UCLA Game Program in PDF Format - GoHuskies.com

KEVIN WARE
Continued from page 40
“You get to go out there and whup their head
around a little bit, and that feels really good.”
Ware started out playing football in the peewee
ranks, and although he has settled in nicely
at the tight end position, it isn’t necessarily
where he thought he would end up.
“I remember one day back when I was in
elementary school and I was at lunch,” he says.
“I saw kids coming to class with their little football
pants and little jerseys on and it looked
interesting. I thought, ‘What are these guys
doing?’ I talked to my dad, and said I wanted to
try it. I was a big kid, so at first I played fullback.”
Although football is practically a religion in
Texas, Ware wasn’t sure he wanted to play in
the South. The transition from Texas to Seattle,
though, wasn’t easy.
“The first year was tough,” he says. “Seattle
is a long way from home, so I couldn’t just get
up and leave. I had to grow up fast. I could talk
to my parents every day if I wanted to, and just
hearing their voice was very comforting. You’re
faced with different issues that force you to
grow up in a hurry.”
Ware found it difficult to make friends in the
dorms at Washington, and thus made the decision
to join a fraternity, Delta Tau Delta, a route
rarely taken by members of the football team.
“I didn’t like the dorms, it just wasn’t the
place for me,” he says. “I had a good friend at
the fraternity who said it was just a different
experience, a lot of cool guys. I went to the
house and met a lot of cool people, people I
now consider life-long friends.”
The time commitments for both football and
the fraternity made for long days, which made a
third factor — school — that much tougher,
and at the same time, that much more rewarding.
“School was the biggest challenge,” he says.
“In high school, you could easily get by, but
here you’ve got to study your books. Teachers
aren’t going to just give you grades. You’ve got
to have the mindset that you have to go to
school every day and do your readings. It’s
something I had to adjust to. I know a lot of
guys who go elsewhere where school isn’t a big
deal for them. This being one of the top institutions
in the country, you’ve got to have your
head in it. Getting an education from this school
is definitely going to help me prosper in life.”
As his freshman year drew to a close, Ware
found himself headed in all the right directions,
and today he finds himself on top of the tight
end world. With success on the field and in the
classroom, it would be easy for Ware to become
cocky and look toward a future in the NFL.
Looking beyond this year, though, is something
the tight end tries to avoid.
“I want to finish school and concentrate on
what I have on my plate right now,” he says. “I
42 HUSKIES Gameday
Despite just one season as the Huskies’ full-time starter, Ware has already cracked the
UW’s top-10 in receptions by a tight end.
don’t want to get to ahead of my skis. I just
want to keep going out there and playing the
game I love, and keep doing well. I want to
make sure I get my degree. Hopefully I can go
to the professional ranks, but if not, I’ll have my
degree, and start my life from there.”
If the commitment and hard work Ware has
put into college thus far is any indication of
how he will do in the future, the years ahead
look exceedingly bright. Of course, Ware would
never say that himself.
“I’ve got a lot of friends and family watching,
and I don’t want to disappoint people,” he
says. “I love the game, and to come to UW and
be a tight end is motivation for myself, to keep
the tradition alive, and to make this school look
great.
“It keeps me going.”