QB Magazine Athlete Feature
We asked Preston Olukoya to name his most memorable football moment. He declined — politely, and with a better answer than the one we asked for.
“I have many memorable moments in my short career, but I just focus on getting better than those moments,” the fifth grader said. “I was taught that this is a privilege and a job that is fun to do and I love it. So I move forward and make sure I am better than my last game regardless of how good it was.”
Then he explained where the idea came from.
“Coach Chaz always tells me my reward is that I get to keep my job, because everyone wants it and only a few can hold it.”
That is a heavy line to hand a ten-year-old, and an interesting one to hand a kid who has apparently taken it entirely to heart. It reframes the job away from trophies and toward tenure: you do not win the position once. You re-earn it, and the prize for doing it well is that you get to do it again.
Overlooked
The reason that message might have landed so cleanly is that Olukoya spent time on the other side of it.
“The greatest challenge I have faced in the past was being overlooked,” the Class of 2034 quarterback said. “And that’s not the case anymore, because I overcame that by out-working and out-performing other QBs my age in my area. Staying in the lab gets me ready for any road blocks.”
Staying in the lab. It is a phrase borrowed from older athletes, but he uses it the way it is meant — as a description of unglamorous repetition done when no one is around to notice.
There is no bitterness in the answer, which is worth pointing out. He does not name anyone or complain about how he was evaluated. He describes the problem, describes the fix, and moves on. That is the same instinct that made him refuse to dwell on his best games.
Control and Trust
Olukoya started playing four and a half years ago, and he can point to the moment it took.
“I was inspired by how big the NFL players were and how fast they were when we went to a game with my dad.”
What keeps him at quarterback specifically is a fairly advanced pair of ideas.
“I really like controlling the tempo of the game and being able to lead a team to the end zone every drive,” he said. “I learned early that when I’m in control of the ball and the team, we are most likely to succeed. I feed off the trust of my coach and teammates.”
Tempo control is the first half — the quarterback as the person who sets the pace of the afternoon. The second half is the part most players his age leave out entirely: he describes trust as fuel. Not something he has earned and can now spend, but something he needs supplied to play at his best.
Three Trainers, Three Coaches
He has built out a development setup with real depth. He works with private quarterback trainers J.P. Tillman, Zach Barker, and Chaz Thomas, and credits coaches Chaz, Chatt, and Kirsten with the biggest impact on him so far.
“They have different styles, but overall they help me with my confidence and teach me how to push through in tough situations and high pressure scenarios,” Olukoya said. “That is why I am a very clutch player right now.”
Different styles is the operative phrase. Quarterbacks who train under multiple voices have to reconcile competing instruction, and the ones who handle it well tend to develop something more durable than any single coach’s system.
He has taken that on the road, too — QB Magazine’s camp in San Diego, QB Universe in Dallas, the You Are Athlete combine in Houston, and FBU in Florida.
Ask him what the position requires and he gives a list: arm power, high football IQ, grit, accuracy, athleticism, and being a leader on and off the field. His favorite pros are Drake Maye and Jayden Daniels — two quarterbacks whose value comes as much from what they do when a play breaks down as from what happens when it works.
Next Year
His goals are close at hand. Short-term, he wants to perfect his footwork and build strength for the fall season. Long-term — which for a fifth grader means about twelve months out — he wants the starting job in middle school, and he wants to win there with his friends.
Which brings it back around to Coach Chaz’s line. Everyone wants the job. Only a few can hold it. Olukoya has apparently decided to be one of the few, and has already figured out that the work of holding onto it never actually ends.
A Note on Memberships
Preston is a fifth grader with a middle school season coming and a real camp résumé already behind him — San Diego, Dallas, Houston, Florida.
Heading into the fall, an upgraded QB Magazine membership adds a professionally designed athlete graphic, feature placement across QB Magazine’s channels, and a profile that grows season by season as he does. For a player whose whole philosophy is being better than his last game, having each of those seasons recorded as it happens is a natural fit — a record of the climb rather than a page put together at the end of it.
Explore membership options at quarterbackmagazine.com/memberships.
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