“Em·pow·er: Make (someone) stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life.” Those are the words that John Rotche, Director of MPower and Entrepreneurship for Michigan football, reads on the walls of his office inside Schembechler Hall on the University of Michigan campus every day. Rotche started MPower, a program that sets players up with internships, as a way to give back to the Michigan football program, and also to help prepare the players for life after football.
John Rotche was a standout football player in high school, and he earned an offer from the head coach of the Michigan football team: Bo Schembechler. Rotche was ready to go play for one of the most storied college football coaches of all time, but an injury ended his Michigan career before it even started.
An injury kept Rotche off the field, but he was still able to be part of the team. As everyone knows, Schembechler is all about the team, and he still honored his commitment to Rotche despite the injury.
“I thought my dream to come to Michigan ended with my injury, but Bo Schembechler kept that dream alive for me, and he still offered me the spot on the team even though I’d never be able to play,” Rotche said in an interview with ClutchPoints.
Rotche is giving back to the Michigan football program with MPower, but he has been doing this kind of work long before he started the program. It all started with Team Blue, a program that Rotche started in the early 1990s. Team Blue was also designed to help kids secure internships, and over 2,000 did just that in 20+ years of the program.
Not only has Rotche helped mentor college athletes, but he has worked with NFL players as well. Rotche traveled around the country mentoring professional football players, and one that came to him for help was Drew Brees. Rotche and Brees have now been good friends and business partners for over 10 years.
For John Rotche, everything comes back to Michigan. That’s where he got his start, and that’s where he is now. One of Rotche’s teammates at Michigan was Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh obviously returned to the program to be the head coach from 2015-2023, and he brought a national championship back to Ann Arbor in his final season. All Michigan fans know that Harbaugh is for the players, and one thing that he did to benefit them was asking Rotche to start a program that would help his team. Thus, MPower was born.
Now, Sherrone Moore is the head coach of the Michigan football team, and the support for MPower is as strong as ever. Moore reached out to Rotche shortly after being named the new head coach, and he expressed his passion and excitement for the program. Rotche attributes much of MPower’s success to Moore and his unconditional support, and also to athletic director Warde Manuel, who happens to be one of Rotche’s old teammates. Both have been crucial to the success of the program.
Football isn’t forever, and that’s why MPower is here for the Michigan football players. Eventually, the playing days will end for every member of the team. MPower gives them the necessary tools to succeed in life after football.
“That’s really what MPower is about,” Rotche said. “It’s empowering these athletes with the skills, resources and contacts to thrive off the field.”
Another person that plays a huge role in MPower is Christ Bryant, the Director of Player Development for the Michigan football program. Bryant and Rotche followed very similar paths to Michigan. Both are from Chicago, and both saw injuries end their football careers early.
Chris Bryant does a lot of work with community involvement and personal growth off the field. He is a tremendous contributor to the MPower program.
The Michigan football team won a national championship on the field last year, but a lot of guys have done some amazing things off the field as well. For Rotche, being able to help give these guys that opportunity is a great feeling.
“Many of these guys won a national championship,” Rotche said. “Yeah, of course, they’re never going to forget that. In the same calendar year, they’ve been able to experience things off the field that they may never have had an opportunity to do. To have played a small part in that, it’s really rewarding.”
The main goal for MPower is to prepare athletes for life after football, but it does also help the players in the game, and it helps the program with recruiting.
In terms of recruiting, parents and players want to know that there is a plan for life after football. A degree from the University of Michigan is valuable in itself, but MPower helps take a player to the next level.
“There’s a misnomer out there that all people care about is how much you’re going to get paid,” Rotche said. “Yeah, that’s part of the business right now, but for me, after going through this past recruiting cycle, I was pleased to see how much weight the recruits and families put into preparing themselves and their kids for life after football.”
Not only does MPower help Michigan with recruiting, but it can also help the players involved when it comes to football. The skills that they gain can impact every aspect of their life.
