Making time: Why Joshua Burnham will succeed on, off the field at Notre Dame
On the walk from pregame mass to Notre Dame Stadium before a game last season, then-freshman vyper Joshua Burnham caught something out of the corner of his eye.
It was a seventh-grade kid from Traverse City, Mich., where Burnham grew up and went to high school. Burnham recognized him from a youth football camp at which he had volunteered, stopped walking toward the stadium and stepped over to high-five the young man and start a conversation.
“He’s just a seventh grader, a random kid,” Doug Gle, a fellow Traverse City football parent and friend of the boy’s parents, said. “The dad’s like, ‘It completely made his kid’s day.’”
Gle’s son’s, Carter (a sophomore in high school) and Brady (an eighth grader) both worked with Burnham at Trojans football youth camps while Burnham was in high school at Traverse City Central, whose mascot is the Trojans. Brady Gle admires Burnham so much that he wears No. 8 because it was Burnham’s high school number.
Those stories might not seem like much. But those close to Burnham believe showing up to any camp he had time for and following through in the community say as much about the sophomore linebacker-turned-vyper as his sack in the season opener against Navy did.
“He always makes time for kids,” Gle said.
“You ask guys to volunteer and, as a leader, he was there,” Central head coach Eric Schugars said. “He showed up and volunteered.”
Giving back
Burnham, like so many football players in the United States, began his career in Pop Warner. His dad, Sean Burnham, said he made it a goal to give back to where it started.
“He would help coordinate and run [Trojans football youth] camps — he wasn’t putting it on, per se, but he’d always help, because he knows what started with him, because he’s always wanted to be involved,” Sean Burnham said. “He’s always gravitated toward kids.”
Burnham was busy being a major college prospect at linebacker (he moved to vyper early in his Notre Dame career) as well as Central’s starting quarterback. But he helped out at camps whenever he could.
Gle’s brother has kids who also camped with Burnham. One of them, around fourth grade at the time, invited Burnham to their birthday party.
Burnham, who often coached kids in that age range, showed up. He brought a friend and played sports with the attendees.
“He was just a big kid with them, playing sports and having fun,” Gle said. “He never had any hesitation to give his time to other people.”
“The kids have never had any qualms about reaching out and talking to him,” Vicki Van Nes, another Traverse City parent, said. “He’ll get right down and kneel on the ground and talk to them if he has to, because he is such a big guy.”
Van Nes’ older son, Benjamin, has been good friends with Burnham for about 10 years. Her younger son, Nick, is a junior free safety at Central and has camped with Burnham in the past.
Nick Van Nes was used to being around Burnham, because the families were close and the star linebacker and quarterback was like an older brother to him. But he saw the impact Burnham would make on those who weren’t.
“He was just super friendly with them and always willing to have fun with them,” Nick Van Nes said. “I never saw him deny autographs or pictures. He was a super great person and always talked to the little kids.”
Community leader
One memory of Burnham sticks with his high school coach.
Schugars and the Trojans partner with an organization called Freedom Builders, a group that works with churches to help build and maintain low-income housing in Northern Michigan.
“That was a very cool experience throughout high school and I’m very thankful that we got the opportunity,” Burnham said Sept. 5. “We were able to go around and help some of the families that needed some support.”
Central works with Freedom Builders on a project every summer, and Schugars remembers the role Burnham had in one of them.
“I envision him right now, he’s up on a roof,” Schugars said. “They’re doing a roofing project, and Josh is right there in the thick of things. Leaders, they get their hands dirty.”
The Freedom Builders projects were optional, but because of leaders like Burnham’s enthusiasm for them, they didn’t seem optional.
“Guys who will play for you, as a captain and a leader, will follow you when you do all those extra things as well,” Schugars said. “There’s a lot of things young people would probably do on a sunny summer morning, after weights, after you’ve done your football work, and you go volunteer in your community.”
Burnham was a catalyst for community service, in a relatively tight-knit community, both because of the influence he carried as the famous football player and because he wanted to use it that way. That stuck with many people there, who are now closely following his career at Notre Dame.
As far as his Irish coaches are concerned, that career is off to a great start. Burnham is a key player on special teams, according to special teams coordinator Marty Biagi, and in just 51 snaps through Week 3, he’s made an impact on defense.
Burnham totaled 4 pressures, including that sack against Navy, and 6 defensive stops (tackles that result in a failure for the offense) in those 51 snaps.
“His factor level, so far, has been high,” Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden said Sept. 5. “So, your number of plays divided by factors, that’s your ratio. His is high, whether it’s quarterback sacks or tackles or whatever the case may be.
“I think that’s a good sign for him moving forward.”
Thanks to his work in the community, Burnham has a lot of people in Traverse City invested in his success.
“Just being able to go out and help part of the community and help those families and just give back to the community,” Burnham said. “That’s a big thing that I really like to do.”
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