Brock Vereen, the junior safety from the University of Minnesota, has always had a driving force in his life: his older brother and New England Patriot running back Shane Vereen. In a feature written by Marcus Fuller of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Brock explains how the motivation to compete with his older brother began at a very young age.
"Whenever you have a goal or a dream, to have someone so close to you accomplish it, it's just all the motivation in the world," Brock said. "The biggest thing he did was push me. From video games to actual sports, his competitive drive was really something I tried to model."
His focus on achieving the success of his older brother helped Brock overcome the adversity he has faced in the past few years. First, after an impressive high school career at Valencia High School in Los Angeles, he was overlooked as a recruit, drawing only two scholarship offers from major conference schools, Stanford and Minnesota. He then faced the challenges of offseason knee surgery this year and necessarily gaining 25 lbs in order to adapt to his positional change from cornerback to safety.
Vereen has taken every obstacle in stride and with his eyes still on the prize of reaching his brother's level of success, saying, "He's where I want to be".
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