Even when he was a little kid, Darryl Woods always had his head in the clouds.

“Darryl said at an early age, ‘Mom, when I grow up, I want to be an airplane pilot,’” Darryl’s mother Irma Woods said. “Some kids want to be something this week and something else next week, but not him.”

While playing high school football is the realization of a dream for most high school athletes, it turned out to be a way for Darryl to accomplish his dream — attending the Air Force Academy.

“I decided I wasn’t going to let football use me, I was going to use football,” Darryl said. “I used it to achieve my goals.”

Darryl, a linebacker and tight end for Cathedral from 1982-85, so impressed the football coach for rival St. Aloysius that the coach sent a tape of Woods to his good friend, Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry.

That was all it took for Woods’ dream to come to fruition.

“The Air Force coaches gave me a call and asked me if I wanted to come to the Air Force and play football for four years and then fly jets when I’m done,” Darryl said. “And of course I said yes.”

And Darryl really hasn’t spent much time on the ground since.

He played wide receiver for the Air Force football team for four years, participating in bowl games in three of those seasons, including a 23-11 victory over Ohio State in the Liberty Bowl his senior year.

Once his football career ended and he graduated from the academy, he honored his eight-year military commitment and then joined the Air Force Reserves and took a job as a freight pilot for FedEx.

Woods’ former football coach at Cathedral, Ken Beesley, said he always knew Darryl would be a success.

“He was always very focused and knew what he wanted to do,” Beesley said. “He wanted to go to the Air Force and he set his mind about doing it.”

And, not surprisingly, Beesley said Darryl also had a great leadership role on the Green Wave football team.

“He was a team leader,” Beesley said. “He was a good player and person. His work ethic is what set him apart. It’s no surprise to see him succeed in life.”

Darryl’s job with the Air Force Reserves is that of a hurricane hunter.

He and his team will spend five or six hours flying into the teeth of a hurricane to glean data that the National Weather Service can use to help predict the strength of the hurricane and when the storm will make landfall.

“I love it, it’s a great job,” Darryl said of hurricane hunting. “I get to have an effect on the storm missions and helping people.”

It’s harrowing work, but the feeling Darryl gets before heading up in the sky is a familiar one.

“Flying with hurricane hunters equates to getting ready for a football game,” Darryl said. “You get that nervousness in the pit of your stomach when you walk out of that tunnel onto the field. It’s intense going up there (in the hurricane). You get those butterflies in the pit of your stomach.”

The butterflies are also something that his mother feels whenever Darryl goes up into a hurricane.

“I had to double up on some prayers when he started hurricane hunting,” Irma Woods said. “But that’s what he wanted to do. He’s a go-getter and he went and got it.”

Darryl has spent 18 years in the Air Force, and said he will consider retirement when he gets to 20 years.

Darryl spends about three months a year active in the reserves, but his fulltime job is as a pilot for FedEx.

Darryl says he spends about 20-22 days a month in the air

While it might seem stressful flying most every day with next-day freight, compared to hurricane hunting, it is a breeze for Woods.

“Flying for FedEx is relaxing,” Darryl said.

“You just get up there in that big jet and go.”

A pilot’s job description also includes lots of travel and little sleep.

“The life of a pilot is hotel rooms, luggage and airports,” said Darryl, who calls Memphis, Tenn., home when he’s not flying. “There have been times when I’ve flown every day out of the month. You’ve just got to teach yourself to grab a quick cat nap whenever you can.”

But while Woods, 40, has moved on from helmet and shoulder pads to headset and pilot’s uniform, he still hasn’t forgotten the lessons that football taught him.

“The things football taught me are the things you also need to be a good pilot,” Woods said. “Discipline and attention to detail you have to have as a pilot. If you don’t have that, you won’t be a pilot for very long.”

Woods also remembers the teachings of his parents, Irma and Willie Woods, and credits them for making him the person he is today.

“Everything I achieved is due to my parents,” Woods said. “My parents taught me to set my mind on something and achieve it. Without those two, I wouldn’t be where I am now.”