“I think self-improvement, it’s dynamic, it’s like a 360 approach to getting better at all facets of your life,” Rotche said. “Whether it’s educational, it’s health, fitness on the field. When a person can just improve various parts of their life, I think it impacts all aspects of their life.”
An internship that isn’t related to football in any way isn’t going to directly translate to success on the field, but that doesn’t mean it won’t help a player be more successful in the sport.
“Can I quantify how doing an internship in one place is going to transcend into specific performance on the field? Not necessarily,” Rotche said. “But I absolutely believe that when people do things to make themselves better, improve self-confidence, I believe that has a direct correlation to performance.”
MPower is all about the players, and the ones that have participated in an internship walked away with skills and experience that will help them for the rest of their lives.
Max Reyes and his experience with Octagon
Junior defensive back Max Reyes participated in multiple internships through MPower. For one of them, he spent a week interning with Octagon, where he learned investment advice and wealth management. Junior linebacker Jimmy Rolder also participated in this internship, and the two teammates spent one week working with the company.
Most college internships last the summer, but these Michigan football players have a season to prepare for. Because of that, most MPower internships are one week if they are in-person, but they can be longer if they are remote.
Max Reyes and Jimmy Rolder essentially experienced working a nine-to-five for one week during their internship with Octagon. They were able to participate in company zoom calls, witness trading, and they essentially got the rundown of what it is like to work in that industry. Reyes and Rolder are both business majors, so it was an important experience for them.
Octagon was not the only internship that Max Reyes did, however. He actually ended up doing three internships through MPower. There are a plethora of opportunities through the program for these student-athletes.
“I think it’s great that MPower, they try to give us as many opportunities as possible,” Max Reyes said in an interview with ClutchPoints. “They always emphasize that football doesn’t last forever, and so it’s great to just kind of get everyone’s toes wet and see what life is like outside of football, and even give us that little step ahead. So once football ends, we can just smoothly get into the business world.”
One of the main focal points of MPower is to prepare Michigan football players for life after their playing career. However, these guys aren’t there yet. These experiences are also helping them with their current athletic endeavors.
“I would say the biggest thing I learned was accountability, and that is something that we kind of harp on in football with accountability on our teammates,” Reyes said.
Another aspect of MPower that helps the players with football is team bonding. These guys aren’t choosing who they participate in internships with, and they are often paired up with players from different position groups. With how big the team is, there are a lot of players that don’t interact with each other during practice, but these internships help with bringing them closer together.
“I was with o-linemen, running backs and linebackers,” Reyes said. “And I think that was something that was interesting, and that I found fun, because I think after the internship was done, I grew a closer bond with that teammate, and I feel like you know you’re close with your position, the people in your position group, but branching out and being friends with everyone on the team is something that helps us grow our relationships, but it also helps the team. Because that’s something that Coach [Sherrone] Moore always harps on, is we’re all one big family.”
Max Reyes fully understands the importance of the experience that he has gained through MPower, and he believes that it is a program that every college athletic program should have.
“Everyone says that the University of Michigan degree is one of the best in the nation,” Reyes said. “But if you don’t have any business skills or professional skills that you can take away after, then that piece of paper is going to be useless. So I feel like every collegiate program should have this just to ensure that their alumni are put in a good position once their athletic career ends.”
Life on the ranch with Raheem Anderson
There is a wide range of experiences that Michigan football players can participate in through MPower. Some players opt for a more traditional, nine-to-five in-office program, and other players, like graduate offensive lineman Raheem Anderson, can choose to spend their time on a ranch out in Texas.
Raheem Anderson’s MPower experience was extremely different from Max Reyes’, but it was just as important. Anderson went down to Uvalde, Texas with senior EDGE TJ Guy, Junior defensive back Myles Pollard and senior running back Tavierre Dunlap. The four players lived the farm life for a few days, and they even learned how to herd cattle while they were down there.
