Doug Klopacz:

Growing up, I truly loved playing sports and honestly took to them very well. As a kid, I was always playing up in grades as parents would jokingly ask my parents to see my birth certificate. In my young teens I broke 6 feet and weighed about 180 lbs., but was able to move better than everyone else. Football started for me when I started my Freshmen year at St. Joe’s.

I get to a serious level of competition, playing a sport I have never played before with about 98% of my teammates having played. Turns out, it did not really make a difference at the end of the day. I knew I had the ability, and I was better than these other kids. Did i still have a ways to go, yes. I knew my worth at this point, so I went after it. After only playing football for three weeks come our first game, I started my entire Freshmen season that fall.

My first taste of college football was when i attended Penn State’s summer football camp. Joe spoke to us, I met a few coaches, saw the campus and stadium. When it came time to speak to my father and tell him how it was, I told him I wanted to go to school there and play football for Joe.

I had my work cut out for me for the next three years. There was something more I had to figure out though. I had to understand my self worth, not through my accomplishments but with what I knew was true inside of me. I hadn’t “accomplished” anything on the field yet per say so how could I build off of that ? - I could not. I mention the internal worth and drive because thats what will drive your focus at the present time. Day by day I went to class and trained. Staying focused on my goals for that day - I had an understanding of what would help or hurt my chances of achieving my goal. This was something that I wanted and knew I could go get, so i did. I received a full athletic scholarship to play football at Penn State.