Kids helping former Cary High star rekindle love for football years later

By Ryan Bisesi, WRAL multiplatform producer

Cary, N.C. — The Triangle's rich history in college sports has given us many characters that live on in our hearts. WRALSportsFan's 'Where are They Now?' series catches up with some of those athletes to see what they're up to these days and how they were shaped by their college years.

Josh Adams is Cary High’s all-time leading rusher and ninth for career rushing yardage in state history. He went on to play at Wake Forest, where he won ACC Rookie of the Year honors in 2007.

These days he has a complicated relationship with football. Injuries kept him from developing the potential he showed as a freshman, and dreams of playing in the pros didn’t come true. Years later, he’s about to delve back into the game, this time as a youth coach. However, as a 34-year-old husband and father, he knows when it's time to appreciate what he has at home.

Scroll to read a condensed Q&A with Adams or watch the complete interview in the video above.

WRAL: What are you up to these days?

JA: I have just been given a position for head coach in a youth football league. It’s the 8U North Carolina Storm. This will be our first season. Practices and training will start in February, and the season picks up in July. I’ve been preparing to get ready for that mentally and physically.

When I got out of college, I was one of the assistant coaches at Sanderson High School. That transition from a player to coach was a whole different world for me. Obviously, I really had to understand the Xs and Os and really know the game, which I feel like I did as a player, but now you’re creating the Xs and Os.

My son, he’ll be 7, so I made a promise when he gets of age, I’ll get back into coaching and kind of get back into sports and just really start helping him and getting him involved in athletics.

WRAL: Do you always want to be around football as long as you can?

JA: When I initially got out of college, I was kind of bitter a little bit, just because of what happened. I wasn’t able to make it to the next level for whatever reasons there were with the [NFL] lockout … I blamed it too on my productivity, the team productivity, it took a while to get over that hump personally. I’ve been a part of these organizations for so long, not to be able to participate anymore was a hard blow to me, but that’s reality, right? It happens.

I’m still engaging more now than I was before. I would imagine as head coach now, I will definitely be more involved and just really get back into the game. I still work out, I still condition, maybe not as hard, I’m not lifting 300, 400 pounds on the squat anymore. I try to stay in shape.

I'm always, always working with the kids. Whether its in the community or at the gym, anytime I have to interact with kids, I try to help them.

WRAL: Are you still living in the area?

JA: I’m still here in RTP. My mom’s still in Cary, but I’m here in RTP. That’s where I’ve been working most of the last five years or so. I work in IT sales. I’m really just trying to stay low and keep things going forward.

WRAL: You were recruited by some pretty big schools coming out of high school, can you explain why you choose Wake Forest?

JA: You have to maintain a certain GPA, have certain courses, have a college curriculum to even be eligible. I had to make sure I was on the right path. I had to make up some classes because of some low grades. I had to get some advanced classes to make sure I could be eligible. You had to have at least a 2.5 GPA. Mine was slightly below that, so I had to do a lot of ramping up senior year,

I kid with a lot of people, I went to Friday school, Saturday school, Sunday school from sixth grade all the way through 12th grade. School was definitely challenging in a way that I was able to make it through, but I obviously had a lot of support from the community, from my teachers, from my mom.

Wake Forest jumped on the radar. You look at Tennessee, you look at Maryland, you look at Oklahoma State. You look at some of those bigger names that were coming in and showing me offers. I managed to reach out to the Wake Forest recruiting coach at the time and was just able to connect with him. From there, it was a no-brainer.

I grew up a Carolina boy. Carolina really was kind of the dream place, being here from Cary, 20 minutes down the road. Never was a [NC] State guy. I would go to Duke before State.

With Wake Forest, what really attracted me was obviously their name and reputation. Their academics and athletics was really as strong as any top Division I school in the country. At the time, Chris Barclay was a running back about my stature, I got to meet him on an official visit once and just speaking with him, he gave me some encouraging words that were very impactful.

