Orlando Sentinel
8/27
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BIG MAN OFF CAMPUS
The nation's best QB has turned the high school he doesn't attend into a football powerhouse. Home-schooled Tim Tebow jumps into national spotlight
Jemele Hill | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted August 27, 2005
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
-- Luke 12:48
First thing they notice is, Tim Tebow is white.
Ten thousand Filipinos sit in an auditorium ready to hear this young, white American with a gentle smile and kind eyes.
He says he has brought hope. Says he can tell them where to find faith. The Filipinos sit in awe because most have never seen an American, much less a white person.
Then, in a sweet, confident tone, the high school senior tells them about Jesus. Tells them they can be renewed if they believe. And they absorb every word. When the American is done, 8,000 want to know this Jesus.
The 18-year-old goes to a prison that houses the biggest drug lord in the city, to his father's orphanage in Mindanao, to scores of schools with the same message. He sometimes spreads the gospel for 16 hours a day. He rides in a rickety jeep up hills for hours to towns he can't pronounce. He lives on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chicken and rice and protein bars for 17 days.
During his trip to the Philippines this summer, Filipinos constantly asked Tim Tebow for his autograph just because he was American. They don't know they might have collected the signature of a future NFL star.
Tim preached about a Christian resurrection in the Philippines, but thousands of miles away on another continent, Tebow leads a different kind of conversion at Ponte Vedra Beach's Nease High School.
Once a dilapidated football program with a shabby weight room, no freshman program and a long history of losing, the St. Johns County school has morphed into power with Tebow, a left-handed genius who is rated as the best high school passing and running quarterback in the nation.
The plan always was to build Nease's football program, but Tim's dominance accelerated the process.
Today, Nease's football budget is $130,000, up from $40,000. Another $180,000 has been poured into upgrading the weight room. This year 167 players showed up for tryouts. They were lucky to get a quarter of that before Tim arrived.
"We were extremely weak," said Bernie Sanders, the president of the Nease Golden Panther Booster Club. "It wasn't even up to most Pop Warner teams."
Nease's profile as a football school has undergone a dramatic change. The Panthers were 2-8 and 3-7 in the seasons before Tim got there and hadn't qualified for the district playoffs since 1994.
With Tim, they are 16-7 with an appearance in the regional championship.
Expectations have soared for Nease football, which is ranked No. 6 in Class 4A. In fact, they are so high Nease the school makes its nationally televised debut in a road game at noon today against traditional power Hoover (Ala.) High on ESPN -- the first time a high school game has been televised on the network.
"We're not trying to get all the glory," Tim said. "We're just trying to win a state championship."
However, not everyone is pleased Nease's football program has arisen so quickly. Not everyone is pleased Tebow is a top-5 recruit who has fielded visits from college coaches such USC's Pete Carroll, Michigan's Lloyd Carr, Miami's Larry Coker, Florida's Urban Meyer and
Ohio State's Jim Tressel.
See, the most sought-after athlete in Nease's history doesn't even go to classes there.
"The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." -- Matthew 23: 11,12
An apartment in St. Johns County is Tebow's classroom.
His school day begins the same way each morning. He reads his Bible for a half-hour, reciting the three scriptures that define his life -- Luke 12, verse 48; Matthew 23, verses 11 and 12; and Proverbs 27, second verse.
He checks his planner, where his mother, Pam, has detailed his lessons for the day. He learns history, chemistry and algebra like any other high school student. This week, she used flash cards to make sure Tim knew the periodic table.
He spends most of his day totally segregated from the Nease student body -- the same group that chants his name during and after games.
Yet the Tebows' learning center/apartment has become the source of controversy.
Tim has been home-schooled since kindergarten. His four other siblings were also home-schooled. But the Tebows' permanent home is in Jacksonville, which is where the majority of home schooling took place before Tim came to Nease.
How can this be?
To understand why a high school star has two residences, understand the Tebows are devout Christians who believe the only way their children would learn certain values was if they instilled them.
"You have to start early with your children," Pam said. "You can't decide in high school, 'Oh, we want him to have good character.' "
Tim first played high school football at Trinity Christian in Duval County, where the Tebows' family farm is located. They played him at tight end and defensive end. He wanted to play quarterback. His family wanted him to play quarterback.
