Hyde on UW Official Visit

First thing that stood out to me was when we had 17 guys there and they had us do this one drill. It was after meeting that coach, which gave where it was the same kind of exercise that they did with some of their players where they gave us a bunch of Legos. And they said, hey, you and another recruit, you're going to go off in your own little group and you're going to have like 10-15 minutes to deliberate on these two questions. I think one was like about, you know, what do you love about Washington football and like, what are you seeing, like winning at Washington football? And then you had to build what that felt like out of Legos and then go back in the room and, you know, explain about it. And it's just those little kind of team building activities like that that just make you think, man, not a lot of people are kind of willing to do this kind of thing. And I really appreciate it even more so because with my high school, something that we've started to incorporate doing springtime is we have two mandatory meetings. One that's about culture. It's a, well, it's a culture workshop. And the other one's a leadership workshop. And they're about two hours long. You go through this whole packet where we're thinking about questions and we're talking about stuff that, you know, not really football related. They are in a way, but it's more so to bond in those kind of ways where you're talking about stuff and you're engaging in these little activities that's going to help you not only, you know, strengthen your bond as teammates, but also get you thinking about other things that are important about football that maybe aren't going to happen on the field. They're definitely going to help you on the field. And so I mean, obviously they talked about the big seafood dinner they had at the end or obviously the yacht right as well too. But just that little activity that we did and then the fact that they're putting in this new room called the fifth quarter room where they're going to be doing I think couple times a month, similar activities in there amongst the players. So you just get them thinking those kind of ways and strengthening, you know, relationships with each other in ways that not a lot of programs do or used to, but in fact have been proven to be really effective. So obviously there's only one follow up that we can make to that. Who was your partner and what did you guys build? So it was, I forgot his first name, but his last name was Smith. He was another edge rusher, 4 star from Texas. And yeah, I think for him, he's built a big W out of Legos. And then for me, I built this whole tower that was out of like just a bunch of just like amalgamous pieces of Legos. I was trying to like find some kind of structure to it. And for me, I was I explained it as, you know, success to get to this top is it's built on a bunch of different pieces that don't look like they fit together, that has this strong, strong foundation. And, you know, the pieces look, you know, it could look ugly in some places. Maybe it could be better putting another spot. But in the end, you all get to this top point and you have this really strong, you know, pillar, you know, built together. And for me, you know, that's why I see, you know, success at it because a lot of people, you know, you know, even my teammates included, when they look at me and they think of my success, they just think, oh man, dem and high. He's this big guy. He's really strong, he's got great effort, he's got a great mindset. And that's just, you know, what made him successful. And yet, you know, the reality of it, you know, the reality of it is that over success is not an overnight thing. And for me really, it's been this building process since I started playing pop more, you know, 10 years ago, up until even just recently where I really started to get a lot more attention from, you know, college coaches. And then as well, you know, some of the classes I even took as like a junior and even like a sophomore in high school. You know, for me myself, I really appreciate, you know, how articulate and well spoken I am because I don't think a lot of, you know, athletes are really able to convey how they feel about certain things in a really, you know, serious way. But for me, you know, that didn't just come from football and that didn't just come from my coaches. That came from my teachers. That came from certain classmates who, you know, I really aspired to and looked up to, to want to be like. And it's those kind of people in my life that then built on me as an athlete.