. My team and I, my FAMILY, discovered what it meant to do things not to just better yourself but everyone around you. It became an infection of my mind. I would think about my actions and how they'd affect my FAMILY in every step I took. If I had the breath to say something, it was always positive, if I had the energy to help someone along, I exerted it. But that was the whole thing. I couldn't stop. I always had the energy, the breath, the heart, the idea to never quit, because I wasn't doing it alone anymore. For Kyle and Angie of course, but it was as if they had indirectly taught me what I needed to do to uphold my promise to them and I was doing it wrong the whole time. Until now.

The picture I posted at the top is after the Wartburg game my senior year. I had just finished crying in  Coach Pfantz's arms after the seconds ticked off the clock of my last college game and honestly the thoughts that ran through my head were nothing but failures. I hadn't won a National Championship like I set out for. We didn't even make the playoffs. But then something hit me, as I was walking to shake hands I looked up, a smile took over my face, and I knew at that moment that they were proud. I dedicated everything I had to something bigger than myself with only those around me in mind and in return I had reached my "potential". Finally I understood, and I lived and played the best and happiest I had ever been.

By the way, Coach Kyle Johnson was hired my junior year and was there for every second of my struggle and was an integral part of my progress. Funny how things work out.

Now, I start a new chapter. I leave the country in 5 days with a chip on my shoulder to see how far this outlook on life can take me. Through football, I've learned many life lessons. Yes, it is just a game once the ball gets snapped. But, all those moments in-between are real.

-One Life