Where are they now? Catching up with Craig Aamot

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- As a former basketball and football player, Craig Aamot was always a leader. That's still the case -- in sports and in life.

Promising football players in their teens could do far worse than attend a Jeff Trickey-Randy Wright quarterback-receiver camp.

Trickey is in the Wisconsin Football Association's Hall of Fame, and Wright was the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers for three years after a stellar career at Wisconsin, and a senior staff member is Craig Aamot.

"As a teacher and coach, they're all special, but you know, Craig Aamot was one of the finest athletes I've ever coached, and this is my 42nd year of coaching football," Jeff Trickey said.

Aamot was the 1999 Waukesha Freeman Football Player of the Year under Coach Trickey at Waukesha South High School. He was also the 1991 Braveland Conference Player of the Year in basketball before playing point guard for two years at Marquette under Kevin O'Neill.

He then transferred to North Dakota State to finish his college career by playing both sports and standing out as a leader in both.

"Coaches ask us all over the country, how do you find that kid who can easily slide into that leadership role? As a quarterback, we know how important that is. I think the natural thing that I had, I was comfortable leading and in front of people, but also, I was guided in the way that I communicate and the way I was working with people as a leader, was honed by guys like Coach Trickey," Aamot said.

It is hardly surprising or intimidating for Aamot to be in front of a group during his summer job. He's a former point guard, a former quarterback. Those are leadership, out front positions, but he's out in front of his real job, too. He's the choral director at Texas State University.

"They are absolutely similar. To me, they are. One's the artistic side, and one's the athletic side, and I find that I need both. I can't do one side or the other. I feel like something is not quite balanced," Aamot said.

Aamot's father was the choral director at Carroll College -- now Carroll University for three decades, and Aamot was a high school music teacher for 10 years in Wisconsin before moving to Texas and enrolling in grad school. Now, he's coaching choir.

"To hit the artistic thing as hard as I have and just fall in love with it, the human voice and creating beauty with a community of singers and learning that dynamic, showing them the way there, is to me, just very similar. Teaching is teaching, and whether the medium is athletic or artistic, it's human beings," Aamot said.

"My choir students, that's a different combination for them. They're still not sure what to make of the fact that their choir director is up in Wisconsin doing football camps. My music colleagues kind of look at me like okay, that's new -- but good for you," Aamot said.

In football, there are many different ways to put the ball in the end zone. In basketball, there are many different ways to put the ball in the basket. In music, there are many different ways to put the notes together, and in life, there are many different ways to put things in harmony. Aamot is proof of all of that.