Still on the move
Former Lobo football player Preston Dennard has plenty to keep him busy
Surely a teenager might have something better to do on Fourth of July weekend than running drills through an agility ladder, around cones and over hurdles at 9 a.m. under the sweltering Albuquerque heat.
Most junior high- and high school-aged kids — even those with athletic designs — are either sleeping or preoccupied with a video game or mobile device at that hour, said former UNM and NFL football player Preston Dennard to about 15 boys in attendance for Dennard’s Elite Skills Football Academy.
Not these teenagers — and a few pre-teens — who showed up at Cibola High School’s football field.
During a short break, Dennard complimented the boys for their commitment with an oftrepeated mantra to his pupils: “Find a way to separate yourself from the others.”
At 61 years old, Dennard practices what he preaches as a successful businessman, motivational speaker and elite-level coach.
Dennard arrived from his native Georgia more than 40 years ago as a freshman recruit for the University of New Mexico football team. When he completed his career, he held several all-time receiving records, and still ranks high on the career lists.
While his name wasn’t called at the NFL draft, he was signed as a free agent by the Los Angeles Rams, eventually played in the 1980 Super Bowl against Pittsburgh, and he completed his nine-year NFL career, which included stops at Buffalo and Green Bay, with 232 career receptions and 30 touchdowns.
During his time as an NFL player, he was twice nominated by his team for the Man of the Year Award (now named the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award) for his community-
based volunteer and charity work.
Dennard was identified by his teammates as a highcharacter individual, so it should come as no surprise that he is still giving back to his community.
Surely, though, as he closes in on collecting a social security check and retirement, Dennard could find something better to do than teaching young boys proper running form and improved football fundamentals. And on a holiday weekend? “This is my way of giving back, and I just love it,” Dennard said.
Dennard, by his own admission, is an extremely busy man.
His “day job” is working as a representative for Sports Surfaces Distributing, a company that sells and installs indoor and outdoor sports surfaces ranging from indoor/outdoor tracks to field turf.
Since his retirement from football, he has traveled across the country as a motivational speaker, worked in broadcasting and spent time as a Division I football coach, including a stint as an assistant at the University of New Mexico.
Coaching kids is nothing new to Dennard.
“I’ve been doing it for years,” he said.
But he has narrowed his coaching focus to developing aspirational athletes. It helps that Dennard, who has grown children, still has two children in school — a 10-year-old and a 16-year-old – who have their own athletic goals.
And it is also beneficial that Dennard knows the path to reach those goals.
Dennard said he is available to fill in some of the gaps — to drill down to the minutia of the game — that some athletes may be missing to make them more productive and useful on their prep teams.
“My whole (program) is working outdoors on a football field where it’s supposed to be,” Dennard said. “What (the kids) are getting is the full concept of development. I work on all of the positions … my motivation is based on the thought that people say we don’t have Division I athletes here. We don’t have a lot, but those who are borderline aren’t getting pushed to that blue-chip category because they don’t get the opportunity to work on the details and fundamentals.”
Even if an athlete isn’t a bluechip prospect, Dennard said the instruction he imparts on the participants in his academy will make life easier for the coaches of his students.
“They are more educated (about the game) and it stretches the learning cycle so they can do more for their program,” Dennard said. “A lot of kids go back to compete for positions they never thought about. Kids realize their potential, and that’s my joy.”
Dennard’s group football skills training runs from the end of the school year in May until late July when schools begin organized practices. The fee is $25 for approximately 10 weeks of two-hour weekly training, and the fee includes an Elite Skills Academy T-shirt.