{"id":26587,"date":"2019-05-22T08:40:28","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T12:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=26587"},"modified":"2019-06-13T09:17:21","modified_gmt":"2019-06-13T13:17:21","slug":"football-engineering-wil-young-chose-both-and-made-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2019\/05\/football-engineering-wil-young-chose-both-and-made-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Football? Engineering? Wil Young chose both \u2026 and made history"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Wil Young, the first UTC football player ever to graduate with degree in electrical engineering.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Wil Young discusses the project he recently presented at the College of Engineering and Computer Science’s Tech Symposium.<\/p><\/div>\n

Wil Young didn\u2019t go to college to make history. He just wanted to play football and earn a degree.<\/p>\n

Young did both at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and, along with receiving a diploma on Saturday, he will earn a place in UTC history as the first Mocs football player to ever graduate with a bachelor\u2019s in electrical engineering.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely never expected it because I didn\u2019t know when I came here that it hadn\u2019t happened before. It’s pretty cool to know that I’ll be the first. It\u2019ll be something good to add to my resume,\u201d Young says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

That resume also will include four years of membership, including one year as an officer, in Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and, of course, four years of playing Division I college football.<\/p>\n

As a Mobile, Alabama, high school receiver, Young was rated a three-star recruit. He chose a football scholarship from UTC over possible military appointments to the Naval Academy or West Point. His campus visit\u2014and the city and scenery of Chattanooga\u2014won him over.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually didn’t know too much about UTC coming out of high school,\u201d Young says. \u201cI came on an official visit here, and I just fell in love with the town, really. It was a change of scenery. It’s different from back home. Back home, you know, you got no mountains or anything like that. I liked it here and decided to come up.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he sat out the 2014 football season as a redshirt freshman, Young kicked off his academic performance by making both the UTC Dean\u2019s List and the Athletics Director\u2019s Honor Roll, along with the Southern Conference\u2019s SoCon Honor Roll.<\/p>\n

In 2015, Young\u2019s second year on campus and his first football season on the roster, he played in all 13 games and started in two of the last three contests. On the field, he made 15 catches for 154 yards, including six catches for 82 yards at Virginia Military Institute. Off the field, he made the Dean\u2019s List and Athletics Director\u2019s Honor Roll again.<\/p>\n

He missed five games of the 2016 football season to injury but was back in 2017, playing in 10 games, making 16 catches for 128 yards and\u2014again\u2014the Dean\u2019s List and Athletics Director\u2019s Honor Roll in spring semester 2018.<\/p>\n

Fall 2018, Young\u2019s last as a Mocs receiver, saw him achieve all four of his collegiate career touchdowns, part of his 46 catches for 535 yards.<\/p>\n

When he wasn\u2019t working out, at practice or playing football, he was studying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew it was going to be tough, but I didn’t know how tough it was going to be when I first got into the major,\u201d he says. \u201cFortunately, I’ve always kind of had a knack for math, but I wasn’t so crazy about the sciences\u2014biology, the chemistries and everything\u2014so I thought engineering would be a good route to go to use my skill set and develop myself from there.<\/p>\n

\u201cStill, I ran into Calculus II and Differential Equations; those were some really tough math classes that I had to put in a lot of time and effort that I’m not used to putting in toward school, and to make sure I did well in those classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of last month, Young was still on the employment market. With the extensive time demands of competitive athletics on top of going to classes, labs, doing homework and studying, his life as an undergraduate hasn\u2019t included workplace internships. Still, he says, he has developed skills as a student-athlete that should serve him well in pursuing a career in microelectronics.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiscipline. Disciplining yourself, making sure you learn to manage your time wisely. You have to discipline yourself, but I also feel like it’s about getting into a routine,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, school and everything else has stopped me from performing the way that I needed to perform on the football field. And then there’s also been times where I haven’t performed to the best of my abilities in school\u2014finding balance and being able to excel in both. It’s been tough. It’s been tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the favorite memories that Young is taking with him from UTC, football games dominate, especially in the fall of 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat first time we ever saw a Southern Conference championship, and we got to celebrate on the field and everything with the team,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a special moment, and I really got to see how that felt winning the conference championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd some of our big games that we played\u2014like when we played Florida State (in 2015)\u2014and got to compete against guys that you see every day in the National Football League. This past year, one of my favorite games was the VMI game\u2014Homecoming\u2014I had a pretty cool catch in that game, so I’ll always remember that one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’d do anything to have those (days) back. That’s what I would tell any of the young guys coming in because, once you get away from it for just a second, you’re going to miss it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, though, he\u2019s focused on what comes after graduation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have some mixed emotions, but the strongest right now is just me being anxious, ready to see what’s next. I\u2019m ready to take my next step, to see\u2014moving forward\u2014what my future holds.\u201d<\/p>\n

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