In The Hands of Faith

                    

Jacquevias James Watkins was born on May 20, 1990 in Miami, Florida.   Ever since elementary school, James has had the hunger to play football.  In high school he played junior varsity and varsity for Hialeah High School as a strong safety.  He had great plans for college and his future.  He had various offers from colleges during his senior year.  James graduated high school in May of 2008.

With the powers that be James got a full ride scholarship to Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. in 2008.   The following year he was to and to start playing football and academics in the Fall 2008 to college and live his dream.

While time flew by, James decided to work at a local warehouse and Kentucky Fried Chicken in Miami.  Time flew by some more and he was having thoughts of a change and just to get away.

Unfortunately, he had to separate himself from his long time dream of becoming the football player that he wanted to be.  He turned down the full scholarship for Georgia Institute of Technology.  Football is his mind, body and soul.  He never made it to Georgia Tech to play college ball.

At this time he bargained with his dream against reality.  While football was already in the rear view mirror, James decided to check his faith in asking about joining the military service for the one weekend a month and two weeks a year that is the Army Reserves.  This way he would be closer to family and friends in Florida. 

Since James didn’t get to go to Georgia, he decided to join the Army Reserves that would keep him in the state of Florida.  He made a split decision on the last day of his contract to join the Active Duty Army instead of being in the Reserves.  In 2009 James was shifted off to Basic Training in Fort Benning, Georgia.  This was an eight-week rigorous training and the followed by Advance Individual Training.  After his training he would be a civilian slash Soldier back at home.  James decided to bargain with faith again with his position since he made a mutual decision and had the best alternative to a negotiated agreement, that he went on ahead and became a part of the Active Duty Military.  James told the recruiter that he wanted a different job and that he wanted to be on Active duty Army that is 24 hours, 7 days a week job.  With that change he then would have a status of a Regular Army Soldier and not a Reservist. 

He also negotiated with the recruiter to have his Military Occupational Skills changed from a Signal enlisted Soldier to an Infantryman.  He does not blame anyone for the decisions that he made.  James went on and spent roughly three years in the Military with one deployment overseas to Iraq for the Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn.  With faith on his side James had decided he wanted a change.  He decided to go ahead and finish out his term in the Military. 

Currently James lives in Georgia and has a son named JJ.  He has decided to fulfill and finish what he has started which was college and his education.  James decided to get his Bachelors degree in Sports Marketing and Media at Full Sail University. 

As always with faith on his side, James is an incumbent to the Hinesville Hurricanes Semi-Pro Football Team for the 2013 Football season.  He will be an asset to the Hinesville Hurricanes with his knowledge of football.  Unfortunately it will not be for college and or NFL, although not a paid job, he steadily enjoys his dream of playing football.  Uniforms will be provided in exchange for his time to play football.  With that said, this is what James wanted to do. 

Bottom line I think James made GREAT sacrifices and faith seems to be on his side with whatever productive things that he has to do and offer the community.