"RICKY" Stanford Football to UVA Lacrosse | ECD Original Documentary

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I said to myself I will give him

everything I know everything I have to

make him the best apple they could be

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I give a lot of credit

um uh to my dad who kind of trained me

since I was young he used to put uh

14 pound weights in my little baby

carrier and let me just walk around the

house so he was uh he had the master

plan from the beginning

I was a part of the relay team that

represented the Ivory Coast in 1996 in

Atlanta we made it to the semifinals it

was quite a great experience

I think you know a lot of my athletic

genes I got from him and then the brains

I got from my mom so they were uh they

were a good combo yeah

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you know I saw Rick maze on play when he

was in high school on tape everyone was

talking about this guy that he was just

bigger faster stronger than everyone and

I'm always intrigued when I hear about

these type of athletes too these

outliers and it was really like

kind of significant for me when I found

out he was also getting recruited to

play college football because then the

interest kind of peaked a new type of

level for me because then you're

thinking about a Next Level athlete like

is the game of Lacrosse going to be able

to keep a guy like Rick miazon

he was he was pretty good in Lacrosse

and he was he was well known across the

Quick Change of directions I like the I

like the speed I like the the the

dodging I like the team aspect of it but

if you ask me I will say you know what

stick with lacrosse but eventually

things changed

uh I was originally a soccer player and

lacrosse player in high school around my

sophomore year I really started to like

fill out and gain a little bit of weight

it kind of got a little difficult to run

around the soccer field for 90 minutes

uh at like 2 15. all of a sudden one day

he comes home he said Dad I want to play

football I said Ricky you must be out of

your mind

I had to actually

um convinced my dad I had to write him a

letter because he didn't want me to play

he wrote a letter to me he explained it

clearly that he has gotten injured in

all sports he partook and I said okay

just just one year because that's that's

that was the promise he said I played

just one year so that when I go to

college I could tell my friends that I

played I played some football in high

school and I said okay that's a good

deal

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you know once I got him on board

I went out there and it was actually the

first day

um I was out there we had um some

combine testing and you know doing a

bunch of 40 and three cone drill and

broad jump and they had a couple schools

out there and after I was done one of

the VTEC recruiters came up to me was

like Hey you know we're going to keep an

eye on you and that was my first

you know time really thinking that like

you know college football could be an

option

uh it was a battle

um of course I didn't want him to get

injured and frankly when I saw him play

football I said well you know what it's

not bad you just go ahead and play

and then after his junior year the the

letters start coming from all over the

place and I said oh man I'm in trouble

so that's where everything started

lacrosse kind of got put in the rear

view mirror for a little bit I was

really looking at UNC but my coach came

in and asked me one day like hey

what would be your like dream School

and I told him is Stanford

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I've watched him play major division one

college football and the Pac-12 which is

a power five conference I've watched him

play when he was in high school I think

that his athleticism his strength and

his brute force is going to penetrate

every time he steps on the field it's

going to cut through and I think the

first thing people are going to say when

he gets off the bus and when he steps on

the field if you don't know who he is

who is that guy

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he's strong he's he's fast

but what I like about him is that he's a

team player

um was Ricky naturally gifted was he a

hard worker was he both I think he was

both he was naturally gifted uh and he's

he's quite a hard worker

so I know that he would transfer all

these skills what he learned from

football what he has done previously in

Lacrosse to UVA after five years of

football at Stanford liaison is

finishing up his collegiate career

playing lacrosse at Virginia and he

couldn't it could end up being a key

piece in the who's quest to win a

National Championship

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thank you

so yeah having gone through three

now three recruiting processes I

definitely wanted to keep this one like

low you know kind of low-key and because

after five years I kind of knew what you

know knew what I wanted out of an

experience I knew the programs I wanted

to be in and definitely I wanted to come

back home in the back of my mind it was

I wanted to come play for you know my

home state and come to UVA and you know

have my parents come to every game and I

know a bunch of people from high school

who were there and guys on the team

already so it just seemed like the

perfect situation

and I'm very excited to to see him

playing lacrosse again and and I really

enjoyed watching him play lacrosse so I

kind of want to see that at the

Collegiate level

you know I remember when uh Ricky was

getting ready to go to um when we

dropped him at Stanford

I've always told him Ricky

you think you're ready you think you're

ready you're not ready until I put my

stamp of approval on you people may say

a lot of good things about you but I'm

your dad

so the day I put my stamp of approval on

you you're ready to represent not only

us represent the the community represent

everyone you worked for and it's amazing

how many parents are speaking good

things about him so I know that he he's

ready that he will have a good impact on

the next trip

you know first of all I gotta

get to school and like you know just get

my legs back under me and my my stick

back and

um right now it's more I'm just focused

on the next year and a half and and uh

you know bringing a national

championship back home to uh to Virginia

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