Bruce Rollinson was in his Mater Dei office when offensive coordinator Dave Money walked into the room requesting his presence at the quarterback academy his school was hosting.

In particular, it was to check out one player.

“You gotta come watch this kid,” Money said.

But it wasn’t to the football field that Money wanted to take his boss. Instead, Rollinson accompanied Money to the Mater Dei football conference room, where a group of middle school quarterbacks were learning and discussing how to break down certain coverages.

On the chalkboard, diagraming Cover 2, Cover 3, and Cover 0 defenses, was JT Daniels, barely a teenager at the time. Rollinson couldn’t believe his eyes. He sat in the back of the room, astonished at what he was witnessing. This is a head coach who has seen every starting quarterback he coached, except one, earn a Division 1 scholarship since 1989. Rollinson, who will enter his 32nd football season (whenever that may be) at Mater Dei in Santa Ana, California, said this moment was among the most memorable he's witnessed.

“You try to find kids like this,” Rollinson said. “I've got a million of them that can throw it from here to the next city, but they're not worth a crap mentally.”

This marked the moment that Rollinson knew Mater Dei had a special player in the pipeline.