I get up, grab a bagel, maybe a cup of coffee, head
outside to pick up the paper and think about what’s on the agenda for that day.
It’s simple, but in rural areas like Nebraska, simple is often what you
see. Some on the coasts would call it too simple, boring in fact, because from
their culture to Lincoln, it’s like going from a Lamborghini to a Honda
Accord……..four door.
There are some, though, that in their world, getting
up and heading out that front door isn’t simple at all. In fact, it’s another
day, where you can’t be sure if you are going to come home or
not.
“There’s always someone getting shot around here or shootings going
on,” Los Angeles, California resident and David Starr Jordan high school
standout Ricky Thenarse said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen after you
leave your front door.”
Deep in the heart of south central Los Angeles,
that’s nothing new to anyone, those who have seen this particular part of
America described in movies and in the news as a war zone in the middle of
so-called “modern” society.
It’s a place where if you have grown up
there your entire life, it isn’t a matter of if you have lost friends and even
family, but who they were and when.
Amongst the seven people that Ricky
has known that he said have been shot and killed in his neighborhood over his
life, he’s seen two of the tragedies take place in person. One, a friend, but
the other much more than that; a cousin, but also a mentor.
“He always
used to say that football was my way out,” Ricky said of his cousin. “He said
that I should get my grades, do as well as I can and get out of here so I can
have a future.”
“And we were walking along one day and just like that, he
got shot in a drive-by and he died right there.”
Sadness, shock, fear;
all are emotions that you and I can only fathom as to what would go through our
mind, seeing one of our loved ones gunned down in front of our eyes. They were
for Ricky as well, but what his cousin taught him kept him from going down the
route that most that live there, often go.
“You get angry, because you
want to do something about it,” he said. “You want to stop it or get whoever
back that did it to you or someone close to you.”
“But I knew that if I
did, I wouldn’t have a future anymore. I wouldn’t have a shot to play football,
go to college or make it to the NFL.”
“I’d be just like them and I’m not
going to do that. I want something better than that for myself.”
That’s a
battle all its own, the pressure to join the gangs an anvil weighing heavily on
those teenagers in the neighborhood, others promising them protection, but then
throwing them into a world where there is none.
There is only crime,
violence and death.
For so many reasons, far too many that you and I
probably couldn’t understand, Thenarse wants something different.
He
wants out.
Away, far away, living his dream instead of experiencing a
daily nightmare. His family wants him out, if only to have the opportunity to
live instead of wondering every single day if he’ll die.
That’s why when
you talk about recruiting, Thenarse looks at those written offers, four as of
today, as much as opportunities at a different life as they are a chance to
compete for a starting spot on a team.
When Ricky realized that he
wasn’t just good at the game of football, but so good that an opportunity like
this could come about, he knew where all his focus was going to
be.
“People told me that football was my ticket out of here, but you
don’t think about that really until someone actually comes to you and says they
want you to play for them and there’s a scholarship to do it,” Ricky said. “When
that happens, it starts to be a little more real and there’s nothing I want more
than this.”
Sports is a way out for many kids that grow up in the
gang-dominated inner cities of America. Whether it’s basketball, football or
whatever, it’s their one opportunity to get out. To make a life of their own,
but help those who remain there and to realize that there is a world outside of
theirs, where life isn’t in question once you leave your front door.
It’s safe and that’s a concept that Thenarse would like to learn really
means.
“I don’t know what it would be like not to be here and have to
worry about possibly getting killed,” he said. “Before you leave the house, you
pray that God will bring you back at the end of the day.”
“God gave me
the ability to play football and I know it’s to leave here if I can, so I have
to, because this is the only future I have.”
That future has been built
on Ricky’s impressive athleticism, carrying quickness (Ricky ran a 4.48/40 at
the USC Nike combine) and speed on a 6 foot, 1 inch frame, weighing right around
180 pounds. He’s got the versatility to play either side, Ricky rushing for over
1,200 yards on offense last year, while grabbing four interceptions from the
safety position as well.
The University of Nebraska was the first to
offer Thenarse and it was a school that as a product of the inner-cities, he had
little to no familiarity with at all. Perhaps he didn’t even know where Nebraska
was, but since the offer, he’s gotten to know a lot more.
“I love that
place, because it’s everything I want right now,” Ricky said. “It’s far away
from here, but I have heard that, that place is about nothing but
football.”
“I’ve made football my life, because I know it’s my only way
out, so when I hear about a place where the whole state is just all about that
football team, that sounds like a place I want to be.”
Ricky is set to
visit Nebraska on the 11th of September, the Huskers hosting Wake Forest
University. That visit is currently the only one he has set up to this point.
That visit is still around a month and a half away, but he’s been
thinking about it since it was officially scheduled. “I can’t wait, because the
coaches there seem like they want me more than anyone else does,” he said. “They
have recruited me the hardest, but like I said, that whole state seems like it’s
about just one thing.”
“I love that and I love that it’s at a place where
there’s not much else going on. To me, that is exactly what I
want.”
There are other choices, of course, Thenarse also looking at
Oregon, Washington and Colorado, all three having offered him in writing. And,
of course, there’s the obligatory choice of USC, a school that is just a stone’s
throw from him.
That actually doesn’t favor USC, though, whereas it
favors everyone else, because unlike most recruits that look at schools and hope
it feels like home, Ricky is looking for a place that feels like anything but.
That eliminates a lot of questions I usually ask as a reporter of sorts.
I don’t ask Ricky if he cares about location. I don’t ask Ricky if he cares
about the weather. I don’t ask him all the things I usually ask when player
lives in a state that has some dominate programs of their own.
Ricky
doesn’t care about that. He doesn’t care about it being close or there being
rain, heat, snow or the distance it is away from his house. He cares about his
future and going to a place where he’ll actually have one.
Will that be
Nebraska? Only time will tell, especially the time he spends on his official at
the land of the big red.
There’s little doubt, though, that the
simple-life, the one that some kids find almost too peaceful, that’s a place
that will always rank real high to him.
“I don’t care about what they
have going on or what kind of life there is outside of the school,” Ricky said.
“My life is getting up, getting to school as fast as I can, practicing after
school and then going home.”
“My way out of here is football, so I don’t
care about the other stuff.”
“I am just doing everything I can to get
out.”
Ricky currently has a reported 3.0 GPA and is scheduled to retake
his SAT
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