Here is a nice article on former Massillon QB George Whitfield.
Meet A Qb Guru
Former Massillon star is now adviser to the stars
Chris Easterling
[email protected]
George Whitfield Jr.'s playing career took him from Massillon to the doorstep of the National Football League, as well as to several Arena League outposts.
But it is his career since hanging up the cleats which the former Tiger quarterback feels may lead him to the most success.
Whitfield has spent the last few years operating a quarterback training firm - Whitfield Athletix - based out of San Diego. In the last six months alone, the 33-year-old has worked with Pittsburgh Steeler star Ben Roethlis berger and Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton.
Yet, his successful venture started innocently enough - helping out a fourth-grade Pop Warner kid while he was interning under San Diego Charger offensive coordinator Cam Cameron in 2004.
"Slowly, the Pop Warner kid's getting better, and he has an older brother that's in high school, and he tells his coach, and that high school coach calls another coach," said Whitfield, who graduated from Washington High School in 1996. "Before long, I kind of had to look at it and think, Can I really do this as a profession? I'd never heard of it done. I know that there's piano teachers and there's swing coaches in golf.
I've since come to find out there are a handful of guys who do it. I just went all in."
And "all in" has paid off nicely for him.
Roethlisberger sought out Whitfield to help keep him sharp while he was on the sidelines for the first four games of the 2010 season thanks to an NFL suspension. Hall of Famer Warren Moon, who is serving as an adviser for Newton, also hand-picked Whitfield to help work with the former Auburn standout as he prepares for this April's draft.
"It's unbelievable," Whitfield said. "I mean, I'm a fan. I'm watching Ben play, and I'm watching him go out and do his thing. I was watching Cam all season long, and I'm thinking, 'Oh my goodness.' On one hand, you're like, 'This is unbelievable.' On the other hand, you're like, 'Wow, if I could ever meet him and have two hours on the field, I would go over this, this, this, this.' You think that. It's the same with Ben."
Whitfield's own quarterback career took him from Youngstown State to Tiffin University, where he played for four years. After working as a graduate assistant at the University of Iowa, he tried to resurrect his own playing career in the Arena League, while spending time in the off-season programs of the Washington Redskins and Minnesota Vikings.
It is that brief foray in the world of professional football which has provided much of the motivation for Whitfield as he stands on the field with the likes of Roethlisberger or Newton.
"I knew where I had kind of come up short in my path," he said. "I kind of got bumped to the outside lane when nothing really matriculated out of college.
You go to Iowa and you try to make it back in. I made a close, hard run at it.
"Without that passion, and knowing what it's like actually not to get in, knowing what it feels like to not actually get in and then to develop and learn a curriculum that does teach guys how to get in, I don't know if I'd be as good. I doubt I would if I didn't get tripped up and fall short. I don't think I would be succeeding like I am."
In order to hone his skills teaching the game, Whitfield took it upon himself to learn from some of the top coaches in the game. He utilized his relationship with Jim Tressel forged during their days together at Youngstown State to learn from the Ohio State coach.
He had the internship with the Chargers - an experience he compared to being in a "laboratory" - which exposed him to the film work and attention to detail needed to succeed at the highest level of pro football.
He visited with Jim Harbaugh when Harbaugh was just starting out at Stanford University.
But it was while visiting the University of Texas that Whitfield found the motto which he has taken with him onto the field every day, regardless of what quarterback - from Pop Warner to Pro Bowler - he is working with.
"Across the top of their team room, on a big, giant six-foot board, are engraved the words, 'You must be consistently good to be great,'" Whitfield said. "I try to get that to our guys now.
I say, you don't have to be great today, great tomorrow; you have to be consistently good to be great. I took that upon myself. I'm going to push for excellence, but if you maintain that level for a long time, you're going to start to make some real impressions and some real impact on some of these guys' careers, and really, every career."
As for Whitfield's own career, he's not entirely sure where it will take him. He acknowledged he has had opportunities to latch on as a quarterbacks coach at Division I college football programs, while also getting a couple of NFL feelers over the last season.
But he admits there is something special that attracts him to what he's doing right now. Something he said isn't available coaching at a college football program or in the NFL.
"I'm looking at this position from 9 years old to 29 years old," he said.
"Those little 9-year-olds help you remember how I felt when I first got the three-step drop down. That's no small thing. Then you fly to Pittsburgh, and Ben's still working on a three-step drop. You're just looking at it from two totally different bodies and everything.
It does help that you get to see that. It makes all the difference."
PHOTO PROVIDED BY GEORGE WHITFIELD JR.
George Whitfield Jr. watches as Auburn quarterback Cam Newton works out. Whitfield, a former Massillon quarterback who once had hopes of an NFL career, now provides instructions for such QBs as Newton and Pittsburgh Steelers star Ben Roethlisberger. Whitfield runs his Whitfield Athletix agency out of San Diego.
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