The heart of a lion: ‘Old-school approach to life’ helps Briarwood QB lead

Last year, when Chris Neugent was hired as the band director at Briarwood Christian School, his first task was to build camaraderie among the band members.

How would he do it? Four words.

“Get CV in here,” someone told Neugent.

“CV” is Christopher Vizzina, the five-star quarterback, the future Clemson signal-caller, the dude with nearly 15,000 Instagram followers. To perfect every detail of a fall Friday night, Vizzina showed up and practiced leading the band after a Briarwood win.

“He wasn’t too cool to do that,” said Brent Latta, Briarwood Christian School’s director of counseling services, and college and career adviser for seniors. “He’s homegrown for us, really all the way through. Kids really do feel a part of the whole experience with him, in a way. It’s maybe a different situation than when you’re coming from different schools, a feeder school or something like that. I think, for him, that’s probably been unique, too, because he’s had the same group with him all that time. For him and for them he’s just another classmate, and I think that’s great.”

It is easy for top-ranked college football recruits to seek the limelight, to relish in the national attention by wearing, say, Crimson Tide gloves and an LSU arm sweatband during their high school playoffs. Vizzina last November, warming up on the field prior to the Lions’ 35-12 win over Fort Payne, wore a white Under Armour long sleeve with the words “God has a plan for you” printed across the chest.

“He realizes two things: he’s not the center of the universe, and he’s not put on this planet for his personal pleasure,” Briarwood head coach Matthew Forester said. “He’s put here to serve and help others, and so I think his outlook on life is pretty refreshing. I think he could have grown up 50 years ago and he’d fit in that culture just as well as he does in today’s culture. He’s got kind of an old-school approach to life, which is refreshing to coach and refreshing to be a part of.”

If it seems like you’ve heard Vizzina’s name for a long time, it’s because you have. He earned his first scholarship offer from UAB following his eighth-grade year after a 7-on-7 camp. The next school to call him was Clemson. During the second game of his freshman year, quarterback Jonah Carroll went down with an injury. Vizzina has been under center since, resulting in a 29-6 record as a starter. The Lions reeled off 11 straight wins his freshman year before losing to Pleasant Grove in the Class 5A semifinals. For the past two seasons, the Lions have played in Class 6A – Briarwood was 9-14 in 6A in 2014-2015, its only other time in the classification – and posted an 18-5 record.

“I want to go compete for a state championship,” Vizzina said. “Being a senior now, I’ve seen so many people, I know how it should be, how everything should feel and how a team should be led because of the people I’ve seen do it.”

That deflecting to the success and leadership of others is about as common as a Vizzina touchdown. He deflects attention “very much,” Latta said. Forester said his quarterback is a likable, honest, true, relatable, humble person. Vizzina said his recruitment — which included trips to Notre Dame, Louisville, Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Florida, Tennessee, Ohio State, Mississippi State and Clemson — brought attention to Briarwood.

“That was really cool,” he said.

Vizzina has spent a lot of time around Briarwood speaking to younger students. Again deflecting, Vizzina said he remembered looking up to former Lions football players JR Tran-Reno and Trent Howard.

“I take a lot of pride in trying to help the younger kids out and adjust to high school,” Vizzina said.

He takes questions not only about that adjustment, but about how to become a great athlete, what study habits work well, how to prioritize tasks when busy, and, of course, what looming status as a college football player is like. One day over the summer, a group of kids approached him at a sporting goods store to chat about Clemson.

“That’s also a great opportunity to share the gospel with them,” Vizzina said. “Going to a Christian school, obviously we all hear it, even at Briarwood you hear it so much from the same person it may not end up meaning as much, but then they hear me talk about it, so they may actually listen. I try to use those situations to positively impact or share something with them.”

He realizes two things: he’s not the center of the universe, and he’s not put on this planet for his personal pleasure. He’s put here to serve and help others, and so I think his outlook on life is pretty refreshing.

MATTHEW FORESTER | Briarwood head coach

Latta said Vizzina is quick to check on people or have them checked on if he sees them struggling in school or on social media. He speaks from the heart and lives it out, she said.

“Things that we don’t necessarily expect high school students to be really good at doing anyway,” she said. “He kind of has done that naturally. He’s other-person-focused in a good way. I think he’s very in tune with how people act and react to things. He’s a great public speaker. I’ve told him that he should have his own podcast.”

Attending Briarwood since kindergarten helps with that relatability that Forester mentioned. He wasn’t a transfer. He wasn’t at a feeder school five miles away. He’s been right there from the beginning. Vizzina said his character and work ethic have been shaped by those who he’s been coached or taught by, those he’s been friends with since he was little.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better high school experience, really,” Vizzina said. “It’s given me the opportunity to learn from and hear from very special people every single day and hear what they have to say. I hope people will really listen to what people have to say. It’s not like that everywhere, but at Briarwood especially, these people are here at Briarwood for a reason. If you don’t listen to them and don’t hear them, then you’re really missing out. I feel like that’s what really affected me and how I think and what I believe. These people have helped me grow in my faith and in my character, and you’re really missing out if you don’t hear from these really special people.”

Forester has loved watching Vizzina with his friends, the ones he’s had since elementary school. As a coach with a quarterback who earned his stripes as a freshman and became known nationally, the worry is team chemistry. Will teammates put Vizzina on a pedestal? Will his ego inflate? Neither has happened. The team chemistry is “amazing.”

“He does have great empathy for others,” Forester said. “I think he cares about them. I think he’s been put in a spotlight that’s incredibly unique. He’s not held to the standards of a normal 16- or 17-year-old. He’s held to the Briarwood standards, and being a great model and citizen for Briarwood. I think he is willing to look out for others. I think he’s just wired a little bit different than most kids. He’s more focused on others than you see a typical high school student.”

Vizzina has one semester of high school left, one fall to leave his lasting legacy. He wants to be remembered as a leader, and not just when he wore a facemask across his face.

“I want my legacy to be someone that learned from the guys before him and really put an emphasis on leadership,” he said. “And now the kids coming up will see the same thing, and it’ll just trickle down. I want Briarwood to always not just have one person, but many leaders on a team or even in choir or in the classroom. I want to influence people to become leaders and step out of the comfort zone because that’s what I did. I wasn’t really comfortable with it, but that’s how God made me. God made me a natural leader, and I’ve embraced that. I want other kids to embrace that, if that’s how they are.”

For the last three years, he has often been associated with the older kids since he started playing varsity football so young. He has always had a large group of friends, but now that he’s a senior, he’ll experience one last semester, one last season, with the classmates he’s known since elementary school. He is looking forward to that normalcy, to making memories with those who don’t see him as the “star quarterback.”

“They just see me as ‘CV,’ which is something that I am super grateful for,” he said. “That’s what makes it so easy to just hang out with them. I’ve only got one semester left, but like I said, what I’m looking forward to is just being with the people who I’ve been with pretty much my entire life.”