Deion Sanders goes in depth about his desire to mentor young people

Deion Sanders is now the leader of an entire football team as the head coach at Colorado. But his desire to mentor young people started way before he got into coaching.

Even when Sanders was in high school, he viewed himself as a leader. He said during his press conference earlier this week that being a mentor has been important to him throughout his life.

“Developing a desire to mentor young people probably started when I was playing high school sports,” Deion Sanders said. “I always took it upon myself to target several young men and help develop them, not just as athletes but as men.”

Sanders still remembers one former high school classmate in particular who he watched out for and mentored.

“I remember this one kid’s name was Jip. I think he’s passed away now, but he was real frail, real thin, real skinny. But he was like a comedian. He was a pretty good basketball player, but we made him our water boy on the high school football team. But he was my dog,” Sanders said. “Nobody would mess with him or joke with him or clown with him, because they knew he was my dog. I used to pick him up every day from school, because I had a car. He had the best of the best. If I had it, he had it.”

Sanders credits his mom for turning him into the man he is today and for showing him the importance of being a mentor at a young age.

“That affection comes from way back when, but understandably it comes from my mother,” Sanders said. “We always had someone else beside my friend or my sister to live with us. She always extended a helping hand, and she was always gracious to  the multitudes.”

Deion Sanders reveals where his locker room messages come from

Part of Deion Sanders being a mentor involves him delivering messages to his Colorado team.

Sanders has found different ways to inspire his players, whether it’s in the locker room or through the media. Many have wondered where Sanders gets his ideas from. He shed some light on that earlier this week.

“That stuff comes to me in the morning,” Sanders said. “I’m here early in the morning. When I’m in that chair, probably 4:55 a.m. — anywhere between 4:55 a.m. to 5:15 a.m. — I spend time with the Lord, when I get here, early in the mornings. My message is derived from my thought process, and just something that’s placed in my spirit. So that’s where all that stuff comes from.

“Sometimes, I don’t even go in the meeting room thinking I’m going to give them a message, and it just happens. It just happens. God just impregnates me with something to give to them. I don’t even think we put out the real — we haven’t put out the real message from yesterday. We gonna put that one out. That’s a whole other message that you’re probably going to see.”