jimmy v — Blog — When Going Viral

The Jimmy V Award for Perseverance presented during the annual ESPY's ceremony is awarded to a deserving member of the sporting world who has overcome great obstacles through perseverance and determination. In July 2019 the recipient of this award was an individual named Rob Mendez who is a junior varsity football coach at Prospect High School in California. Coach Mendez is no ordinary football coach though. Coach Mendez leads and coaches his student athletes on the junior varsity football team without any arms and legs which makes his story one of the most inspiring you will hear this year.

Rob's story went viral after it was announced he would be the winner of the Jimmy V award at the 2019 ESPY's. His story has stayed memorable in my mind ever since, and ESPN couldn't have found a more deserving recipient.

Rob was born in May of 1988 suffering from a condition called Tetra-Amelia. Tetra-Amelia is an extremely rare disease affecting new-born babies who are missing all four limbs. Individuals are born with no arms and no legs and are forced to live an extremely difficult life. In fact life for those suffering from Tetra-Amelia requires a constant caregiver who is needed at all times to help complete daily tasks such as brushing your teeth, putting on clothes and bathing. Trying to have a normal childhood becomes near impossible, however for Coach Mendez things were different.

Coach Mendez didn't live a life wanting people to feel badly for him. Coach Mendez would try doing things any normal child would enjoy doing growing up. There was one particular activity that Coach Mendez LOVED as a child and that was playing video games. In fact it was playing video games that lead to his true passion of football. Rob would play the popular football video game Madden and it was through playing Madden where he developed an understanding of the strategy behind different plays, game management, coaching and just overall became fascinated by the sport.

After gaining deep knowledge of the game Rob landed assistant coaching jobs over a 12 year period at five different high schools. This experience as an assistant helped groom Rob for a day he and no one else would have ever imagined. In June of 2018 Rob was offered and hired as the head coach for Prospect High School’s junior varsity team.

After Coach Mendez was hired his impact was seen immediately and the results quickly followed. Not only did the players respect him from day 1, but junior varsity player and captain Toa Tautolo was quoted as saying, "Although he may not look like a coach he definitely acts like one.” After losing their first game Prospect High Schools Junior varsity football team rallied off 7 straight wins. They out scored their opponents during this winning streak 151 - 32. This winning streak landed the team a spot in the West Valley League JV Championship game. Although the team lost this championship game just the idea of getting there was a previous afterthought. The JV football team at Prospect High School had many more losing seasons over the last 10 years and they had come a very long way under Coach Mendez's leadership.

Coach Mendez's mantra for the team and himself was a short phrase, “Who says I cant, nobody!” This rallying cry helped define the team during their championship driven season. It served as a continuous reminder that the team can accomplish anything they believe in, with their coach leading them. This given all the difficult circumstances and obstacles Coach Mendez had to overcome in his life.

So why did this story go viral? What makes this a “When Going Viral WORKS” moment? Below are two key reasons as I see it.

1. Jaw Dropper Effect: this story has a jaw dropping effect and I can't emphasize enough how important this is when it comes to virality. When you see a person without any arms and legs it’s very difficult for someone to not double take, and stare for a few moments to confirm what they are seeing is real. However when you see a person without any arms and legs COACHING A FOOTBALL TEAM your jaw drops to the floor. You immediately question, how is this person doing this? You then probably end up asking yourself this question five more times before the actual picture of what you're seeing becomes confirmed in your mind. This kind of jaw dropper effect is something that we experienced regularly during the PhunkeeDuck Hoverboard experience. Every time someone would look at me riding on a Hoverboard especially in the early pre-launch phase of Winter 2015 people would stare at me in awe for 1 - 2 minutes. They would question how I was stopping, going, turning, and gliding so effortlessly. I find the jaw dropper effect to be a leading indicator for certain businesses, and stories to go viral. When people are mesmerized by something it results in others experiencing this same feeling. With Coach Mendez when you not only are mesmerized by what you're seeing but then feel incredibly inspired and motivated by the story, context, and end result people feel warm and soft inside. They fall in love with people like Coach Mendez and can't help but share the story with their friends so that they too can feel this sense of fascination and appreciation.

2. Earned Media Coverage: when any story, or sports highlight gets covered on ESPN you undoubtedly get thousands and sometimes even millions of views. However when you get awarded the Jimmy V award during the ESPY’s that is a whole new level of coverage and publicity. The ESPY awards ceremony has gained so much popularity over the years amongst sports fans around the world and has truly turned into an entertainment spectacle with popular appearances being made by the worlds top athletes, influencers and celebrities. The Jimmy V award has in particular turned into this monumental, and valuable award with all the history it provides since Jim Valvano's emotional speech during the 1993 inaugural ESPY awards ceremony. For Coach Mendez to receive this particular award resulted in instant viral traction. The Jimmy V award recipient gets coverage from so many different media outlets. Not only will obvious shows like Sportscenter cover the recipient but Coach Mendez also received his own special segment and documentary by ESPN about his entire story. Various other shows on ESPN and media channels within the ESPN family of networks will also feature the Jimmy V award recipient such as radio shows and CBS's the Rachel Ray show. This kind of earned media coverage can be so profound from a virality standpoint and surely applies here to Coach Mendez. We should all be inspired, motivated and feel lucky to have seen and heard his story reach the masses!