Trio makes QB camp special

As more than 175 youngsters gathered at midfield at Peve Stadium, on the campus of Blue Springs High School, Wildcats coach Kelly Donohoe made a pretty impressive statement about the coaching staff at his Quarterbacks and Wide Receivers Football Camp.
“We may never again have three quarterbacks at this camp who are mentioned in the same breath as the Heisman Trophy,” said Donohoe, referring to 2008 Heisman finalist Chase Daniel of Missouri, Kansas quarterback Todd Reesing and Kansas State starter Josh Freeman, who each drew a lot of national attention for their signal calling abilities.
“Not only were each of them mentioned in regards to the Heisman, they are the three most talked about quarterbacks in the Midwest,” Donohoe added. “In Missouri or Kansas – you don’t talk about a quarterback without talking about Chase, Todd or Josh.”
For the past three years, Daniel has been a part of Donohoe’s camp.
The Missouri stud who threw for 4,170 yards and 33 touchdowns last year for the 12-2 Tigers, said he comes to the camp because, “I know Kelly is a Tiger at heart.”
Donohoe is a former University of Kansas quarterback.
“When you see guys like Chase or Todd talk to the kids, and you watch the kids, you can just tell they’re really paying attention,” said former Blue Springs state championship quarterback Stinson Dean.
“I like to hear what they’re saying, too. They’ve been there, they’ve got what it takes to play D-I ball and now they’re here sharing that with all the kids in the camp. That’s pretty cool.”
Speaking of cool, Dean is going to enjoy one more year on the football field.
After a fairy-tale career at Blue Springs, Dean found the path to Division I stardom lined with land mines.
He left Wyoming after a couple of disappointing years and returned the Midwest to enroll at the University of Central Missouri.
Once again, things didn’t pan out like he’d hoped, so he decided to get a degree and line up a few job interviews.
“Talk about bomb out,” Dean said earlier this week. “I did the interview, saw the cubicle I’d be working in and knew that wasn’t for me. But I was getting married, I was graduating and I knew I had to do something.”
Well, the interviewer never did call the interviewee back, which was fine with Dean.
He did get married and his wife got a job teaching elementary school in Blue Springs.
And, believe it or not, Dean is getting one final chance to live out of his dream of playing – and enjoying – college football at Mid-America Nazarene College in Olathe, Kan.
“I was three hours from graduating when I made some calls and found out Mid-America Nazarene was kind of looking for a quarterback,” Dean said. “I couldn’t go there if I had graduated from UCM, so we made sure everything was all right with the NAIA and we found out I have a semester of eligibility left and I’m loving it.”
Dean cleans Olathe public swimming pools in the morning, then meets with former Kansas City Chiefs backup quarterback Jonathan Quinn, who is MNU’s quarterback coach.
“It’s great to watch film with a guy like Coach Quinn because he’s played in the NFL and he knows so much about the game,” Dean said. “It’s been a great experience. My wife was all for it – we even found a place in Olathe, and I can walk to school. We live in a guy’s basement, but it’s a nice basement.”
More importantly, he’s doing something he loves.
“Being at Coach Donohoe’s camp this week shows me how much I love working with kids and how much I love the game,” Dean said. “I think I might like to coach at the college level.
“I’m young and my wife said she would move around with me because that’s all you do in college – get a job, then move on to another one.
“But right now, Olathe is home, I’m getting to play one more season and life is good.”