Gunnar Langvold
The kid can be an idiot at times.
Let’s just get that out of the way first thing.
Which is why Coupeville High School senior-to-be Gunnar Langvold missed a chunk of his junior season and is fighting to redeem himself in the eyes of his coaches, teammates and fans, while trying to win back his job as a starting quarterback.
But he is not, and has never been, a bad kid. He has made bad decisions, yes, but America is a land of second and third and fourth chances for those who try to change their lives.
And it seems these days that he really is committed to a change. He has led the way in off-season workouts, he has tried to be the leader his coaches need to see, he has tried not to be derailed the way he let himself fall in 2012.
“I don’t want to be that guy who lets everyone down,” Langvold says, and the youthful bravado slips out of his voice, replaced by something deeper, hopefully more mature. “I don’t want to let my coaches and my teammates down. I can’t be that guy. I can’t.”
He knows what you’ve heard, what you think.
That he loves to drive too fast, that he could have seriously hurt himself or others when he was suspended last year after a crash during a car race with a teammate.
That, if the steering wheel lands an inch or two the other way when he slams into the tree, instead of walking away to be ticketed and booted in the butt by a teammate’s mother, he could have been injured, paralyzed, died in the middle of a field that night.
Like all teenagers, he laughs at the danger, but, of late, there seems to be more of a sense at times that the memory lingers with him. His eyes cloud over a bit when he talks about that night, and the jokes slow down, and you hope he realizes.
It’s a tricky balance.
You want a quarterback who is brave under fire, who can change calls at the line, who can whip passes to fleet-footed targets like Jake Tumblin, Bryce Fleming and Wade Schaef, who is not afraid.
But, back in real life, when you work with the guy and see him as more than just a ball player, you want him to get it. To realize that more people than he knows care about him and want to see him do well.
When you bring that up, he seems surprised, and it cuts through his patter. It sets him back in his chair for a moment.
Gunnar wants to be wanted. He wants to be liked. He wants, like any teenager, to know that people care about him, no matter how many times he screws up.
Do I think he’s totally there? Will the guy who got in trouble for hitting a coach’s car in the parking lot while goofing around, got suspended for the high-speed accident, tried too hard to grab back his job when he returned and took a concussion and missed more time, will he be the in-control leader the Wolves need?
I’d like to hope so. I can’t say for sure.
I see growth there. I see maturity there (sometimes). I see boundless bravado, with something deeper beginning to build around the edges.
I see a kid who wants, desperately, to live up to the legend laid down by his older brothers when they repped the red and black on the gridiron. He is very proud of them, and what they have done with their lives, and he wants, deeply, for them to be proud of what he does.
I also see a guy who is still fighting the idiot inside, the one that says “Lets go drive 104 MPH.” The one that has to realize what he sometimes spews on Facebook affects how his coaches view him.
He is not perfect, but his heart is right and his mind is getting there. He is bringing the work, and I hope he gets the payoff.
Gunnar Langvold is a work in progress and I am rooting for him.
