La Sonjia Jack has an oversized suitcase full of football DVDs that would make a spectacular hall of fame highlight film if her son Myles Jack achieves the ultimate honor.
She saved them so he could watch himself in later years. But the collection also represents Jack’s dedication to film study that began when the UCLA linebacker/running back was 8 years old.
When he was 6, Jack declared that he wanted to be selected in the NFL Draft, a goal he’ll likely achieve during Thursday’s first round. But during his first couple games, his mother said he ran around without a helmet chasing butterflies instead of ballcarriers.
By the time he was 7 he was serious about the sport and playing both ways. When he was 8 going on 9, he asked his coach in the Gwinnett County Pop Warner league if he could get a copy of his last game, along with that of next week’s opponent.
Not the average kid
La Sonjia Jack had to upgrade her Ford Expedition and became the first parent in her Dacula, Ga., neighborhood whose vehicle had a DVD player.
“Most kids would be watching cartoons in the back of the truck when you drive down the freeway. Not my kid. My kid was watching himself and the teams we were going to play,” she said last week during a phone interview from Atlanta, where she is executive director of retail operations for Cox Communications. “He would evaluate them and know who to go after. He would memorize their plays, he would understand who the best player was.
“It got so crazy that he would watch them so much they would start to scratch. I told the coach, ‘I will pay you extra if you give me double of each.’”
Every Sunday Jack would go to the mailbox and wait for the DVDs that the coach would drop off, then “rally the troops” to do drills in their backyard.
When his parents divorced at the end of Jack’s freshman year in high school, Myles, La Sonjia and his younger brother Jahlen moved to Bellevue, Wash. But Jack’s film study and extra practices with teammates on the weekend continued.
Practice makes perfect
“I would get the call, ‘Hey, mom, can you bring me some more gallons of water?’ Or, ‘Hey, mom, I need some more of those yellow cones,’” La Sonjia Jack remembered. “I probably had about 500 of those yellow cones. He would set up an obstacle course.
“In Seattle when it rained I would have to pull my car out of the garage so he could set up drill cones in the garage to practice.”
La Sonjia Jack said both her sons are walking sports encyclopedias, Myles on football, Jahlen, 16, a sophomore at Riverwood High School in Atlanta, on basketball. They are also dedicated to working out.
“On Sunday at 6 a.m. they’re at the gym,” La Sonjia Jack said. “They understand their gift and they make sure they perfect it. They don’t sleep in on weekends. When they’re together, I have to call them at 2 a.m., ‘Can you get home?’ They’re at the gym, playing sports, exercising, in the sauna. They understand their body is their haven.”
La Sonjia said Jack is “focused on being a leader,” and wants to get involved in community programs for youth after he’s drafted.
“I’m excited to see where he ends up because they’re going to get someone who’s going to add tremendous energy to a team,” she said. “He wants to be that person that brings people in to be what I call extraordinary. That’s Myles’ mindset.”
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at www.ohio.com/marla. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.