I got back from Jefferson High a little while ago where I got to hear Tony Dungy address the student body. The school used his book “Quiet Strength” in a school-wide reading project. Here’s a column about it from Friday’s Tribune.

Let me just say this: I wasn’t quite ready for the scene that unfolded. As much as I admire Dungy as a human being, he is in Tampa so often that I wasn’t sure what else there was to ask him or why the stopover at Jefferson was special. Trust me though, it was.

Maybe it was so cool because it was unexpected. Jefferson has deliberately downplayed it to the public because school officials didn’t want a lot of outsiders coming onto campus to get a glimpse of Dungy.

Most of the time I just watched and recorded the scene as he and co-author Nathan Whitaker addressed the student body in a gym that was packed on both sides, but I did squeeze in a question while walking with him from a reception to the gym. To keep him from retiring after last season, the Colts offered to let him use a team plane to fly to Tampa on Friday nights during high school season so he could watch his son, Eric, play receiver for Plant. I wasn’t sure Dungy would actually do that, since NFL coaches tend to be totally involved during the season - but he says he is going to try.

“I’ll be back a lot,” he said. “I don’t know how many times exactly, but I’ll be here as much as I can on Fridays.”