Pat Rooney
While watching Tim Jefferson step seamlessly into the role of
the Air Force Academy’s starting quarterback as a freshman in 2008,
it was easy to believe the young kid from Atlanta was a master at
making smooth transitions.
Yet less than a year earlier, Jefferson was wondering just how
deeply he had gotten in over his head.
Like many athletes at the academy, particularly those on the
football team, Jefferson received his first taste of military life
by spending a year at the academy’s prep school. Football-wise, the
timing was perfect for Jefferson, who was able to focus on hitting
the books and the weight room during the fall of 2007 while
four-year starting quarterback Shaun Carney completed his AFA
career.
Yet timing aside, the young man who would soon calmly stare into
the face of Mountain West Conference defenses wasn’t nearly as
confident about handling the rugged mix of discipline, academics
and isolation forced upon the cadets who filter through the prep
school.
“It’s easy to get unmotivated pretty quickly there,” Jefferson
said. “The first couple days of basic training I was constantly
asking myself, ‘Why am I doing the whole military route?’ Even into
the school year, I would wake up some mornings at 5:30 and sit up
in bed and think how much better life could be going to a regular
school.
“But I definitely don’t regret it now. It’s opened up so many
possibilities for me. You can’t beat what the reputation of being
an academy graduate gives you. I don’t see how I can ever regret it
in the future.”
Typically, the prep school is used as a means for incoming
cadets to get their grades and academic standing in line before
diving headlong into the full grind of academy life. In the case of
football players, many of whom are recruited out of a talent pool
that often is a notch below what the Falcons’ conference rivals
feed from, that year also provides a means of getting bigger and
stronger.
Ultimately, it is not too dissimilar to a redshirt season at a
traditional institution, even though prep school athletes are
unable to participate in official team workouts.
“For the military, I’m sure if they get through the prep school,
it will make a more seamless transition into the academy,” AFA
hockey coach Frank Serratore said. “If you’re not keen on the prep
school, you’re probably not going to get through the academy.
“For athletics, for teams to succeed here you need to be deep,
and you need to be old. The prep school helps our sports bring in
athletes and get them ready for the competition. We don’t get a lot
of quick-fixes here. We need to get them bigger, and we need to get
them stronger. The teams I’ve had that have been good, we’ve been
deep and we’ve been older.”
Serratore’s bunch, however, is one program that makes minimal
use of the prep school program. Because hockey players have an
opportunity to play at the junior level before beginning their
college careers, those who need extra academic footing often remain
at that level while taking the requisite courses at nearby
community colleges.
One recent exception is forward Sean Bertsch, a senior from
Woodland Park. While Bertsch was able to get his grades in order
during his year at the prep school, his game suffered, as finding
ice time became as much a challenge as anything the academy was
throwing at him.
“I tried to stay in shape, but it was hard because I wasn’t on
the ice much,” Bertsch said. “When I joined the team I was rusty.
It probably was until Christmas before I felt like I was with
it.”
Yet without the prep school to help prepare them, players like
Bertsch and Jefferson wouldn’t even be donning the blue and silver.
A chance to get them accustomed to the life they are about to enter
into at AFA, the prep school has taken these players, and many
more, and began the molding process, shaping them into both cadets
and student-athletes.