TEMPLE, Texas — Imagine running routes and catching touchdown passes from one of your favorite football players growing up.
A player who just made a national championship appearance and was a first round draft pick heading to the Chargers to start his NFL career.
Around 75 kids made their way to Wildcat Stadium on Wednesday, June 28th, to do just that, with Temple's own Quentin Johnston.
"I'm not a coach yet. I don't want to feel like a coach," Johnston, former TCU Horned Frog and current LA Chargers rookie, said. "Obviously, I'm still a player. I want to go in and have fun. I'm still a kid too, so I like to go and have fun with them."
Johnston was back on his home turf, but this time as a first-round draft pick helping teach the next generation of elite football players.
"He's always tried to give back. Even when he was 4 years old, he'd like to help folks out," Carl Johnston, Quentin's dad, said. "This is awesome. I love it. I love what he's done for the kids and to see the smiles on their faces and on my face. Everybody's happy. So it's a win win."
Two of his biggest fans were front and center watching their son give back to the community that built him, decked out in Chargers gear from head to toe.
"You know, Mama's gonna always love her baby to be at home," Sherry Johnston, Quentin's mom, said. "That part is very exciting for me whenever he's there, you know, he'll pop in and then he's gone again. But it's very exciting to have him home."
Temple is the kind of home and community that helped him live his dream.
"I wouldn't have been to the places I've been and seen the things I've seen without the community in Temple," Quentin said. "So, I like to give back like I always do. I want to continue to have fun out here today and I plan to do a lot more of these in the future. This is just the start for me and the opportunities to give back."
He may be a first-round draft pick, but his former head coach, Scott Stewart, says the Quentin he knew in high school hasn't changed one bit.
"We're still family. He's still the scrawny little kid I was squawking at to finish his routes," Scott Stewart, Temple High School football coach, said. "To watch him mature and to watch him grow into the man he is, it's just an honor and a privilege even though for me it's not about what he can do on a football field."
From a National Championship appearance to a first round pick, it's no secret what he can do on a football field.
But, its days like this, that show what he does off the field.
LA may not be Temple, Texas, but his fan club is ready to cheer him on every step of the way.
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