Studesville left Whitewater hoping to be a doctor

(Editor's note: Eric Studesville, a UW-Whitewater graduate and former defensive back on the UW-Whitewater football team met the press for the first time Tuesday less than 24 hours after being named the interim head coach of the Denver Broncos.

The following is courtesy of the Wisconsin State Journal)

Eric Studesville was going to be a doctor.

That was the plan right up until the point when the former Verona and UW-Whitewater athlete returned home from graduate school at the University of Arizona and informed his parents Al and Jan he was calling an audible.

He wanted to be a football coach.

"I was not happy," said Al, a career counselor at Madison Area Technical College. "I had to leave the house and go for a walk. Since he's been in fifth, sixth grade, he was going to be a doctor, so my mind was set. We planned for this and he had taken all the right courses and he had done all the things he was supposed to do.
"I just had visions of him throwing out basketballs at some little high school for the rest of his life."

Al cooled off and decided to walk back into his house and hear his son out. Eric, who played defensive back at UW-Whitewater, explained to his parents that he missed football and it, not orthopedics, was his true passion. He asked them to give him five years to see how far he could go in the coaching profession and, if things weren't working out, he'd go back and finish his medical training.

That was nearly two decades ago.

"The kid was right," Al said Tuesday. "I tell the story all the time that I was almost a dream stealer for my son. I almost stole his dream. Finally, I realized that he was a good kid, he had done everything I wanted and I had a duty and a responsibility to support him and encourage him. And I'm glad he did."

Father and son were having another conversation Monday, this one over the phone. Eric called to say his boss, Denver Broncos coach Josh McDaniels, had been fired.

He paused for a second before delivering the next piece of news: He had been named interim head coach for the Broncos.