If persistence is the intersection of optimism and grit, Lake Wales (Fla.) Excessive soccer coach Tavaris Johnson leaned carefully on these traits every time he crossed paths with Gervon Dexter throughout the hallways of the faculty.
Johnson, who generally is a dean, was eager to see Dexter, a hulking freshman and gifted AAU basketball participant, on the soccer space. His preliminary efforts had been met with the kind of box-out Dexter would use to corral rebounds merely.
“I knew Gervon and I knew his household properly,” Johnson said. “I performed with a couple of of his uncles. He comes from a really gifted household. The very first thing I mentioned to Gervon was, ‘Hey, a man your dimension ought to be on the soccer subject. You’re a dream ready to occur.’ He appears to be like at me and he says, ‘Coach, I’m not enjoying soccer.’ I’m like, ‘What?!? You’ve obtained to be kidding me.’”
Undeterred, Johnson saved a full-court press on Dexter into his sophomore yr and he remained singularly devoted to basketball.
“I used to be fairly agency,” Dexter recalled.
With spring soccer approaching, Johnson labored to steer Dexter into giving soccer a try all through the 20 days allotted to spring soccer observe throughout the state.
“Gervon, pay attention, you need to play soccer. That’s your objective,” Johnson said.
“Coach, nah, I’m not ,” Dexter replied.
Johnson pushed forward, finally convincing Dexter to try on a soccer uniform throughout the locker room and to see what he appeared like in one among many Highlanders’ black jerseys with white lettering and orange numbers.
“I believe that was simply the catch,” Johnson said. “He felt that uniform.”
“All proper, Coach, I’m going to do that,” Dexter said. “When do you assume I’m going to get my first supply?”
“Gervon, no one goes to give you!” Johnson said. “You haven’t performed a down of soccer. It doesn’t work that method. You’ve obtained to present me a while to work.”
“Nicely, I’m not going to play then,” Dexter replied. “I’m not going to waste my time. I’m not going to waste your time.”
“Gervon, pay attention, I’m telling you, that is the place you belong,” Johnson said.
‘Coach, who’s that child?’
Johnson’s dogged pursuit and Dexter’s eventual willingness to try a sport he had carried out solely as a youth led to larger points earlier than the coach may need imagined. Johnson was in attendance at Dexter’s draft celebration when the Chicago Bears chosen him with the 53rd determine with the hopes he usually is a key piece within the midst of a defensive turnaround.
“Feeling the emotion and the vitality within the room was simply surreal,” Johnson said. “After all it was predestined for him. He’d finished the issues he wanted to do to verify this grew to become a actuality.”
On the first day of spring ball, after Dexter was hooked by the idea of how he appeared throughout the Highlanders uniform, then-South Florida assistant coach Eric Mathies was at observe. Johnson was exhibiting him a list of prospects on the college. The Highlanders typically have about 4 children switch on to high school soccer yearly.
“(Mathies) turns round and Gervon is within the nook,” Johnson said. “ ’Coach, who’s that baby?’
“I mentioned, ‘That’s a challenge proper now, that’s Gervon Dexter.’ ”
Mathies walked over to Dexter and observed him endure various drills and suggested Johnson he was going to produce him a scholarship that day. Three days later coaches from all through the Southeast had been flocking to Lake Wales. The phrase was out.
“Transferring via his junior 12 months, he’s performed one season, helicopters had been touchdown on our baseball subject,” Johnson said. “You’d have thought we had the Pope right here with how a lot site visitors we had with individuals coming via to see Gervon. He dealt with that every one properly. He walked with humility. I advised him success is proportional to effort. You’ve obtained to determine this out.”
In a short time — ridiculously transient considering some recruiting tales — Dexter emerged as a five-star recruit and finally settled on Florida.
Then-Gators defensive place coach David Turner burst into laughter when requested if Dexter was nonetheless comparatively raw by the purpose he set foot on campus in Gainesville.
