Corey Chavous racked up dozens of interceptions, hundreds of tackles and several touchdowns during his years as a collegiate and professional football player, but the longtime defensive back's focus during a Thursday visit at J.D. Lever Elementary School also touched on excellence in reading, mathematics and taking the classroom seriously.
Chavous, a 1994 graduate of Silver Bluff High School, spoke to fifth-graders, sharing some of the principles that helped lead him to a scholarshp at Vanderbilt University, where he earned a degree in human and organizational development; and 11 seasons in the NFL, including one (2003) in which he was chosen for the Pro Bowl.
He emphasized the idea of competition. "That's all I'm asking you to do," he said, urging his listeners always to "strive not only to be competitive but to beat your friends in the classroom the same way you strive to beat them when you're outside racing, when you're at recess, when you're doing athletic competition."
Chavous confirmed having faced some challenges along the way, as he wound up in several schools while racking up straight A's all the way into eighth grade, when he got a B for the first time.
"By the time I was about in the ninth grade, I was only 5-foot-3 and 127 pounds, so I was actually about the size of some of y'all. I was pretty small," he said.
"I had written in the fifth grade that I wanted to be a professional football player, but at that time, I knew that the only way I was going to really be able to do anything was to tailor my goals around something a little more realistic.
"What was my goal? Just to go to college, and when I got to college, what was the next thing I wanted to do? I wanted to go into journalism, and once I made that decision, everything in terms of going forward - even if it involved football and being able to grow into being a football player - revolved around getting a scholarship to go to school to pursue that journalism degree."
"He told us about being competitive and having good grades," said Jalen Moore, 12, who said he was particularly surprised to hear that Chavous once got an F in Advanced Placement Calculus.
Chavous' NFL days were spent with the Arizona Cardinals, Minnesota Vikings and St. Louis Rams, in that order. He wound up playing at about 6-foot-1 and 208 pounds.
These days, much of his time and talent are dedicated to his website: www.draft nasty.com, which he launched in 2009, focusing on football, basketball and baseball, with its aim being "to provide the most comprehensive video journalistic reviews within the scouting realm."
"Our goal is to not only scout the most well-known talent, but to find those hidden gems throughout the nation," the website said.
Bill Bengtson, a native of Florence, Alabama, has worked for Aiken Communications since 1996, providing pictures and stories for the Aiken Standard and The North Augusta Star.