It was a journey. It was something I was able to learn a lot from. I felt that Wake Forest would be able to give me that competitive advantage once I was done with sports. I graduated from Wake in 2010. I got my degree in communications and a minor in entrepreneurship and international studies.

WRAL: Do you think the redshirt season did you good?

JA: When you redshirt, they can play you a certain amount of time.

They actually tried me a couple games, I traveled the first year with the team just in case one of the veterans got hurt, they could pull me in. From day one, I was already practicing with the practice squad with the 1s and 2s. They just wanted to assure that if somebody went down, the next guy would be capable of stepping up.

The following year, I came back and that’s when I won those big awards.

WRAL: What are your memories of playing at Cary?

JA: My senior year was kind of the year I felt like I had something to prove, I wanted to be a 3,000-yard rusher. I think I put up 2,800 yards. What looks better on paper – 2,800 or 3,000 yards? I just wonder what could I have done more to get to that accomplishment. At that time, you had Andre Brown from NC State that was leading the state in rushing, you had Toney Baker from Ragsdale in second and then you had me. When I looked at the leader board, I was always chasing those guys.

I can just remember every game, I came out to really prove that I’m the best back in the state. I think against Leesville [Road], I put up five touchdowns for like 300, 400 yards. It was ridiculous. At the end of the season, I was averaging about 215 yards a game.

I read a lot of the papers because I still have them and I go over them with my son just to reflect with him. I say ‘look at what your daddy used to do’ just to encourage him if you work hard, nobody can stop you.

WRAL: Is your son into football?

JA: I’m not really pushing him to do it unless he really wants to. He's getting there. I’ve been practicing with him, throwing, catching and running.

WRAL: Was it hard dealing with the fact you wouldn’t play organized football anymore?

JA: I could've graduated in four years and just said forget about football and walked away. I wanted to come back and finish my last season. I was frustrated with not having more guidance from the coaches with putting me in contact with people. I think what really hurt me was not having additional film, not having to show I can play special teams, I can cover, I can tackle. I'm a football player. I started over on the defensive side of the ball and then I migrated over to running back.

I always said if I'm was an inch taller, had about 40 more pounds on me, I'm a linebacker. I'm knocking heads off, I'm knocking the ball out. Those are things ingrained in me as a runner. I know. I can't even remember how many hits I've taken.

I was kind of frustrated because I didn't have additional film. You had a lockout. I really didn't have any guidance. I had got some off-the-street agent who claimed he was an agent and could help me and get me into these places, but really had no contacts, had no pull. I didn't have the guidance.

When I left college, we had the worst losing streak in school history, we lost like nine games. It was a bad way to end because we started so well, just to leave on a sour note, the NFL had a strikeout, we had a losing streak my senior year, the coaches weren’t playing me, so many things compiling on one another, it left a negative taste in my mouth. It took me a little while, about 2014, to really get over it and say I’m just going to move on with my life.

That’s where I just said, I’m not going to watch any football. Occasionally, if you go out to a pub with a friend to their house, you might catch a game, but I’m not sitting in front of the TV waiting for the Giants to come on or my Cowboys to come on.

I don’t even own a football. I’ve really never owned a football or basketball because I made it part of my life and I tried to step away from it and have some family time.

WRAL: How's your family life?

JA: Two kids, married for three years and together for four. My son is going on 7 and my daughter will be 3 this year. That in itself has kept me extremely busy. It’s like a workout every day. I see a bright future in the kids, and I just really try to maintain who I am and who I’ve always been so they can have the best life.

It’s tough in this world we’re living in today. There’s so much that goes on. I can see why my mother was just so scared for me in a way. There are so many things that could happen. Those are the same kind of concerns I try to now discuss because that’s the reality that we’re in today. I’m just trying to be the best parent and the best individual that I can.

If there's an athlete you'd like to see featured for our 'Where are they now?' series, contact Ryan Bisesi at rbisesi@wral.com.