PERSEVERANCE PAYING OFF FOR ‘BROTHERS’ PRESTON AND WAMBAUGH

By Rich Myhre

By Washington Huskies

November 14^th, 2018

For four years, Matt Preston and Jake Wambaugh paid a price to play football at the University of Washington – literally.

Both original walk-ons, Preston and Wambaugh devoted the same hours to practice, to the weight room, and to meetings and film study as their scholarship teammates. But unlike the players whose tuition, room and board, and other expenses were covered in full, Preston and Wambaugh had to rely on financial aid, student loans and part-time jobs to meet their college costs.

So it was no small thing when head coach Chris Petersen announced in early September that Preston and Wambaugh, both fifth-year seniors from California, would receive scholarships for their final year at Washington. After four years of scrambling to pay for college – and annual out-of-state tuition is upwards of $30,000 – they could concentrate solely on school and football this year without having to fret about money.

Getting a scholarship “was really a good feeling,” said Preston, who remembers “sometimes pinching pennies so I could go grab a sandwich at Subway. … It was nice to see the fruits of your labor (paying off). To put in all the hard work and then to see yourself get rewarded like that, it just shows the coaches truly care about you.”

“It was huge,” Wambaugh agreed. “It was a confirmation that, ‘We appreciate all you’ve done and will continue to do.’ And it was definitely good to get that kind of appreciation.”

PERSEVERANCE PAYING OFF FOR ‘BROTHERS’ PRESTON AND WAMBAUGH

The announcement itself came in a very special way. It was Sept. 4, the Tuesday after Washington’s season opener against Auburn, and it happened in the meeting room used by the team’s inside linebackers, the position played by both Preston and Wambaugh. Assistant coach Bob Gregory was in his usual spot at the front of the room, though Petersen had also wandered in and taken a seat in the back.

Having the head coach sit in on a position meeting was not particularly unusual. Neither was it unusual to begin the session with film study. What wasunusual was the film itself – a series of highlights involving Preston and Wambaugh.

“It was clip after clip after clip, all throughout the years,” Wambaugh recalled. “And it was getting a little strange. I was starting to feel uncomfortable.”

“I didn’t think anything about it until (Gregory) played some film of our freshman year when Jake and I were two skinny dudes trying to earn a spot on the team,” Preston added. “But then Coach Gregory said, ‘These guys have been working hard for five years, busting their tails, and this is what it’s supposed to look like.

“And Coach Pete said, ‘They’ve been working hard and they deserve a scholarship, so (now) they’re both on scholarship.’ It was pretty cool.”

The team’s other inside linebackers “were all super happy for us,” said Wambaugh, who shared a celebratory hug with Preston. “Those guys have been here with us for a long time. And Matt and I, both being fifth-year guys, we’ve obviously been together for a long time. So it was a real cool experience for the two of us, and then for all of us in the linebacker room. I thought it was neat how we did it together as a family. It was just the way I wanted it.”

Later, in announcing to the media that Preston, Wambaugh and senior defensive back Sean Vergara would receive scholarships, Petersen called the players “great kids. True Dawgs. (They’ve put in) a lot of hard work here. … I’m really happy for those guys.”

Preston and Wambaugh, both 2014 high school graduates, followed similar paths to Washington. The 6-foot-2, 218-pound Preston is from Corona, Calif., a city about 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles. In his junior year at nearby Diamond Bar High School, he received a scholarship offer from New Mexico State University. But his goal was to attend the United States Naval Academy, and he later signed an NCAA letter-of-intent to play for the Midshipmen.

Unfortunately, he was denied admission a month later because his SAT score was too low, and at that point his dream of playing college football began to fade. “Honestly,” he said, “I thought I was going straight into the military.”

But Preston had met Petersen and his staff at a Boise State University summer camp, where Petersen coached previously. Those coaches had then been hired at Washington, so Preston got in touch and was offered the chance to walk-on. First, though, he had to make a formal application and be accepted. He remembers the acceptance letter showing up on a spring day when he was out in the back yard of his family’s home, pulling weeds.

The 6-2, 224-pound Wambaugh, meanwhile, attended Point Loma High School in San Diego. He drew the attention of football recruiters from several schools, including Colorado and California from the Pacific-12 Conference, though his only scholarship offer came from the University of San Diego. But he had likewise become acquainted with Petersen and his staff at Boise State, and he was also given the chance to walk-on at Washington.

“I just loved what I heard from Coach Pete and all the coaches,” said Wambaugh, who’d attended Boise State’s Junior Day in the spring of 2013. “It was the kind of culture I wanted to be a part of. Nothing against the other schools that recruited me, but I just felt most at home with (Petersen and his staff) and with their philosophy.”

When co-defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski “reached out and gave me an opportunity to walk-on (at Washington), it was a no-brainer,” he said. “Then I took a visit here and that kind of sealed the deal for me.”

