Published Mar 20, 2019
Inspirational senior Jake Olson earns the spotlight at USC Pro Day
Ryan Young  •  TrojanSports
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The USC football player who drew the most interview questions, created the most buzz and elicited the most social media reaction at Pro Day on Wednesday was not one the NFL scouts came to evaluate.

But inspirational long snapper Jake Olson, perhaps more well known than any of his Trojans teammates at this point, nonetheless had everybody's full attention.

Olson had set up a fundraising campaign for his charity Out of Sight Faith and for the Uplifting Athletes organization, with the goal of supporting clinical trials for a device that can be implanted into a retinoblastoma patient's eye to directly deliver chemotherapy to tumors in the eye.

Retinoblastoma cancer took Olson's vision as he lost his left eye when he was just 10 months old and eventually his right eye at 12 years old after battling the aggressive cancer all that time.

He became synonymous with the USC football program at that point as ESPN profiled his story, with legendary Trojans coach Pete Carroll inviting him in around the team and coach Steve Sarkisian later inviting him on the roster once he arrived on campus as a student.

Now a senior, Wednesday was the culmination of Olson's USC football career — just like with his other graduating teammates -- but he used his Pro Day showcase a little differently.

Olson's fundraising campaign tied pledges to the number of reps he could put up on the bench press at 225 pounds when it was his turn.

He delivered 17 reps, which was more than 5 of his 11 teammates who also tested on the bench press in the morning, and as of Wednesday night his campaign had raised more than $49,800 and counting.

Carroll retweeted the video of Olson's performance, as did former USC greats Matt Leinart, Antwaun Woods and countless others, as the story circulated to national websites.

"You're one special kid," Leinart tweeted.

LINK: Donations are still being accepted toward Olson's goal of $250,000. Donate here.

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"With the weight room, people say weights are your best friend because they'll never lie to you, and they won't. It doesn't matter if you're blind, if you're deaf, if you're white or black, weights are going to treat everyone the same and I think that's the special thing about the weight room. What you put in, you get out," Olson said afterward.

Perhaps the same could be said about his entire football experience, first earning the long-snapping job for his Orange Lutheran High School team and then inspiring countless others while seeing through his dream and snapping for the Trojans in the Coliseum on several PATs (2017 against Western Michigan and Oregon State and 2018 against UNLV).

Speaking Wednesday morning, he reflected back on everything that connection with the university and this football program has meant to him (not to mention what it's meant to USC and the Trojans).

"It's been a blessing and an honor. I'm really grateful for everyone who's kind of helped me get here and supported me through it all," Olson said. "But I think it's just more special than the next story in the sense that since ESPN documented this when I was 12 years old and kind of updated the story here and there it's just kind of like everyone feels like they grew up with me and went through that experience with me of seeing me go through the trials and tribulations and come out on the other side.

"That's why I think that moments when I've snapped in the Coliseum, it's just been so special in that everyone kind of had that culmination of we grew up with this kid, we saw him go through his dark times and now here it is -- it's just like such a happy moment for I know all 'SC fans, but college football fans in general and just sports fans and other fans in general. They've seen my story, they've seen me grow up and here we are enjoying this moment."

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Training for Pro Day

Olson had his own training regimen leading up to Pro Day, working the bench press about three times a week for 9-10 weeks while knowing what he wanted to make of this moment.

He said his goal was to hit 20 reps, but considering how far he's come in the lift -- and the entire driving motivation for what he did Wednesday morning -- his 17 reps can only be viewed as an incredible success.

"I think back, I remember the first time I ever benched 225, had 225 on the bar, was during Rose Bowl practice my sophomore year. I put 225 on and I think I got like three. It was heavy and I barely got it," he recalled. "So to think from there, I remember over the summer I think I got 8. I always knew I was going to do the bench press [at Pro Day] and wanted to get as many as I could and train for that."

It wasn't hard to garner support for the cause once USC announced a couple weeks ago what Olson was planning to do -- and why.

His story transcends the USC fan base and has become an inspirational one for so many since ESPN's first feature on his condition and remarkably poised perseverance back when he was 12 and preparing to have his right eye surgically removed.

RELATED: Watch ESPN tell the Jake Olson story

Olson has been a motivational speaker pretty much since that time.

"After that first piece came out when I was 12, I was invited to speak to a group of bankers at Wells Fargo. I didn't seek it out, and sure enough someone heard that and asked me to speak somewhere else. It's literally just kept going," he said Wednesday. "I really don't seek out these engagements. For 10 years now they just keep coming, which is cool."

He guesses he's done 400-500 by now, including 3-4 a month over the last year.

He understands why he's a desired voice -- because his attitude toward life has never reflected the unfortunate circumstances that have shaped his path.

