Though Paul was a muscular linebacker …

Though Paul was a muscular linebacker at Utah State and in the pros, he also was an accomplished softball player in high level leagues. Zach followed dad. Baseball was his best sport and Paul began to believe Zach might have a career. At least be able to get a college scholarship. The family wasn’t poor, but Paul and wife C.J. both worked, C.J. two jobs at times so, as Zach said, they could get one Christmas present and stay on the AAU circuit. “Sports saved me, kept me out of the bad stuff,” says Paul. “Sports and a scholarship got me out of the bad neighborhood I came from. With Zach we were living in a suburb of Seattle (Renton), so it wasn’t like that. It was first about the scholarship. I told him we are going to get you to college. From there you have to figure it out. “I always told him to chase his dreams,” Paul said. “That’s what he did. I remember one time they had one of those career days in school and a teacher in fourth grade asked what he wanted to be. He said he wanted to be an NBA star. The teacher told him to write down something more realistic. He came home and said, ‘The teacher wants me to be a policeman or fireman.’ Me and my wife went to school and said that was my son’s dream, so don’t mess it up; that’s what he wants to be.”