San Diego sports fans have seen Eric Weddle on NFL fields as a safety for the San Diego Chargers, they’ve seen him on the field as a Baltimore Raven and on the field as a Super Bowl winner with the Los Angeles Rams, but now they can see him on a new field in a new role... Eric Weddle is in his first season as head football coach at Rancho Bernardo High School.
'It's amazing, incredible, the joy I get from being around the boys and try to give back," Weddle told NBC 7 during a recent practice.
"It's fun to be in a position to lead, teach and motivate through the game of football, it's the greatest game in the world."
When Weddle was announced as the schools coach back in November, it shocked many players.
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"I was like there's no way that has to be fake, then I saw him and was like Wow that's Eric Weddle," said Terrick Fisher, a senior running back at Rancho Bernardo.
Of course, the NFL teams Weddle played for made this kind of awkward for some his Rancho Bernardo players, many of whom are big NFL fans.
"I mean I'm a Raiders fan, so I always saw him on the field going against my team, so it's kind of a love, hate relationship out there, but now it's just love," said Tanner Whitford, a Rancho Bernardo receiver and defensive back.
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Weddle admits it took awhile for the high school players to see him not as a former NFL player but as their coach, now that barrier has been broken.
"I'm not your ex-NFL player, I'm just your head coach now," Weddle likes to remind his players of that.
"He brings the intensity every practice, even in the meetings," said Whitford, "He's there for us every day on and off the field and helps us push through whatever it is. He's just there for us as a father figure if we need him or as a coach."
A key to establishing that close relationship between player and coach, came with full team Q & A sessions in the off season when Weddle would put each player in front of the team and ask the players who’s your favorite athlete?
"If I knew their favorite athlete, then I'd call them and get them on the phone, like Bobby Wagner, Jalen Ramsey, Cooper Kupp, Andrew Whitworth. I called Whitworth one time, he was one of my lineman, all the guys that I've had relationship with throughout my career. one, to be able to cal them and they answer is really special to me, and two, to have them as an audience for my high school kids, for them to be able to talk to professional athletes that was really fun and really cool for them"
So what kind of coach is Weddle?
Schematically he says he's running college and NFL concepts with his high school team, and in typical Weddle fashion he is pushing the Rancho Bernardo program to a higher level.
"Boys want to be coached, they want to be pushed and moving towards greatness. I don't coach to be average, I coach to be the best and I want my players to see that, I want my players to strive to be their best whatever that realm is, whatever that role is because that's going to carry them on through life."
