Anthony Boone finds purpose coaching QBs after accident ended playing career

By Pat Welter, WRAL sports multimedia journalist

Quarterback isn't just a position anymore it's a science. The elaborate warm ups a group of high school and college quarterbacks are performing at Herndon Park in Durham on a hot July morning are proof.

"Palms facing sidelines," Anthony Boone instructs his pupils. "If your shoulders are burning you're doing it right."

Boone is a quarterbacks coach for QB Country, a company founded by former Ole Miss quarterback David Morris. Boone typically does his work in the Charlotte area, but he's made the trip across the state to work with some Triangle area athletes.

"I tell people all the time, you come to me you're trying to get better," Boone said. "If your name is Chris, I'm trying to make you the best Chris you can possibly be."

Of course Durham isn't just a classroom for Boone, it's where he made his name.

"Being a part of that culture change was awesome," Boone said. "Not a winning tradition when I went there, not a winning tradition in the thought process of anyone in this state."

Boone played high school football in Weddington, NC and played quarterback at Duke from 2011-14 under David Cutcliffe. He left as the school's winningest quarterback leading Duke to an ACC Coastal Division championship in 2013 and three bowl game appearances.

"It was a great environment, it was a great thought process," Boone said. "It was one of those things for me talking about trusting the process and taking the road less traveled, I'm a big believer in those cliches and mantras."

Boone's professional career took a path he never anticipated. He went undrafted in 2015 and was signed and eventually cut by the Detroit Lions. He then played in the CFL for the Montreal Alouettes. May 22, 2016 his course changed forever.

"I was going to train that Sunday morning," Boone remembered. "I woke up in an ambulance my father was there."

Boone was driving south on SR-1357 in Union County near Weddington. According to the crash report a car traveling the opposite direction crossed over the center line. Both cars attempted to avoid each other and crashed head on. Boone remembered laying in the hospital trying to understand why and how.

"Anger, confused, why me?" Boone said. "I didn't know who the other party was so I was like 'hey what happened to the other person, are they alive, are they okay?'"

The other person was Panthers linebacker Shaq Thompson. According to authorities Thompson had been reaching down to get his cell phone after dropping it on the car floor. He avoided serious injuries, but Boone wasn't as fortunate. He fractured his hip, his ribs, and severed tendons in his hand. He spent six months in a wheel chair and another three using a walker.

"Once I saw how far I had to go and how long it was going to take me my thoughts shifted," Boone said. "I needed to get as healthy as possible to function everyday and probably do something other than playing."

Two months later Boone and his wife had their first child adding to Boone's changed mindset. He used his new lease on life to focus on a hobby that had formed organically while working out.

"It was a sign from God for me," Boone said. "I was briefly messing around coaching guys as I was working out myself on the field. Local kids in the area were working out with me, so I'm just giving little pointers here or there."

QB Country's founder David Morris had also played for Cutcliffe at Ole Miss. Morris had helped train Boone for the NFL combine. Boone approached Morris about opening up a branch of the company in North Carolina. In the last few years Boone has grown his client list from middle and high schoolers to former Duke and UNC stars like Daniel Jones and Sam Howell. He's also worked with and is close friends with Panthers quarterback PJ Walker.

"I'm all about building relationships," Boone said. "Every kid out here I try to make sure I know their name know what they are about, know where they are from. Everybody has a different story. You never know what a little interaction will do to change somebody's path."

"He's big on the movement stuff, big on throwing off platform," Ravenscroft School senior quarterback Kyle Hawkins said. Hawkins has been training with Boone since his sophomore year.

"I love this, I trust him," Hawkins said. "I'd play my tail off for that man."

"Off balance, off platform throws, anything that symbolizes a NFL quarterback," Gardner-Webb University redshirt sophomore Kendall McKoy said. "You have to make all different types of throws on the next level. Me just molding myself out here is getting me welded up for college and the next level."

NFL stars like Patrick Mahomes have changed the game with baseball style throws, but Boone makes sure to teach the pocket fundamentals too.

"You've got to be mechanically sound," Boone said. "It doesn't matter if you can make the off platform throws if you can't make the ones you're supposed to make, it doesn't matter."

Boone understands how precious and fleeting opportunities to play quarterback at the highest level are. His mission is to make sure every athlete who comes to him is able to maximize their potential.

"I got my shot my opportunity, I think that I didn't take as much advantage as I should of," Boone admitted. "I was young, I didn't have anybody to guide me, so I think that's my purpose now."