Training with the NFL’s Jared Goff set Corona del Mar quarterback Chase Garbers on a road to Cal
Chase Garbers, right, who will be a senior at Corona del Mar High next fall, has become one of the top quarterbacks in California.
Since Chase Garbers was 5 years old, he has known Karif Byrd.
Garbers’ father, Grant, went to the same college as Byrd, the University of Georgia, where Grant played golf and Byrd competed in track and field and football. Byrd, a 2001 graduate, always likes to point out that he and Grant were at Georgia at different times.
“He was at Georgia a long time before I was,” Byrd said with a laugh.
Byrd and Grant’s ties with the Bulldogs were not what brought the two together 12 years ago. At the time, Grant’s son began to play flag football.
“I wanted to get faster and he was a local trainer,” Chase Garbers said of Byrd, who at the time trained athletes as a hobby.
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Byrd turned that hobby into a full-time profession eight years ago, when he started his “Get It Done” sports training business. He has gone on to train many players who have gone on to play in college and in the NFL.
The next player on Byrd’s list is Garbers, an incoming senior quarterback at Corona del Mar High. Garbers got one step closer to playing on the next level when he committed to Cal on Tuesday.
How Garbers wound up going with Cal is a story in itself.
At the beginning of the year, when Garbers had zero college offers, Byrd brought along Garbers to three private workouts at JSerra that Byrd was a part of with Jared Goff, Cal’s quarterback who decided to skip his senior season to enter the NFL draft. Byrd said it was his job to work with the receivers Goff was throwing to, all to get Goff ready for the NFL combine in February.
Little did Garbers know back then that the Golden Bears would one day want him to succeed Goff at Berkeley. Cal offered Garbers on April 20, eight days before the Los Angeles Rams selected Goff as the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft.
Getting to know Goff and seeing him go No. 1 are a couple of reasons why Garbers chose Cal over 15 other college programs, which were from the Pacific-12 Conference, the Southeastern Conference, the Big Ten Conference, the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Mountain West Conference and the Ivy League.
“My end goal is to be in the NFL and I feel that Cal puts me in the best position to do that,” said Garbers, who also heard from Goff after he committed to Cal. “He texted me after the commitment and congratulated me, and said, ‘Welcome to the family’ and to ‘keep the tradition alive.’”
Byrd said Garbers and Goff took a mutual liking to each other during the time Garbers was around. Byrd added that Garbers not only caught the eye of Goff, but also the future No. 2 overall pick, Carson Wentz.
Former Cal Golden Bear and current Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff, left, passes the ball during practice, Tuesday, June 14, 2016, in Oxnard, Calif.
Rep1 Sports, the sports agency from Irvine, represents Goff and Wentz, so Garbers had the chance to see both quarterbacks throw and hear their stories. When the two of them saw Garbers throw the ball, Byrd said Goff and Wentz were impressed by the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Garbers.
“They were like, ‘Who is this kid?’” said Byrd, who is also the speed, agility and conditioning coach at CdM. “I didn’t say anything at first, but Chase is like my little brother.”
While Byrd helped Garbers out by taking him to the workouts with Goff and Wentz, it was Garbers who earned the recognition.
“I can’t sell Spam if they call it fried chicken,” Byrd said.
Garbers’ arm and size looked like the real deal to some of Goff’s and Wentz’s intended targets.
“Bryce Treggs was there, and so was his father, Brian,” Byrd said of the former Cal standout receivers, Bryce is with the San Francisco 49ers as an undrafted free agent, while Brian went on to play one year with the Seattle Seahawks. “Brian called the Cal coaches, [head coach Sonny Dykes and offensive coordinator Jake Spavital] after seeing Garbers and finding out that he didn’t have any offers.”
Those offers began pouring in for Garbers before he was named the MVP of the Opening Los Angeles Regional combine at Redondo Union High on Feb. 28. He then earned a spot in the Elite 11 Finals earlier this month, when he finished 13th out of 24 quarterbacks at the three-day event that ended on June 5.
The first offer for Garbers, considered a pro-style quarterback, came from Boise State on Feb. 4, the day after national signing day for seniors. Then Boston College and Washington State offered on the same day (Feb. 11), followed by Colorado State. The next schools to offer Garbers were Arizona State, Cornell, Brown, Wake Forest, Illinois, Hawaii, Purdue, Cal, Vanderbilt, Washington, Yale and Ole Miss.
With so many programs recruiting Garbers, who threw for 2,715 yards and 33 touchdowns, with only threw three interceptions, and completed 68.7% of his passes last year as a junior, CdM Coach Dan O’Shea said he received tons of letters in the mail, all addressed to Garbers.
“My office became a post office,” said O’Shea, believing that Garbers, ranked by Rivals.com as the No. 13 quarterback for the Class of 2017 and ranked No. 34 by Scout.com, might be the most sought-after football recruit in CdM’s history.
Quarterback Chase Garbers, a rising senior at Corona del Mar High School, verbally committed to play football at the University of California Berkeley.
The amount of mail O’Shea got was nothing like what Garbers said he received at his home on March 14.
“I opened up my mailbox and there were about three stacks, all rubber-banded together,” Garbers said of the mail, all postmarked from Pullman, Wash. “[All the colleges] had their different methods of recruiting me. Washington State sent me 113 letters in the mail, all handwritten from different coaches. I actually did read all of them. The main subjects [were] like, ‘We want you at Washington State. Come win us a Rose Bowl. We want you to be the next Drew Bledsoe and break every record.’”
The letters weren’t only addressed to Garbers, but also to his parents, Grant and Angelique. Garbers credits his success to his mom and dad, along with his CdM coaches, O’Shea and offensive coordinator Kevin Hettig, his CdM teammates, his private quarterback coach, Nick Stremick, and last but not least Byrd.
“He’s been a father figure to me,” Garbers said of Byrd.
Byrd has seen Garbers grow up. Garbers, who turned 17 on June 6, wasn’t always one of the better players Byrd worked with. Byrd said Garbers only started two of his six years during his youth football playing days with the Newport-Mesa Seahawks.
How Garbers got to where he is now has made Byrd most proud.
“He’s a hard worker, he’s tough and he’s very humble,” Byrd said of Garbers, who started the last two years at CdM, leading the program to the CIF Southern Section Southwest Division quarterfinals both seasons. “Nothing has been given to him. He’s earned everything. He’s motivated. I think Chase is going to play on Sundays. I think he could be Jared Goff in four years.”
Follow me on Twitter: @ByDCP
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