O’Hara seeking his chance at the NFL
by Nick Ironside
He may have to wait a while to hear his named called in the NFL Draft, but Central Oklahoma quarterback Ryan O’Hara is just looking for his shot to make it.
After playing football on a team, there is only one other profession O’Hara would consider, and it’s still a football-oriented job.
“The only other profession that I would want to go into would be being a coach, and running my own quarterback camp would be kind of an adventure I would look into,” O’Hara said.
“Nowadays guys get more and more successful, and they’re teaching young kids how to play the position of quarterback, and I think there are a lot of ins and outs a lot of these kids don’t know.”
“A lot of things I didn’t know that I wish I had known when I was younger, and I think I can help them with that kind of stuff – so I’d be a coach and I’d run my own quarterback camp.”
O’Hara’s football skills didn’t only derive from that sport. Basketball was originally his first sport.
“I grew up playing basketball and that was my first love; and I thought I was going to go to the NBA because I was always really good playing basketball, coming up playing in high school and stuff. But once I started playing football, I realized I liked playing football more,” O’Hara stated.
But he figured out that playing both sports paid dividends. “The skills that translate – the footwork, the quickness, the change of direction that you’re always using in basketball. And the hand eye coordination as far as making moves, dribbling. Those things all carry over to football and being a quarterback,” said O’Hara.
“And as the quarterback you get to touch the ball every play, so that quickness and that hand eye coordination – I played a lot of point guard in high school and we had a good high school team, and I just think it’s really similar to what you do at quarterback; you’ve got to be quick and you’ve got to have good hand eye coordination.”
O’Hara’s long journey of playing football may soon be over. Who knows, there may be a new journey in the making come the 2008 NFL draft. But one thing’s for sure. If O’Hara doesn’t make the NFL, one of the reasons he’ll keep on trying is not just because of his passion for the game.