GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — During his senior season, ahead of the annual rivalry game against Michigan, head coach Mark Dantonio told Kirk Cousins and the rest of the Michigan State football team: "You win this game, you walk the streets, not the alleys of your hometown."
To this day, Cousins still does.
"I knew the importance of that quote," Cousins said. "I don't think I fully realized how much I would love to come back to West Michigan as an adult."
While spending the NFL offseason in West Michigan, the Holland Christian Maroon turned Minnesota Viking attended on Friday the grand opening of a Grand Rapids youth sports training facility.
"I'm able to understand what these kids are going through because I lived it," Cousins said. "I was looking for a place to train."
Trying to take his son's game to the next level, Cousins' dad used to drive him from their hometown of Holland to Grand Rapids three days a week to train.
"We were looking for an ETS," Cousins said. "They weren't that common."
While training with the Vikings, Cousins noticed his teammates, including Adam Thielen, were working out with the Minnesota-based ETS Performance.
He invested in the company that wants to "not just develop the athlete as a player, but develop the athlete as a person," partnering with ETS to open a facility in Grand Rapids, housed in the MSA Sports Spot.
For ages 8 to 18, ETS provides personal training programs and coaching that have produced more than 2,500 collegiate athletes and 250 professional athletes.
"You don't do it alone. It's because you have a great team around you," said Cousins, referencing his monthslong recovery from an Achilles tear suffered last season.
"I have a feeling West Michigan will always keep pulling me back," Cousins said. "No matter for far away life take me."