Even in an interview setting, his message is resonating, his words sounding fresh and eager to be shared no matter how many times he's surely answered the same questions in similar ways.

"I guess I just always was that person who said, 'This is my situation, I'm going to find a way,'" he said. "I remember the doctors and some social workers told my parents I'd probably need to maybe see a psychiatrist after I went blind, depression may [set in], it may take a while for me to get back to school. And I played in a football game five days later. I guess I just was never impacted in that way.

" Trust me, there's days I get sad and mad about being blind, there's times where I do feel left out, but I'm grateful for what I do have. There's so much to be grateful for, so many blessings in my life, that I don't choose to dwell on the one thing I don't have, which is my eyesight."

The next chapter

So what's next for Olson? Well, to no surprise, he's already planned out the next phase of his life after he graduates from USC this May.

And also to no surprise, it's ambitious.

"There's lots to come, but definitely I want to continue to just make an impact in this world and just be someone that people can look to and say, 'If Jake can do it, I can do it too,'" he said.

On a personal level, he's signed with United Talent Agency (UTA), says "we've probably got a marketing campaign" with Head & Shoulders, adds that he's been in talks with a production company regarding "a TV show of some sort," expects to have talks about writing books and of course plans to continue his speaking engagements.

To that end, he and fellow USC senior Daniel Hennes, whom Olson met randomly as a freshman when they were suitemates, have launched a company called Engage, which Hennes say they aim to brand as "the Airbnb of booking talent."

Olson says Hennes is his manager and they've learned through their experiences that the methods and intermediaries for booking public speakers is far from efficient or ideal.

"There's a couple websites out there that say they represent me. What those websites do, say someone calls and says, 'Hey, we want a speaker for this event.' They'll contact five other talent -- that may include me -- and you're kind of chasing down a rabbit hole then. 'Is Jake free Nov. 12?' OK, we're setting up and then they just disappear. It's the most frustrating thing," Olson said. "It's a lot of backend deals that go on. Fortunately, I haven't had a horror story, but I know all of our talent has."

Says Hennes: "After he snapped against Western Michigan, we just got flooded with requests for him to appear, for him to speak. Everyone had all the same questions -- where does he travel from, what does he talk about, does he get paid, all of those things. I started looking for a way to do it all online because I was answering the same questions and it was a bunch of emails and phone calls. … There's got to be a better way to do this."

Their vision for Engage is not just to book speakers, though. They have linked up with some notable current and former athletes who can be booked for experiences as well.

"It was such an antiquated process and the Wild West so we just wanted to really make a transparent, central, digitized way of the market," Olson said. "So everyone on our platform we've spoken to, we have a personal connection with them, they're willing and ready to not only speak, but we really want to hit that experiential market as well. So for Jim McMahon or for me, Jeremy Roenick is another big name, we have Melvin Gordon on there as well. We have a lot of other uplifting athletes that are on there, and for speeches or you can book a round of golf with me or you book to skate around with Jeremy Roenick."

Speaking of golf, Olson also wants to put a lot of his energy into playing the sport competitively, taking part in celebrity Pro-Ams and the like.

He said his golf handicap right now is around a 9 or 10, but he thinks he can drop that to a 5 or 6 with steady practice.

Through the national attention paid to his story, he's formed a relationship with Tiger Woods and hopes to hit the course with the golf legend in the near future.

"It's awesome. He's a very nice guy. He's taken a liking to me and that's an honor," Olson said. "After I snapped the first time, he sent me a letter actually and we reached back out and just told him how much he meant to me as a golfer and really he was one of my biggest inspirations as a golfer growing up, just seeing his dominance out there. He took that well and invited us and said he wanted to meet me, and that's kind of how we started our relationship. I'm sure there's plenty of rounds between us to come."

Golf Digest profiled his golfing abilities when he was a senior at Orange Lutheran. According to the story, he requires a caddy to position his club head behind the ball, but the swing and his feel for the game have come from the repetition of practice as he diligently refined his approach after some early and most understandable struggles upon losing his vision.

"My goal with golf, I just want to become the best golfer I can. I've seen my potential out there, I've seen my talent and the consistency needs to improve, but my shot-making ability and my distance, I can be really good at the game," he said.

At this point, there's no reason to doubt it.

Wherever this next chapter takes Olson, one certainty is that he'll have a wave of supporters along with him every step of the way -- which he appreciates.

But, he says, the thing is, he's simply doing what he loves to do.

The fact that so many people are eager to invest in and root for his success makes it all the more meaningful.

"It's been awesome. Just the support I have here and around the nation, it's amazing," Olson said Wednesday. "It's funny because for snapping in football or playing golf or whatever I do, it really is what I just love to do. I'm not really doing it for other people. … I'm really glad I had the support I have. It's sometimes overwhelming in a good way of how many people are impacted by what I do."