| George Whitfield Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 23, 1977 Wichita, Kansas |
| Occupation | Founder of Whitfield Athletix and Private Quarterback Coach |
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George Whitfield Jr. (born November 23, 1977) was a former college and arena league quarterback. He now resides in San Diego, CA and is currently running his quarterback training firm Whitfield Athletix and The Whitfield Foundation. From an early age George was fascinated with football and always knew he wanted to play. He was introduced to the game of football by his father, George Whitfield Sr., who himself was a collegiate football player for Wichita State in the early 1970s.
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George played for the Massillon Tigers football team from 1992-1995. While playing for the Tigers George was voted by his teammates as team MVP for the 1995 season. He was an All-State Honorable Mention. During his senior season, the Tigers were led to victory with four 4th quarter comebacks.
In 1996 George was recruited to play by Jim Tressel, then the head coach of Youngstown State University. During the 1996 season, George was forced to watch from the sidelines, and as a result, he transferred to Tiffin University[1] to play for Coach Wolfe and the Dragons the following season.
Upon graduation from Tiffin University, George began to pursue a career in professional football. After receiving no offers straight out of college due to a separated shoulder injury, he decided to continue his training and attend work out sessions with numerous teams as well as sign on as a graduate assistant with the University of Iowa Hawkeyes. While at the University of Iowa, George coached future NFL standouts Bob Sanders, Dallas Clark, Nate Kaeding, Ladell Betts, Robert Gallery, Eric Steinbach, and Aaron Kampman. After a successful season with the Hawkeyes, George moved to San Diego to continue his training. As a result of his training and hard work, he began to garner interest from some Arena League teams. During a four year period from 2003–2007, George had short stints with four different teams: the Chicago Rush, Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings, Louisville Fire, and the now defunct Memphis Xplorers. After the 2007 season, George made what he has called "one of the toughest decisions I've ever had to make" and hung up his cleats for good. During the summer of 2007, he was an intern under Cam Cameron, who at the time was the offensive coordinator for the San Diego Chargers. George worked with all the quarterbacks at camp including a young standout named Philip Rivers.
In 2004 he established Whitfield Athletix, a specialized quarterback training firm based out of San Diego, CA.[2] George works mostly with high school students based primarily in the Southern California region training them in the ways of the quarterback position helping them to enhance and developed their skills from the very basic levels to the complex levels often using training methods used by NFL quarterbacks. Thus far George has trained quarterbacks from 20 different states. Former collegiate standout and Cincinnati Bengals first round draft pick Akili Smith looked to Whitfield to help revitalize his slumping career. Since 2004 over 30 of his quarterbacks have gone on to make a collegiate team at some level from Division I all the way down to community colleges. George is currently the youngest quarterbacks coach in the nation.
Besides training, Whitfield has also hosted two Whitfield Quarterback Showcases in which athletes all over the nation have gone to San Diego to display their abilities in front of college scouts.
Whitfields credentials include working with the Pittsburgh Steelers franchise quarterback, 'Big Ben' Roethlisberger, during his NFL Mandated 4 game suspension at the beginning of the 2010 NFL season. Roethlisberger was not permitted to practice with his teammates or any member of the Steelers staff, so he sought out training help from Whitfield.
In 2011, Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Cam Newton began working with George Whitfield, Jr. in preparation for the NFL Draft.[3]