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This past week, North Dakota State QB Easton Stick was one of 22 collegiate football players nationwide named to the 2018 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team. This honor recognized the extra efforts made by college football players and student support staff off the field.

The three-year captain did not know about the honor until he showed up at Sanford Children’s Hospital in Fargo, where he visits with some of the children there regularly. Head Coach Chris Klieman, the media and others surprised him with the event.

You could tell it meant a lot to him. He had to whip up a quick speech, and – in true Easton Stick form – knocked it out of the park.

The fact Stick was chosen for the Good Works Team is not all that surprising to me. He truly deserves it. The kid embraces the fact that he is a role model. (I shouldn’t even say kid – he just turned 23.) Carson Wentz is one of his best friends and a true mentor. Former NDSU quarterback Cole Davis is also very tight with both of them. All of them share a strong faith. Davis now works for the Carson Wentz AO1 Foundation in Philadelphia, which supports a number of causes.

There is another story worth sharing about the QBs from a few years ago. When former NDSU Radio play-by-play announcer Scott Miller starting going through cancer treatments, many people inthe athletic department started helping get Scott to and from appointments.

Bison Quarterbacks Coach Randy Hedberg dropped Scott off once at his home after a treatment and noticed his yard needed some care. He asked one of Scott’s friends and caretakers, Jeannie, if she thought it would be okay to have the quarterbacks come over to clean up a bit. She thought that would be fine. So one day the QBs went over to the mow the yard, trim some hedges and beautify Scott’s home.

Jeannie went over to check it out later in the day and saw they had done a tremendous amount of work. She then looked up, and there was Carson Wentz in a tree on Scott’s lawn, cutting off some limbs. This is the same guy that less than a year later was the number two overall pick in the NFL Draft. The group obviously did not have to do as much as it did, but they didn’t think anything of it.

One of my favorite memories of Davis was from a few years ago was when he visited my daughter’s daycare and held her for a picture. She was about six months old at the time. I brought that visit up to Davis and showed him the picture last fall. His response: “That was a good day.”

I started thinking about all the quarterbacks at NDSU in recent memory. How blessed has this community been to have all these guys? They are winners on the field and off it. Most importantly, they set an example for the future.