08/20/2023
Plan A
To imagine the type of mentality it would take for a young athlete to go from a bench warmer in his first season of Pop Warner, all of the way to playing in the NFL is something that only a few will ever understand. Jarrett Patterson’s story could have went down so many different paths. But that was solely up to him.
The story began with his older brother David Jr. Never having played tackle football before, he and his father David Sr. began by looking for a way to pack on a ton of size and strength to earn a starting position on the O-Line as a sophomore at Woodbridge High School. After a few months at ECWC we packed on 20-30 lbs onto his frame and it became so. He out-muscled the senior athlete in front of him and began an amazing career on the gridiron. After 3 more years of busting his ass, he earned a scholarship to play at Fresno State and had an amazing 5 year career starting Offensive Tackle for the Bull Dogs!
Along came Jarrett… He immediately saw the possibilities of how far he could take his dream. And to be straight, he only had one plan, the NFL.
To say that Jarrett is hard working and disciplined would be a massive understatement. He was and still is uncompromisingly stubborn and dogged in his mindset in reaching his goals. He held himself to a standard that can only be found in the greatest of super humans. ECWC is well known for producing this type of athlete. The amount of pain and suffering that has been endured under our roof is off the charts. To know this type of affliction, you would have to train on our strongman competition team or our professional MMA fighter training. This is the exact mentality that Jarrett held himself to since I began working with him in Middle School.
He would come every single week after grueling practices regardless of how sore or banged up he was. He was the last person to leave the gym at night and the first person at the gym on Sunday mornings to make sure he was there for the hardest day of his week. His workouts included Olympic lifting, strength training, sprinting, plyometrics, speed-strength work, conditioning and strongman training including our famous “Death Medley”.
At over 300 lbs, he jumped and sprinted better than athletes 1/2 his size. This is not something that he was born with, it is something that he earned through the 5000+ hours he spent in the gym forging himself into the superhuman he needed to be. He made so many pancakes at Mission Viejo, he earned himself a 4-star recruiting tag by his Junior year (should have been 5).
When Mission Viejo played Mater Dei in the CIF playoffs, I watched Mater Dei overwhelm Mission Viejo with their shear volume of great players in every part of the field except for the kid playing Left Tackle. That battle they would lose down after down. He was the best player on the field that day regardless of the outcome and he earned that personal victory by outworking, out resting, out eating and out studying everyone on that field. In fact, the 2 Captains on Mater Dei’s football team who were also the hardest working and most respected members of their team were Jarrett’s training partners (Nate White & Dean Neeley). It was an amazing sight to see them all out there together.
After his senior year, he had many offers to play D1 football from UCLA, Michigan, Auburn, ASU, Oregon, USC Notre Dame and more…
He settled on a dream to play for Notre Dame. There he would play Offensive Tackle in his first year and would move on to play Center for 3 years after that. In order to give his team the best chance at winning, he unselfishly moved to Guard in his final year with the Fighting Irish. At Notre Dame, he battled through injuries and set backs that would make 99% of athletes give up. He was in the gym the day after surgery, multiple times to keep things moving forward regardless of his limitations. He never wavered, he never despaired, he just kept his focus. There was never a Plan B.
Regardless of these setbacks, he never allowed a single sack his entire college career and dominated every player in front of him. He was ranked the #1 Center his Junior year and the #1 Guard his Senior year. He was also named team Captain at Notre Dame his final 2 years and would be the last player to walk out of the famous tunnel in his final home game at South Bend.
In April 2023, he was drafted by the Texans and is now one of the 0.016% of the draft-eligible NCAA football players to play in the history of the NFL. I am so proud of the man he has become and I am excited to watch him take his dream as far as he possibly can.
