by Nick Dill, Student Reporter
TJ Andrade watched his football career slip away in the third week of the high school season with 34 seconds remaining before halftime.
Andrade remembers how he broke his neck like it was yesterday. He suffered that injury in 2007 in a game against Silverlake High School.
He was playing defensive end, and the other team ran a sprint-out pass to the right, Andrade said.
“The quarterback reversed field and then ran back toward me,” Andrade said. “We were on their sidelines now, and the next thing I know, I get speared in the head. I did a couple of flips and landed in the grass face down, and then I woke up in the hospital.”
Today, he is the one who keeps the ball rolling. Andrade is the assistant head football coach. He is also the equipment coordinator and a professor at Northwestern Oklahoma State University. Andrade handles all the team’s equipment and finances, and he does a ton of behind-the-scenes work.
The college journey
Andrade had always wanted to be a coach, and that’s exactly what he headed to college for. He graduated from Emporia State University with a degree in physical education for grades K-12, with a minor in coaching.
He started his first coaching experience in his first year at Emporia as a student assistant for the football team. He came into the head coach’s office and volunteered to do anything to help the team. He said he handled anything the coaches needed in the office, and he helped film at every practice.
He said the highlight of his college experience was winning the Kanza Bowl in 2012.
“That was pretty cool to win something,” Andrade said. “Getting that bowl ring was a pretty cool thing.”
It was at Emporia State when Andrade met Matt Walter, the offensive coordinator for the Hornets. Walter and Andrade met again down the road after Andrade graduated and wanted to continue his education.
Living his dream as a coach
Andrade started his first official coaching job at NWOSU as a graduate assistant. Walter is the head coach at Northwestern, and he remembered TJ from his days as a student assistant.
“I admire his work ethic and his loyalty to the process of the job,” Walter said.
A job opportunity opened up, and TJ was offered the job.
Andrade learned he had to be patient in the job search.
“It was tough to send application after application, resume after resume, just to get that feeling of rejection,” Andrade said.
This gave him a perspective of how grateful he was to get offered the job at Northwestern, he said.
He is now in his fifth year at Northwestern. He handles day-to-day operations and is also the football camp director. He organizes football camps throughout the states of Oklahoma and Texas. Those events help recruit players for NWOSU.
Andrade said the players are like family. He loves coaching because he loves being around the students, he said.
“Your players are an extended family to me, and that’s been my whole life because my dad was a coach,” Andrade said.
Recruiting is big in college football, and Andrade is one of the best recruiters on the coaching staff, Walter said.
“Recruiting is huge when it comes to college football, and I feel [Andrade] does a really great job at that,” Walter said.
Andrade said he is able to connect with prospective student-athletes.
“I’m pretty personable, and I can understand the situation and setting I am in,” he said.
He loves the job he does now. Eventually, his main goal is to someday become a head coach, who does more than just coach, he said.
Andrade explained that his goal is to “not just develop kids, but also develop coaches.”
Walter said Andrade has the tools to become a great head coach, he said.
“He needs to get more into the X’s and O’s of football,” he said.
Ultimately, as a head coach, you have to understand the schematic of things going on offensively, defensively and on special teams.
Andrade said he loves the game of football.
“As much as the stress may get to you sometimes, it’s just something about the adrenaline of getting ready for a game and the game itself that just keeps you going,” Andrade said.
Loyalty over everything
Family, fishing and traveling are all important to Andrade. These things help him relax during the stressful and busy life of a college football coach, he said.
Family is key to him.
“I’m a big family man,” he said. “I love to help people. There are not many people I don’t help, whether it’s my girlfriend or my brothers and sisters.”
He aims to always do the best he can for his family.
“I want to be able to provide for my family, whether it’s my girlfriend or my mom or dad if they ever want to go on a trip or stuff like that,” he said.
Walter said a thing that a lot of people don’t know about Andrade is that he loves to fish. Andrade said he didn’t begin to fish until he arrived in Alva.
Impacting people’s lives
Megan Schulze is Andrade’s girlfriend. She said he inspired her to finish college and give everything she had. She said he is too humble to share this, but Andrade has a big heart and is really caring.
“He cares about everybody and wants the best for everybody,” Schulze said. “He will do anything he can to help them.”
Andrade shows how you can overcome any obstacle, and his friends notice that.
“He still deals with the impacts from his neck injury, and how he still handles himself well, even though that was such a major life change for him,” Schulze said
Kinlee Netherton, a student assistant who works in the football fieldhouse for Andrade, has only worked with him for one semester. But he has already inspired and impacted her life.
“I admire his willingness to lead, and he is a great boss,” Netherton said. “He keeps us on track for what we need to get done.”
Sam Gentry, an offensive lineman on the Northwestern football team, said that he admires Andrade and that he portrays many leadership qualities.
“I admire his drive to work and get the task at hand done,” Gentry said. “He basically stays at the fieldhouse from sunrise to sunset just to get our equipment ready for football.”
Andrade has impacted Walter greatly throughout their friendship, Walter said.
One of Andrade’s greatest qualities that Walter said he admires is his brainpower.
“He is extremely intelligent,” Walter said. “Having that intelligence factor through the roof, that’s him.”
Walter said Andrade will not say he’s the smartest guy in the room, but a lot of times, he is the smartest guy in the room.
Enjoy the little things
Andrade said he had a different outlook on life after he broke his neck.
“You must appreciate the little things and don’t chase the big wild stuff all the time,” Andrade said.
Walter said Andrade handles the worst times smoothly.
“His viewpoint on what we may consider a terrible thing is not a bad thing in Andrade’s perspective,” Walter said.
Andrade said he has faced adversity his whole life and has always overcome it.
“When adversity hits, you have to act quick and think on your toes and try and get the right response to it,” he said.