“What would you assume?” Turner shot once more. “He was raw with loads of athletic functionality. There are many points you could coach, nonetheless you could’t coach 6-foot-6, 280 kilos. From that standpoint, he had the complete devices. He was a pure and aggressive baby. The benefit of soccer, you don’t get 5 fouls. So he can robust them up a little bit of bit and he doesn’t have to worry about fouling out.
“He wasn’t an entire lot totally different from (Kansas Metropolis Chiefs defensive deal with) Chris Jones. I had him at Mississippi State. Chris didn’t play soccer till his junior 12 months and thought he was a basketball participant. … Gervon is a child that needed to be coached. He’s an excellent child. ‘Sure, sir. No, sir.’ I used to be excited to have an opportunity to work with him. The benefit of it, there weren’t an entire lot of dangerous habits he needed to break. You simply needed to coach him up. He needed to be nice and it was a pure development.”
On-the-job teaching
Dexter’s father, Gerald, died of a thoughts aneurysm all through the spring of his senior yr at Lake Wales in April 2020, making his transition to Florida tougher.
“Bought nearer to the person above in addition to simply utilizing my Dad as motivation,” Dexter said when requested how he channeled his grief.
Dexter observed widespread having fun with time as a freshman, logging 254 snaps, and larger than doubled that full in 2021. The Gators used him as a penetrating defensive type out throughout the first two seasons — how the Bears envision using him — sooner than a change in coaches ultimate fall led to a model new scheme. In logging 636 snaps (53 per sport), Dexter was requested to study and react additional and protect guests off linebackers. Whereas he proved to be sturdy, he wasn’t exactly having fun with to his strengths.
Nonetheless, in 36 video video games (23 begins), he accomplished with 125 tackles, 5 sacks, 10½ tackles for a loss, two interceptions and 51 quarterback pressures.
“The SEC shouldn’t be an actual entry-level place, so he needed to get on-the-job coaching, and the one method he was going to get good was to see and perceive that everybody is massive and powerful,” Turner said. “The most important factor in his sophomore 12 months was approach and pad stage. He nonetheless wasn’t the place I needed him to be however he understood it having been examined and thrown within the fireplace. All the things his freshman 12 months was the primary time going via it so the second time was simpler.”
‘I wish to be among the best’
Turner’s comparability to Jones, a four-time Professional Bowl selection who twice has had 15½ sacks, is fascinating because of the combination measurables, are associated in a number of respects.
Chris Jones | Gervon Dexter
- Top: 6-5¾ | 6-6
- Weight: 310 | 310
- Arms: 32¾ | 32¼
- Wingspan: 85 | 80⅞
- 40-yard dash: 5.03 | 4.88
- 10-yard break up: 1.69 | 1.81
- 3-cone: 7.44 | 7.50
- Bench-press reps: 26 | 22
Turner said Jones had a sooner first step and was a bit of additional fluid. An NFL personnel man said Jones is quicker laterally with looser hips and the flexibleness to bend like some elite edge rushers. Nonetheless, if Dexter is 75% of the participant Jones, a Kansas Metropolis Chiefs second-round determine in 2016, the Bears can have a star.
“It’s laborious while you’re gifted with dimension and power to grasp issues are going to take time to be the place you wish to be,” Turner said. “That was the most important factor having (Dexter) perceive the method, being affected person inside growth. You’re not going to be nice now, however ultimately you’re going to have an opportunity to be a very, actually good participant.”
Dexter is measured when discussing goals with the first steps this weekend at rookie minicamp. He must get the playbook down, which shouldn’t be an extreme quantity of trouble for a defensive type out.
He’s thrilled the Bears are asking him to be a one-gapper, charged with getting upfield and wreaking havoc. He’s excited to check alongside fellow rookie Zacch Pickens from South Carolina.
The NFL is an adjustment for all rookies, rather more so for ones with restricted experience. Dexter set a objective when he obtained to Florida to play for 3 seasons sooner than making the leap to the NFL. The overarching objective, though, is one he made alongside together with his father sooner than his lack of life.
“Simply making an attempt to do it for him,” Dexter said. “I wish to be among the best.”
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