Tacoma’s Trevor Moawad gets 2nd national championship

Trevor Moawad
Trevor on Alabama sideline in 2009

(photo courtesy of IMG Academy)

Trevor Moawad grew up in Tacoma, Washington. Of course the family home sits on land now known as Lakewood, but it was still Tacoma when he lived there. Trevor’s father Bob was a nationally renowned motivational speaker and Chairman of The Edge Learning Institute in Tacoma, which continues to teach his principles on positive thought to this day. I had the opportunity to see Bob speak a couple times and he had me captivated. Bob was a storyteller. By nature his perspective is motivating. You wanted to be motivated when you listened to Bob.

The acorn does not fall far from the Garry Oak. Trevor Moawad is currently bringing the power of mental conditioning to college football’s biggest stage. He was on the sidelines in 2009 when Alabama won a national championship. And it happened again last night. The kid from Charles Wright Academy just earned his 2nd title ring in 3 years when Alabama shut out LSU 21-0. The previously unbeaten #1 team in the nation was trounced by a wave of defensive perfection. To pull off this level of performance, a team needs to do everything right. They need to execute their plays exactly the way they draw them up. That is where Trevor comes in.

Vision. That’s all it takes. Envision perfection consistently and you will be successful. It’s a relatively simple principle that is perhaps revolutionizing the way college and pro teams prepare for competition. Trevor Moawad works with athletes to visualize success and proper execution and he works with multiple teams. Just last month he was on the sidelines helping coach Florida State to a victory at the Florida Citrus Bowl. As far as I know he’s the only coach winning 2 or more division 1 bowl games in a single season.

Moawad’s personal brand of mental conditioning requires athletes to ignore all distraction and focus solely on the goal and how to achieve it. Trevor’s teaching transcends the sports arena and ultimately aims to make his athletes better people on and off the field of play. As their personal lives improve, so does their athletic performance. Trevor calls himself a coach and he works with athletes, but his real goal is to make players better people who have the tools to succeed in life, long after their playing days are behind them.

Just in case the 3 high-profile college bowl wins aren’t convincing enough, I present another example. The NFL’s Tom Coughlin brought Trevor in to work with his New York football Giants in 2007. Eli Manning was starting to take a lot of flack for living in the shadow of his brother and possibly being a bust. The Giants were said to have no shot against the seemingly invincible and also undefeated New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. Against all odds, the team that worked with Trevor came out on top. Super Bowl champs. Eli Manning happened to be voted MVP of that game. Evidence of Trevor’s effectiveness keeps piling up and will soon be undeniable. I believe more universities and professional teams will take notice before long.

For me, this is a local story. The teams he coaches may be thousands of miles away, but Trevor Moawad and the principles he’s always believed in are fruits of Tacoma, Washington. ESPN and Sports Illustrated have been following his career for years. I can’t figure out why this hasn’t become a bigger story in our local sports media. College football teams are changing the way their players prepare mentally as Bob Moawad smiles down on Trevor’s accomplishments. He always envisioned success for his son, and what do you know? It happened.

[Videos of Trevor from the IMG website.]