Losing One of Your Own
For some of those who might be new to the Premier Performance Brand, I wanted to fill you in on something that I will always hold onto. Not only do I share this story with friends, but I also share it a reminder to my Athletes that things in life are not always guaranteed.
Let take a trip down back almost 3 years ago when I came in contact with a young man named Eli Grow. For some of you this name may ring a bell and for others you have no idea who I am talking about.
Eli was a Junior at Tullahoma High School, which is roughly 1 HR and 15 minutes South of Franklin, TN. He played QB for the school and was well liked by darn near everyone. His Mom was operating a heck of a Gellato Business and his Dad ran the family Environmental Business.
One thing that most people would say about him is that he was always smiling and he always wanted to help others. No matter what the day was, he was always grinning from ear to ear.
You could have told him to run 6 laps and fast as he could, but he always had that grin on his face no matter how much pain he was in. He worked his tail off in the weight room day in and day out. He would come to the facility and train 1-2x week, but he was also dedicated to working out on his own at the school. He was in the weight room all the time. By all the time, I darn near think the coaches gave him a key to the gym because they were tired of him asking if he could come workout.
He worked on improving his lifts. He worked on his footwork, He worked on his agility and speed. There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t receive a text message asking how to do something or if that was all he was supposed to do that day. The dude wanted that Collegiate Scholarship more than any kid I have ever trained.
He knew he was a bit undersized for a QB, but he wasnt going to let that stop him from pursuing his dream of playing in College.
Below was a sample of what we would do on a weekly basis:
It was 3-5 x Week of working out, plus all of the conditioning that was going into it as well. When I say hard worker, I mean HARD Worker.
Coming around to his Senior year, he was getting looks from a few smaller schools in the area, but one that caught his mind was Mississippi College. Eli was happier than pig in mud when it came time to tell me that he was going to play there. Smiling from ear to ear he said, “ I’ve decided to play college football at Mississippi College.” I knew he was pumped, he had gone on a college visit and fell in love with the school.
This was just proof that he was finally accepted into the CHOCS family and now it was time to go to work for the Football Program.
Eli came into workout on I believe April 30th, 2016. He was pumped up. He had texted me to let me know that he was on his way and he would be on time. Sometimes it took a bit longer due to his drive time.
I patiently waited as the door slung open to the gym. There he was, smiling from Ear to Ear anticipating his workout. He put on his workout shoes and then it was time to warm up. I can’t remember if we started on the treadmill or not, but we went right into some band work, then dynamic warm-up, then then some speed work.
We generally took our time. I knew that I wanted to get in as much as possible, so we chatted and worked for at what felt like 2 hrs.
This day was no ordinary day. We finished our workout and he wanted to stick around and do a few things extra. This was normal for him. Eli wanted to do extra all the time, which was a great sign of someone who wanted it. As we were wrapping up, I have him a High Five, which I typically do once someone is finished.
He let me know that he was going to Smoothie King and get a post workout shake. So I encourage him to get something that would help with the recovery process. Im not sure what shake he ended up even getting because that was the last time we spoke.
You might be wondering what happened after that.
Well I wake up on Sunday amped and ready to get ready and go to Church. I get a phone call from a co-worker, who stated that Eli was killed in a car accident no less than 2 miles from his house last night.
I was SHOCKED, ANGRY, and CONFUSED. How is it that a young man who I just talked to less than 24hrs ago gone from this world.
I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
I was shocked because I literally just talked to him.
Angry because I was the last person to talk to him and I kept him later than he was supposed to be.
Confused all because we were literally just laughing and having an awesome time during the workout.
I write all of this to just remind folks that we never know how much time we have left on this Earth. Our days are numbered and I try to use these friendships/relationships that I have with my Athletes as tokens of appreciation.
I try and use this as a ministry for me to treat each and everyone of these Athletes as like they are my own. I’ll do anything and everything that I possibly can to help them achieve the things that they didn’t even think were possible.
As a reminder I will always keep Eli as a part of the Premier Performance Family. We will be looking to add a wall in his honor a token of appreciation in the near future. Its been 3 or so years ( Im bad at math) and we will NEVER forget #8 for Tullahoma.
“Never Take Anything for Granted”
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