His father, Bob, knew in the early stages that his son would be a terrific quarterback. When Tim was 4, Bob's palms started stinging from tossing the football with him.
The Tebows took Tim out of Trinity Christian and went looking for a program that would let Tim play quarterback.
They checked out a number of schools before their search led them to the guidance counselor's office at Nease.
Nease? The perennial basement team?
Craig Howard, Nease's then-new coach, was the one responsible for Tim's arrival at Nease. He's been coaching for more than 30 years, spending half of those years at the college level.
His offense was cookie cutter to the one used by Meyer at Utah. Howard promised Tim he could throw until his arm melted.
"We just hit it off from Day 1," Howard said. "I love Tim like a son."
Tim's move to Nease wasn't viewed innocently -- at least not after Tim hit the field and showed he could make any throw and had a 40-yard dash time hovering around 4.6 seconds.
When Tim transferred to Nease, a home-schooled student could play at any school in St. Johns as long as they lived in the county. The Tebows followed the rule by renting an apartment in the county.
There was grumbling once Tim's talents became known, and the Tebows fought the perception they used the rules to their own advantage.
Their parents are following the rules," said Joseph Joyner, superintendent of St. Johns County School District. "You're always going to get people who criticize someone who is successful. You're always going to get people that try to find something negative."
The Tebows never made their dual residencies a secret, even though that didn't stop the whispers the apartment was a front. They planned to stay full time in St. Johns. They put their Jacksonville farm on the real estate market for two years, but took it off in last May.
Since Tebow joined Nease, the St. Johns County school board has clarified the rule and said home-schooled kids must play sports for schools in their district, as long as the extracurricular activity is offered there. At Tim's popularity grew, it playfully became the Tim Tebow rule.
Nease people see it as sour grapes. They say Tim's transfer wouldn't have raised an eyebrow if he weren't a five-star recruit and Nease was still a fledgling football team.
"We were the homecoming team for everybody," Sander said. "You scheduled Nease for that because you know you're going to win."
When you're good, everything comes under attack. And Tim's home schooling was no exception.
Tim is a B student. And yes, his mother administers his grades and his tests -- so you can guess what the whispers are about.
Overlooked is that three of the Tebow children, who also were taught by the same woman, have graduated college and another is an engineering student at Florida. And Tim achieved the required SAT score for college athletes as a sophomore.
"People try to cause trouble for us," Tim said, "but we try not to worry about it. We know we're doing the right thing."
"Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips." -- Proverbs 27:2
C'mon, Tim, just take a little credit. Just get a little bigheaded.
"We're just trying to make this year better than last," Tim said. "We've got a lot of good players in the program."
You mean the seven teammates who might not have had Division I scholarships if the college coaches that came to see you didn't notice them?
"They got the scholarship because they put in the hard work," Tim said.
Try to get Tim to say he's the toughest person on Nease's team because he played three quarters against Menendez with a broken leg in 2003. Try to get him to call himself brilliant because he broke Anquan Boldin's state record for total offense with 5,630 yards last season.
Try to get him to admit he's the perfect weapon because of his 46 touchdown passes last year. Try to get him to puff his chest because ESPN is filming a documentary on him that will air around National Signing Day in February.
For someone else, it might be hard to stay humble.
For Tim, life it's not because his life is geared around humility and service.
His father, a full-time evangelist with his own ministry, and his mother demand no less That's why he's taken three trips to the Philippines. That's why his parents made him chase cows in 95-degree heat on the family farm, and won't let him out of his other chores no matter how many Elite 11 camps he attends.
"We kept him place," said Peter, Tim's older brother.
You wonder if Tim will stay this way, if a year from now he'll still be the same boy brought to tears when his dog, Otis, was hit so hard by a car around the farm it broke some of the animal's teeth in half.
A year from now will he still be reading his Bible every morning? Will he still believe in saving himself until marriage?
"People have talked to me about that already," Tim said. "Hopefully, I'll be able to say no and stick to my faith."
Much was given to Tim. Much was expected. Much has been delivered.
Ponte Vedra Beach Nease vs. Hoover (Ala.), noon, ESPN