Is it ever too late to chase your dreams? What if you are established in a career with a wife of 35 years, have three children? You have a beautiful home in Tennessee. You are 59 years of age. You have made it. You are established as an elite strength and conditioning coach at the college level. Also to your credit is the invention of a piece of fitness equipment. You are a member now of AARP. Your biggest regret may be that you feel you have let your former college football team down.
It is at a college reunion that you face it. “It was bound to happen: the subject turned to my untimely exit. Everyone knew the president of Saul Ross had forced our head couch, Richard Harvey, to send me packing after getting in one too many fights,” reports Mike. “You know what really gets me more than anything about all that is I feel I can still play.” His friends urge him to go for it.
He inquires and finds that he can still go back and claim that last year of college football, if he wishes to. It would mean competing on the same level as the college seniors. It will be hard but he is in good shape. So he goes back to play as a linebacker at Saul Ross State University.
His comeback in 2007 gave him national attention with his final year of eligibility confirmed by the NCAA making him able to become the oldest contributing member of a college football team in NCAA history.
It wasn’t easy. He was not physically a youth anymore. How he is able to compete along side the seniors and be accepted as one of the team is a great inspirational story. He not only had to prove to himself he could do it but also to the youngsters on the team.
“It was bittersweet for me that I completed my comeback when I played in the game’s final series at linebacker,” he reports.
“For the final three minutes and 39 seconds of the game, I played linebacker against Mississippi College. I was part of a gang tackle on my first play and held my ground against a 6-foot-5, 270-pound guard on the second play; I forced the running back inside and Nate Graham made the tackle. The other plays were runs away from my side; I checked my keys then pursued the plays.
“And then. Just like that, it was over.”
Presently he has returned to his responsibilities at Powerbase Fitness, LLC. From there he continues to help people of all ages live a better, more productive life through strength training.
This book is one that needs to be shared. You can find this book in your local bookstore or on line at www.thomasnelson.com.
Good books and inspirational stores await you. Pick up a book today and get motivated. Mike Flynt shows us in this book that it is never too late to grab your dream. Dream on and read on. Contact the best looking book reviewer in Santa Monica at smdp_review@yahoo.com.
