{"id":12862,"date":"2024-09-13T13:26:18","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T17:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=12862"},"modified":"2024-09-18T09:03:46","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T13:03:46","slug":"how-i-got-here-tom-burke-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=12862","title":{"rendered":"How I Got Here Tom Burke \u201924"},"content":{"rendered":"

Football appeals to a lot of young boys, I think. Just that idea of being with other kids, running around, and you get to be a little rough. It\u2019s a good way to get rid of that boy energy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I am from Virginia now, but I was a Navy brat. I lived in San Diego for half my life, so I am a Chargers fan. My dad is from the Philadelphia area, so the Eagles are his team, and I like them, too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When my dad asked me if I wanted to play football, it was a no brainer. I started in Pee Wee leagues.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Burke
Burke in the locker room during TCNJ\u2018s preseason prep.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I play tight end, which is a mix of an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. So I have to block and get physical on the offensive line, but I also have to go out for passes and catch balls. Tight ends are like the Swiss army knives on the football field. They do everything.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My first year at TCNJ, we only won two games. The class I came in with said, \u201cThis is not the standard we want to live up to. We\u2019re going to take this a lot more seriously.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve built ourselves into being a real college football team. And that reflects in our record and how we\u2019ve been performing. We take a lot of pride in this. <\/span><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t really understand what it took to be a college athlete, and I ended up losing my starting spot as a sophomore. I wasn\u2019t making the plays they knew I should be making. I thought I could just slide by on natural ability. But it\u2019s a lot more than that.<\/span><\/p>\n

I told the coach, \u201cI\u2019m going to do whatever I can to show you I deserve to be on that field.\u201d I was in there watching film. I was in the weight room like a maniac.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Junior year, I had a breakout season, meaning a really good season. The rest has been history. > I received All-Region honors. I was a preseason All-American last year, but I didn\u2019t get it at the end of the season. So that\u2019s a goal. I\u2019m really focused on showing I\u2019m one of the best tight ends in the country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just me. It\u2019s the whole team. We want to win a conference championship and have a playoff win.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a business management major, and I would like to work in the sports sector. I know it\u2019s very competitive. But I think I could bring a lot to that field.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For right now, this is the job I want to do, and I have been talking to agents. I hope to play football for a few more years. I\u2019m doing one of the most fun things in the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Versatile team captain uses fifth year to reach for NJACs, All-American status, and the NFL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":12863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lions-roar"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/298"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12862"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12989,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12862\/revisions\/12989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}