Preston and Wambaugh both redshirted as freshmen while serving on the UW scout team, which helps prepare the starters and top reserves for each week’s game. Preston ended up being a scout team member for four years, though he was also getting regular game action on special teams.

A scout team player is “kind of the unsung hero,” Preston said. “You’re making sure the starters are getting the (repetitions) they need so they can be successful in the game. You don’t get any recognition, but I was fine with that because I never really wanted recognition for anything. You know the coaches love what you’re doing even if they don’t say it … but sometimes you also have to take the beating because it builds character.”

Still, there have been occasional moments of frustration and despair, with the worst of those for Preston coming last season. Though he was still laboring on the scout team, he was also on the No. 1 kickoff return team, which meant he could travel and play in road games. But in the Pac-12 opener at Colorado, Preston got called for holding on a UW kickoff return “and I lost my role on special teams.”

Getting benched “was pretty tough,” he admitted. “It meant I didn’t travel anymore and I didn’t feel like I was a part of the team anymore. But there’s a reason why things aren’t going your way, and it’s teaching you a greater lesson that you just have to keep fighting every day. … But I definitely hit a low point. I was questioning everything. I was thinking, ‘Why the hell am I doing this?’ But I also knew that if I just kept fighting, something good would come from it.”

Sure enough, Preston is on the No. 1 kickoff, kickoff return and punt return teams this season. “Special teams has been my primary role,” he said.

Wambaugh has also seen time on special teams, but he rose on the linebacker depth chart after his redshirt year to where “I’ve been in the daily mix on defense with everyone else.” He played in six games in 2015, seven in 2016, and since then has appeared in every UW game. Indeed, he has played enough that many people, including teammates, might have been unaware that he was still a non-scholarship athlete until early this season.

And that was OK, Wambaugh said. “Even when I was a freshman, I didn’t care to divulge that information to (other players). That’s just how I wanted to keep it. I never really made it a point to have (his walk-on status) out there and expect sympathy from anyone. It wasn’t that I was trying to hide it and it wasn’t that I was embarrassed about it. I just didn’t feel any different (from everyone else) and the coaches didn’t treat me any differently.

“That’s one thing I’ve always appreciated about these coaches,” he went on. “If you’re putting in the work and if you know your assignments, they don’t treat anybody differently whether you’re scholarship or a walk-on.”

The Huskies, said defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Jimmy Lake, “pride ourselves in making sure that everyone on our team is treated equally, and Coach Pete does an unbelievable job of that. There can sometimes be a stigma of, ‘He’s a walk-on and over here’s a scholarship guy,’ but we try to eliminate that as much as possible.”

Moreover, Lake said, “I think everybody always appreciates the underdog and I think everybody always roots for the underdog. So when you see the underdog achieve, it’s always a great story.

“(Preston and Wambaugh) have come in and busted their butts doing whatever their role was, whether it was scout team or special teams, and they’ve embraced it and they’ve done their best at it. And now it ends with them earning a scholarship, which is something they’ll remember for the rest of their lives. But they earned it and they deserve it.”

Along the way, Preston and Wambaugh also developed a close friendship. Even beyond their common traits – both walk-ons, both inside linebackers, both from California – they are similar enough to be siblings.

“Right from the get-go, I told Jake he was my brother,” Preston said. “We’re pretty much the same. We think the same. We enjoy the same humor. We talk mess to each other all the time. And we’re always together.”

With their college careers winding down, Preston and Wambaugh can look ahead to life after football. Both earned their undergraduate degrees in four years – Preston in history, Wambaugh in sociology – and they sat together during the commencement ceremony last spring. “That was a cool deal,” Preston said.

Since neither player is a likely NFL prospect, both are planning accordingly. Preston expects to enlist in the Navy after he leaves Washington, “which is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time,” he said. Wambaugh, who is already working toward a master’s degree, would like to be a collegiate strength and conditioning coach, “and hopefully somewhere on the West Coast,” he said. “Maybe even back here at the UW.”

For both players, the UW experience has been meaningful, memorable and, as Wambaugh put it, “life-changing.”

Being a Husky, he said, “has been unlike anything I’ve gone through in life. It’s been really hard, it’s been really fun, and it’s been really rewarding all throughout. You learn so much about yourself, you meet great people, and you make relationships that you’ll maintain for the rest of your life. … I had opportunities to play elsewhere, but I grew up watching Pac-12 football, I wanted to play in the Pac-12, and I always believed that I could. So to be able to come here and make it happen has been very special. It’s been like a dream.”

For Preston, “being a (UW) student-athlete has been a hell of a privilege,” he said. “It’s definitely been an honor to wear the uniform and to have the opportunity to run out into Husky Stadium in front of 70,000 fans. It’s been awesome. I couldn’t have asked for a better collegiate football experience.

“At the same time,” Preston said, “it’s been a lot of hard work. It hasn’t been easy at all. But I’m definitely thankful, and I’ll never forget the experiences I had the chance to go through here.”