The Details: For Vea, Success In The Classroom Provides 'Proud Moment'
October 07, 2016 | Football, General, Student-Athlete Academic Services
By Mason Kelley
GoHuskies.com
The rental car rolled into the Milpitas High School parking lot in the middle of the day. Classrooms were full, several students milled around the grounds and I started to look for Vita Vea.
At the time, I had never met the defensive tackle. A highly touted prospect, I was at the school on a recruiting tour of California, catching up with the region's top college football prospects for ESPN.com.
After some searching, I found Kelly King's classroom. The math teacher and football coach let me sit and wait for Vea.
When he walked in, let's just say I knew I had found who I was looking for. We talked, snapped a photo and I was off to the next tour stop – Palo Alto High School.
And now, years later, our paths have crossed again. Vea has blossomed into a key piece of Washington's defensive front and, well, here I am writing another story about the 300-pounder.
This story, though, is about the path Vea took to Washington. About the time I was talking to Vea at Milpitas, he was having a revelation of sorts. He knew he wanted to play football. But he also understood his grades weren't where they needed to be.
"Through high school, I didn't really do well in school," he said. "That hurt me in the long run when I was trying to get into college, meeting the NCAA requirements."
He tried to make up for lost time. He took classes at night. He took classes online. He did whatever he could to ensure he could earn academic eligibility.
"I just knew I wanted to play football," he said. "I knew that, in order to do it, I had to get my schoolwork done and not be lazy with it."
He was forced to spend a year away from the game while he worked on his academics, but the circuitous path led him to Washington.
"Doing all that work to get to this point, I just look back at it and I feel like it helped me," he said. "By being lazy, I know the difference, what I have to do to be successful in school."
Now a sophomore, Vita is thriving in the classroom. In fact, he is on the program's 3.0 board.
"I never got a 3.0 until I got here," he said.
For Vea, the feeling that comes with academic success means as much as anything he accomplishes on the football field.
"It feels really good," he said. "It's exciting. Coach Pete (Chris Petersen), his staff and the academic staff helped me a lot getting there, getting to where I'm at right now. It's a proud moment for me."
On the field, Vea is working toward consistency. The are moments when he feels like he is playing as well as anyone in the Pac-12 and there are moments when it's a struggle.
"I still need to study more, just like I'm studying in school," he said.
Those study sessions take place daily at practice. He is trying to stay "locked in"
"Coach Pete says it all the time, 'take mental reps,'" Vea said.
By doing that, and competing against his talented teammates, he is finding the consistency he is looking for.
"It makes you want to work hard," he said, talking about his teammates. "You see them working hard and then you think, 'Oh shoot, I need to step up my game.'"
Whether it's on the field or in the classroom, Vea has been stepping up his game since the end of his senior year.
When I left Milpitas after that interview, I remember thinking I hoped things would work out of soft-spoken defensive tackle. I never expected to meet him again, but seeing his growth, well, that's something to celebrate.
