Safety for UTSA football Carl Austin III grew up in Austin, Texas and played football for St. Stephen’s Episcopal School. Austin graduated in 2014 and was instantly recruited to UTSA.

“St. Stephen’s prepared me for life in general, especially for college,” Austin said. “Writing skills at school and the skills to excel in the classroom as a student and in football — that prepares any player for life.”

Football has been a part of Austin’s life since he was four years old. He believes it to be the best team sport because it teaches resilience and team-building.

“High school ball and the coaching staff prepared me for college football and life in general,” Austin said.

His heroes are his family. Austin relies on his dad for support on and off the field, and he goes to him for everything. His little brother is someone he looks up to because he still teaches Austin new life lessons.

Last year, Austin was recovering from a torn ACL, which was mentally tough on him. His family and teammates helped him through this injury the most. They supported him through the healing process and pushed him to keep succeeding in school as his body recovered.

“Sometimes those days being injured were tough, but they helped me out to get me to where I am right now,” Austin said.

Austin’s first visit to UTSA was with former UTSA football coach Larry Coker. When he came to visit, Austin said the university felt like home.

“It wasn’t too close to Austin, but it wasn’t too far,” Austin said.

UTSA’s biggest draw was its close-knit football team. The coaches and players opened their arms to Austin. He stated that he felt only love when he met them.

The biggest challenge Austin overcame was becoming a self-sufficient adult. Everyone has a different experience transitioning from high school to college, but Austin found his home at UTSA.

“You’ve got to figure out how to do things on your own. Being at St. Stephens helped me out because its a college-prep school, and I think that prepared me well,” Austin said.

Austin has already graduated with a bachelor’s in business management and is currently pursuing his master’s in public administration and in communication. He chose this route for his education because of his brother who is currently studying kinesiology at Texas State University. Once they both graduate, they want to open a gym and physical therapy facility together.

“I will run the gym and the business side of everything, and he will manage the physical therapy,” Austin said.

Aside from football and schooling, Austin also enjoys writing. He is currently in the process of getting some of his work published. In one of his upper-level classes, his professor pushed him to submit his work for publication.

Austin is also starting a nonprofit for children with diabetes because he is a Type I diabetic. When Austin was diagnosed, he went to a lot of different doctors, and all of them told him different things. Some told him he would never be allowed to play sports again, and some told him he would be perfectly fine. As a child, this was confusing. He wants to start this nonprofit to help children and guide them through this process so they will not experience what he and his family went through during his diagnosing process.

“I want to be an ear for kids that are going through this,” Austin said. “I don’t want anybody else to go through that. Seeing my mom break down in the doctor’s office was tough for me.”

He drew strength from his mom. This process took an emotional toll on his mother because of the conflicting information from different doctors. He wanted to be strong for his mom. His family is the reason he survived and came out better and stronger than before.