For all Don Willis knew, his football career was over at age 8 when he was cut from his competitive youth team. He shied away from the sport until his eighth grade year when he and his family moved from Oakland to Lompoc, where he began to pursue his passion for football once more.
“All of my uncles played football, and I knew it was what I wanted to do,” Willis said in an interview with the Sun. “Plus I was always one of the biggest kids around, which is a pre-requisite for football.”
He said he “happened to get pretty good at football” during his four years at Cabrillo, but “pretty good” is an understatement for this Central Coast native with an impressive string of accomplishments.
During his time as a Conquistador, Willis was an All-CIF football player who helped lead his team to a league title. He was also a track star and still owns the records for shot put and discus at Cabrillo. Before graduating in 1991, he was named Blue-Chip All-American, was listed as one of the top 100 football players in the West, and earned an athletic scholarship to the University of Washington.
After playing for Washington and one year at North Carolina A&T, Willis signed with the Seattle Seahawks in 1995.
“I entered the draft as a junior,” he explained. “I was the only undrafted rookie free agent that year that started.”
After the Seahawks, Willis spent time playing for the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers; he finished his career with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2004. Willis said he always felt blessed to be playing in the NFL, knowing there were so many others guys who could be there instead of him.
He reflected that his size often dictated where he played, so it comes as no surprise that he was an offensive lineman, rotating between guard and center.
“I was athletic as a kid, and that lended itself to being a lineman,” Willis said. “I was blessed with speed despite being a big guy.”
For Willis, the love of the game comes from the strategy and technique involved in football—something he said most people don’t realize goes into it. And while he said he loved his time in the NFL, there are aspects he doesn’t miss.
“Life as a pro football player was exciting, fun, and disappointing at times,” he shared. “There are parts of being a professional athlete that can be hard; it’s exhausting.”
But Willis chose to approach his professional football career like any other job, and there are unappealing aspects of every job. For Willis, the training is far from the most thrilling part of football.
“You had training camps during the summer and were sleeping away from home in a college dorm,” he said.
Off-season training included lifting and conditioning and participating in organized team activities, then preparing for the 16 practices during the spring. After that, Willis would transition to training camp for the regular season. Not to mention, there was a 10 o’clock curfew and 6:30 a.m. wake-up call. Willis said that when he was 28 years old, he wondered why he was still playing football.
“The every-day 12-hour grind is what most people don’t understand. They see you playing on Sundays,” Willis said. “But it’s just part of the game—a necessary evil of what you love to do.”
But being able to play on Sundays was something Willis said made all the training and hours away worthwhile; if he were 22 again, he would do it all over.
“One of the biggest things, more so than playing, were the camaraderie and connections you develop along the way,” he said. “I made lifelong friends with coaches and players; the relationships are the most important to me.”
During his playing time, Willis did suffer some minor injuries. After having back surgery to repair a disc, the lineman figured that a solid 10-year playing career was enough and chose to retire.
“I decided it was time to move on with my life,” he said.
But figuring out what to do next turned out to be easier said than done for Willis, who had absolutely no idea what he wanted to do.
“I hadn’t finished my bachelor’s, and I always said I would,” Willis said. “I sold cars for a couple years, worked at AT&T and in transportation—a whole bunch of different stuff.”
All in all, it took Willis about seven years to figure out what he wanted to do. An experience coaching a semi-professional football team in Kansas helped him realize his hopes for the rest of his life.
“I realized I wanted to coach and teach, so I moved back home and I’m working on my credential,” Willis said.
He spent time coaching at Santa Maria High School and Santa Barbara City College before returning home. The former pro recently accepted a teaching contract at Cabrillo as a special education resource teacher, and administrators revealed earlier this year that Willis would also take over as the head coach for Cabrillo High School football this upcoming season.
For Willis, teaching is a natural extension of being a coach. He shared that he got involved with special education for a couple of reasons.
“I have two family members with special needs kids, so I grew up with it in my life, and it’s a more highly sought after position than general education,” he said.
With a new school year around the corner, Willis has some goals for the first season.
“I want to stay realistic and work towards making CIF playoffs,” he said. “But I really want to make sure my kids make grades and stay on top of their academics.”
Along those lines, Willis is working toward developing a tutoring program for players who need extra help. More than having a hand in their football careers, Willis wants to have a hand in his players’ overall success by teaching them how to be contributing members of society and good people in general.
“I hope they learn the game, that it inspires them to one day do for other kids what I’ve done for them,” Willis said. “If I can do anything for them, it’s to teach them how to be lifelong learners.”
Staff Writer Kristina Sewell won’t hold it against Willis that he played for the Seahawks. Contact her at ksewell@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 24-31, 2014.