[MUSIC PLAYING]
The road home is at once unique and universal.
A straight shot or wandering path,
it all leads to one place for each of us.
A place with a sense of nostalgia,
but a straight line connection to who we are now.
85 miles due south of Charlottesville,
along the Constitution Route on Jefferson Highway,
there's a town of just over 500, one without any stoplights,
one that's proud of its tradition,
and its people, the seat of Charlotte County, Charlotte
Courthouse, the home of third-year Cavalier, Joe Reed.
Today, as with most days, you'll find a bustling lunchtime crowd
at the heart of town.
The village drive-in serving up All-American fare
from a time-seasoned grill, and the stories
you find in every small town.
There are no strangers here.
And the perfect setting to tell tales of athletes past.
He was always a leader.
When he was six and seven years old,
he was real timid and shy, if you can imagine that.
And I'm not sure what I thought at the time.
If, he was going to make it.
But every year you can see Joseph grow,
and mature, and become a natural leader.
When we practice, everybody comes there and gets loose.
But what I always noticed when Joseph
walked in the ballpark, whoever came up next-- it could
be the best player, or the next best player on the team,
or the worst player on the team--
but whoever showed up next, he got the ball
and he warmed up with that kid.
And it just shows from the very beginning
that he realized that to be a great team,
all the players have to get better.
I don't know if he even realized what he was doing.
It maybe just came naturally to him.
At UVA, our whole motto is "Earned, Not Given."
And I feel that it was the same way growing up here.
I remember-- this was my freshman year playing football.
And Kevin McCargo gave me this shirt.
It was an extra large.
And I was like, Kevin can I get a smaller shirt?
He was like, you're going to grow into that one,
or you're going to have to earn a smaller shirt.
So, yeah, I remember that one.
Coach Hanson called me.
Said, tell me about this Reed kid.
Said, we got him out here at camp,
and Coach London wants to sign him
right now as a ninth grader.
He ran that well.
What is your 40 now?
4.5.
4.5
Yes, sir.
4.5, though.
People say everybody's 4.5.
You're not 4.5.
All these people say they can run 4.5 So 4.5' is fast.
Coach Powell was 5.4.
So you got him on the speed, Joseph.
He was my starting quarterback, and Joseph
was my starting quarterback the last year I coached.
I taught him everything he knows.
[LAUGHTER]
In my lifetime, you might see a UVA hat
or a UVA sweater to some more wealthy person from Charlotte
County was able to go there.
But you see UVA stuff all over Charlotte County now.
And there's one reason why.
It's Joseph Reed.
Every young person sees him have success.
Now they know they can go and have success.
I mean, we're a very small county.
Not a lot of people go on and have great athletic success.
But everybody sees that they can because of people like Joseph.
Town is just a part of home.
Family makes up the rest.
Take Patrick Henry Highway to Germantown Road
past Amish farmsteads to the home of the Reeds.
Carlton and Tonya raised sons CJ and Joseph here.
It's hard to reconcile his loud on-field performance
with the quiet home life he enjoys.
But it suits him, and always has.
Here, nightly chores of feeding pigs and tending
to hunting beagles are just as important as route trees
and scouting film.
Few here ultimately have the opportunities
Reed has been given.
But he's earned every one of them.
When I played the sport, that was my dream--
to go to a big time college.
To play professional.
You know, and just taking care of your family.
But in our small town, those dreams get dampered.
You forget about other aspects of your life,
and you try to make that family.
I kind of put the sports aspect on the back burner,
tried to make some dreams.
I never looked back.
When we learned that we were with child,
I would talk to our stomach.
And we read books.
We talked about sports.
Assuming that this child was going to like sports.
Yeah.
Boy or girl.
When they was big enough to move around,
we had some type of ball in their hand.
We've always been local fans.
That's who we pull for, win or loss.
You know, Joseph, as big as he remembers,
he wanted to play for the University of Virginia.
I think he is a mama's boy.
But I can say that about both my boys.
You know, being mama's boys.
But that's 'cause mama holds them so tight.
[LAUGHING]
Didn't do anything halfway.
He never like to be called out for doing something wrong.
Or not to the best of his ability.
Everything always had to be just so for him.
And it still is.
I always think that he tries to outperform himself.
What can I do today better than I did yesterday?
After it's all said and done, he doesn't need a lot of fanfare.
He doesn't care for a lot of attention.
He just wants to quietly go away.
As the sunset paints the summer sky, no trip home
would be complete without a favorite Charlotte County
pastime, frog gaping.
We let one get away.
But I'm gonna save the day.
So we're not going home hungry.
And that's how it's done.
Where we love is home.
Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.
By now, Joe Reed is back in Charlottesville.
A world away from his dogs, his pigs,
the corn fields that feed the commonwealth,
and a family that realizes their dreams along with his own.
And yet, Joe Reed has brought Charlotte County
to Charlottesville.
A product of his environment, he is the quintessential Virginia
Cavalier.
Sometimes it's very surreal.
Like, you have to stop and just think.
Is this really happening?
Our son is playing Division One football on the national stage,
in front of so many people.
But at the same time, he's at a place where he's
getting a top notch education.
As exciting as the football part is, as a mother,
the academic part excites me a lot more.
I wanted him to go wherever he was going to be happy.
What he's found in Charlottesville at UVA has made him very happy.
Joseph Reed. Charlotte Courthouse, Virginia.