NIKE COACH OF THE YEAR CLINIC 3:10

Sgt Paul Robbins Jr:
We’re here at the Nike Coaches Clinic to interact with the educators and coaches that are here just to tell them about the Marine Corps and the opportunities that we can provide to some of their students if they don’t go on to play Division One football.

Amy Aiello:
We have around twelve hundred coaches within Florida and they come from other states as well. The Marine Corps are here as our national partner. I feel we’ve had great success. We’ve enjoyed working with them very much.

LtCol David diEugenio:
We look at Honor, Courage and Commitment as the underpinning of everything we do as Marines. The very same values you teach, the very same values that help a young man on the football field help Marines on the
battlefield and help us all as we move through life.


Heinz Peter Sturgill:
Football has always been something in my life and I relate it to the Marine Corps because such is the training and the discipline and that’s what I try to teach my kids.

LtCol Austin Renforth:
Any sport where there’s physical, mental toughness, sacrifice, dedication, commitment; there’s so many sports that probably do help but that full contact where you really got to go at somebody, that resonates well with the Marine Corps.

Alex Pacheco:
On more than one occasion, these kids are looking for direction and I think the Marines provide that.

LtCol David diEugenio:
You know we are tasked by the commandant to make Marines, win battles and develop quality citizens.

Kevin Justice:
We have learned as a football player that you’re tired, you’re worn out, you’re exhausted but you have to find the way to keep going and the same things we learn in the Marine Corps.

LtCol David diEugenio:
Over the course of a four-year enlistment we really feel like we have created the opportunity to be able to send somebody back into society a little bit better than we got them.

Dan McCarney:
I have got to believe that there are just so many things that a young man would be able to take from a football team, and especially a championship football team, that we have in Florida, if their heart desired or they wanted to pursue a career in the U.S. Marines. And I think they, because of work ethic and commitment and the tough part of it, the mental toughness, the physical part of it, the leadership aspect of it, I have just got to believe the transition would be tremendous for a young man from a football team going to the U.S. Marines. And I’d sure encourage it.


LtCol David diEugenio:
As football players we live on the adrenaline that comes with that pre-game, butterfly, jittery feeling. And you hang up those cleats and that helmet for that last time, it’s an absolute tragedy, that they couldn’t be able to ever sense that again. But what we’ll communicate to the coaches is, while there may not be a collegiate team out there that has a slot for that young lad, there’s a good possibility we’ve got a spot for him on our team.

LtCol Austin Renforth:
To a football player, commitment is to that team and that team alone. It’s the same in the Marine Corps but now you got the guy on the right and the left of you, and their life is in your hands.

Alex Pacheco:
I think one of the biggest things that I’ve had to deal with is the team concept and trying to make them understand that it’s not about you, it’s about what you represent whether it be the Marines or Miami Springs senior high school. It’s something much bigger than yourself.

LtCol David diEugenio:
If we’ve got a kid who has got heart, who wants to be a United States Marine, we’re going to find a way to help him through the process, provide extra instruction, extra training. We will absolutely and positively go the extra mile to create the opportunity to help him be one of us.