While googling where in the world Ahmad Brooks is now I came across stuff about him being in the ODP (Olympic development program) beginning as a 14 year old. Apparently Ahmad was a top 50 soccer player as a youngster. Read an article where he discusses how close he came to quitting football prior to his junior year of high school.
Ahmad Brooks attended and graduated from Abilene High in Abilene, Texas. Ahmad was a dual sport athlete, participating in both football and soccer. I had heard a story that Ahmad was considering walking away from the game of football to concentrate on his soccer career. Ahmad's football coach at the time, Steve Warren, was a big reason for him not doing so.
I asked Ahmad if he would share his memory of the day he walked into Coach Warren's office to break the news that he was quitting the football team.
"Most people don't know this about me, but I was 10 times better at soccer than I was at football and I'm proud to say that. I was on the National team, I was All-State as a Freshman, All-Regionial, and first team at that. At the age of 14 I was traveling around the world playing soccer and I remember my first trip abroad, we went to Costa Rica. In this third-world country, the kids playing with soccer balls that were so used that the leather shell was completely worn off of them, the painted goals on the street, it really impacted my life."
"That sport was much more goalable than football and in hind sight it is. It's the most popular sport in the world and at my size, 5'7" and 135 pounds at the time, it made no sense to continue playing football."
"So I walked into Coach Warren's office with all intentions of me quitting. I let him know that I wanted to concentrate on soccer, he knew how good I was at the sport, and I didn't feel like I was getting the recognition that I deserved in football. I was playing QB at the time and I knew that I would never play Quarterback in college. You have to keep in mind this is right before my Junior year of high school, I was traveling with the top 50 soccer players in the world earlier that year, so I knew I had a future in the sport of soccer."
"I walked into Coach Warren's office right before spring ball to inform him that I would be quiting, the whole time coach was shaking his head. About that time he reached under his desk and pulled out about 50 letters from big Division I schools in the country for football. I remember starting to cry, it was a very emotional moment. Coach Warren was my DB's coach the year before and now my Head Coach, so it was an accomplishment for both of us."
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/785478-a-lifetime-longhorn-a-look-back-at-ahmad-brooks-the-original-lifetime-longhorn.