Cal RB Jaydn Ott, TE Jack Endries discuss the 2024 Summer Reading Challenge

Ott and Endries will be challenging children in the larger Bay Area communities to read more.

Jaydn Ott and Jack Endries will be serving the Bay Area communities this summer.

The two Cal offensive teammates will be teaming up to take over running the Summer Reading Challenge that Patrick Laird started so many years ago, and has been carried on by other Cal Bears like Mike Saffell and Brian Driscoll.

You can read more about it here, with opportunities for children and their families to win free/discounted tickets to Cal vs. UC Davis. You can donate books up to June 1.

More on that below, with a fun little quote or two.

RB Jaydn Ott

On why he wanted to get involved and what it's been like so far for you?

I wanted to get involved because I used to do reading challenges and reading logs when I was younger or might have forced me to do it. I didn't really want to do it, but it actually turned out being very beneficial. Helping me in school help me communicate with my classmates more efficiently, and then as well as on the football field.

How rewarding has it been to do this work

We had our last one this past Friday. We went to Rosa Parks Elementary and it was good talking to all the kids.

They had some funny questions for me and Jack, but it feels good to get back into the community and reach out and help these kids understand that they could be in our shoes one day as well.

What was their funniest questions?

So this little girl, she had told me that her sister, her baby sister wrote a book. It was like three pages with one word on each and she goes, “Hey, the book my little sister made like this big. Can I read and put this on the reading log?”

And I was like, Yeah, that's a pretty big book. But naw, you can't put that on the reading log. Not going to cut it.

On special moments

My favorite moment was when one of the kids told me that my dad went to Stanford. And I said, that sucks.

But it was cool to reach out to them.

You know, a lot of the kids knew that we were coming, and so they wore some Cal gear. So they had a lot of good questions outside of that.

On how many kids recognized him

I think a couple of them were. A lot of them were, you know, are on the video games now. So they were asking questions about Fortnite and if we play Call of Duty and all that stuff.

Are you good at those games?

No, no, I'm not even good at Madden.

Did you learn to like to read?

I started reading Harry Potter when I was in middle school, and I wound up reading all of it. And, you know, those books are pretty thick.

TE Jack Endries

Jack, what's your experience been like with the Reading program so far?

Yes, it's a great time. I saw [Brian] Driscoll did it last year and Coach Saffell before that and Patrick Laird before that. And I thought it was a really good cause and no one was doing it this year.

So I decided to get my buddy Jaydn Ott and take it over. And it's been really good. We did our first visit last Friday and it was a good time talking to all the kids and just felt good, you know, putting ourselves out there, being role models for kids that might need it, just encourage summer reading as well.

You feel like the kids are getting the message from you guys?

I think they're having a good time out there. I remember when I was in elementary school and someone came to read to me. It was a good break from everything, so it was a good time for them. They were laughing and joking and I think they just had a good time.

A lot of Cal fans out there, too. So hopefully we can get them to more games, you know?

What’s happening in the coming weeks

First we got the launch, which is going to be the spring game and then after that we're going to start going to just title one schools across the bay once a week, maybe twice a week. And then after the after spring game we get it launching.

On the reading challenge

I'm really proud of Jaydn [Ott] and Jack [Endries], one of my tight ends taking over this reading challenge. It's a really, really cool opportunity for these guys to use their football platform while they have it.

We preach a lot about Cal guys being overachievers in all phases of life, not just football and academics, and we want that and we really push that. The community service aspect of it all, and really excited about those guys taking over this challenge, being able to reach out and express how important reading is, especially to some of the local Bay Area schools.

It's really easy for a lot of these guys that had parents supporting them growing up and showing them what an avid reader looks like and what the benefits of reading are. But some of these Bay Area kids don't have that advantage. and it's awesome.

While they had their football platform, Jaydn and Jack to go to these schools, connect with kids, show them how important reading is, where their jerseys show them that football players aren't just athletes but care about learning and education.

So really excited for those guys, really proud of them. It's a really cool challenge that Patrick Laird, one of the Cal legends around here started back in the day and other guys have carried the torch and in the past. I was honored to do that for three years and then honored to pass it on to these guys. I think they're going to do even better.

Those kids feel itself really excited about that, really proud of them. And this is exactly why Cal so special. My dad was a prodigious reader and I had that example.