When you think of an internship, going down to a ranch might not come to mind. However, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t as impactful as any other MPower program. For Raheem Anderson, who hails from Detroit, Michigan, it was important for him to experience a new way of life.
“It’s always good to get out of your comfort zone, because, like me, I grew up in Detroit, so the middle of nowhere, Southwest Texas, it was a big…I wouldn’t say wake up call, it was just a different change of environment,” Anderson said during an interview with ClutchPoints. “The biggest thing I’ve learned was to just value everything that you have because some people live different lives. Some people might live on a ranch and have to do certain stuff every day to obtain that certain lifestyle. Some people live in the city and take certain things for granted.”
One big difference between this program and a traditional nine to five is that Anderson and his teammates were living this lifestyle 24/7 during their program. There was no clocking out. When they weren’t working, they didn’t have their phones to keep them busy, so they found creative ways to have fun, like playing hide and seek.
“There was no internet, so we were just in there thuggin,” Anderson said with a laugh. “We were playing spades, uno, everything, like, literally hide and seek. Grown men, 20, 21 year-old men playing hide and seek.”
You’re never too old for a good game of hide and seek.
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Like Reyes, Anderson also had some takeaways from his experience that he can apply to the game of football. For him, the biggest thing is passion.
“Just doing everything, giving it your all, having a passion for something,” Anderson said. “If you have a passion for football, you give it your all, you expect good results. Having a passion for being a rancher, and you know, being able to go around and know what you have to do to keep up with your land. I think that was very applicable.”
Raheem Anderson’s experience down in Uvalde, Texas is a great example of the different things players can get out of MPower. Anderson doesn’t want to spend life after football living on a ranch, and he knew that going in. However, this experience still taught him a lot of valuable lessons. It got him out of his comfort zone, and it showed him a different way of life.
Peter Simmons and his journey to Orlando to work with New Home Star
Senior defensive lineman Peter Simmons went down to Orlando, Florida for his MPower internship. He was joined by freshman defensive back Jacob Oden, sophomore kicker Stone Anderson, sophomore running back Benjamin Hall and junior wide receiver Logan Forbes. The five teammates spent time working with New Home Star, a company that specializes in residential real estate.
Peter Simmons is interested in pursuing a career in real estate when his football career is over, so this was an important opportunity for him. It was good for him to see if this is something he really enjoys doing, and he learned a lot about the industry.
“That’s [residential real estate] kind of something I’ve been interested in pursuing,” Simmons said in an interview with ClutchPoints. “And so I learned a lot about real estate and how a lot of things I’ve learned can apply to my career.”
One of the coolest things about MPower is that these Michigan football players are going out and sharing these experiences together. These are things that will stick with Simmons for the rest of his life.
“It just allowed us all to, you know, really make great relationships and memories that we will remember for a lifetime,” Simmons said.
Not every college athlete has access to a program like MPower, and Peter Simmons recognizes how fortunate the Michigan football team is to have it.
“I think MPower is crucial to any collegiate athletic program because it opens up so many opportunities for Michigan athletes to connect with alumni and supporters,” Simmons said. “It allows athletes an opportunity to gain valuable experience outside of their sport that they wouldn’t necessarily find on campus. I’m extremely grateful to MPower for allowing me the opportunity to connect with great alumni supporters, and I gained experience and memories that have helped prepare me for my life after football.”
Those are just a few of the great experiences that Michigan football players have had with MPower. There are a lot more out there, and every player has access to these opportunities that can set them up for success for the rest of their lives.
When John Rotche’s football career came to an end because of an injury, it was devastating for him. However, he still found a way to have an incredible impact on the Michigan football program, and he is making sure that these players are ready to tackle anything when their playing days are over.
You can read more about John Rotche’s journey in his book, Reach, which was published in 2019.
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Publish date : 2024-09-13 12:19:00
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