The following is our athletes' stories in their own words. The language may be rough at times, but so are their stories. The only editing that has been done is to bold the names, and to add and format paragraph breaks.
Maurice Carnell IV
My Story
My name is Maurice Joel Carnell IV, I was brought into this world on October 12th 1994, born and raised in San Diego, California. My parents had me when they were 18 years old in high school. I stayed in the mean streets of Southeast San Diego with my mother and her family lived in the Lincoln Park area. Those two areas were very dangerous, you had gang bangers, drug dealers, killers, etc. My mother moved us to Detroit, Lansing, to live with our relatives and get away from the hood. I was just a baby so I didn’t know what was going on.
We move back to San Diego, I was about 4 or 5 years old now and my we had our own place in the Southeast. I attended Saint Stevens Academy on Imperial Ave in the Skyline Park area. I loved going to school, making friends and playing sports at recess. My mother told me one of the first things I touched was a football. She said she knew she had a future football star as a son. Times got hard so once again Mom packed our things up and we moved back to Detroit, Lansing. Cramped up in a small house with all my cousins, I hated that. Sharing and wearing others clothes, showering only for a certain amount of time to preserve the hot water for others, and only getting a certain amount of food because of so many heads to feed. On top of that I always ate a lot so when I couldn’t get seconds, boy I was mad. That was when actual meals were cooked though, we mostly always had hot dogs or top ramen noodles for dinner every night. I hated the weather, it always snowed and negative degree weather.
I didn’t noticed until it was announced by my auntie but my mom happened to be pregnant again. Her stomach got bigger and bigger and a few days before her due date my pops flew out to Detroit to be there to support my mother. They found out they were having another boy, I was going to have a baby brother. The time came and now my parents had to kids to take care of, and neither of them had a job. My parents were both high school graduates but did not attend any college so getting a job was hard.
Things started to look up. We moved out the Southeast to Mira Mesa into a nice house. Out of the blue my parents ended having a third child, another boy, Marquise. We started doing everything, we went to every amusement park in California, all the San Diego Chargers game. They had me and my little brothers in the flyest gear, we basically got whatever we wanted, life was good.
We hit back on hard times and I had to transfer schools from Mira Mesa High to Lincoln High, which was in the middle of the crazy streets of Southeast San Diego. Going there you had to choose: gang bang or play sports.. My mother never worked so she didn’t have a job, we had to move out our house in Mira Mesa because my mother couldn’t pay rent. We ended up squished in a two bedroom house with my Grandpa John, my mother’s father. Thank God he took us in because my mother didn’t know what to do. We weren’t used to living like that at all, from all of us having our own room to sharing one bedroom. My middle brother and I shared a bunk bed, while our baby brother slept with our mother. Can you imagine that? Life was all bad. But my mother was a strong lady indeed, she got a job and was able to take care of us. We didn’t get everything we wanted like we used to, we got what we could get. Of course my mother was at every single game, that was my number one fan. I was definitely hers. The rest of our family went MIA on us, like they didn’t know us anymore, it was hurtful. Didn’t nobody check on my mother or brothers, not even me. We didn’t sweat it though because we knew it was a blessing coming upon us.
My grades weren’t all that good and I was ready to graduate after the years went by. I had a few D-2 offers and a D1AA but that flew out the window when they looked at my SAT. I graduated, got my diploma and had to take the Junior College route. That upcoming season I got hurt a few weeks before our first game. I broke a bone in my elbow and was out for six months. When the doctor told me that I broke down and cried in my mother arms. All the hard work and dedication I gave that whole summer was for nothing. It felt like I lost the love of my life and had nothing. It was a tough injury to come from, all the surgeries and physical therapy treatment. It was a long process but I stayed strong and got through the struggle. Coming back from the injury I started working out again and lifting weights. Then one of my close buddies introduced me to a very great man, Mike, one of the best trainers I’ve ever met. Since day one, he was always like the father I never had to push me and strive farther for the grind. I done gain a lot of football knowledge from Mike and is blessed that I met him. This is where the marathon at right now, off-season working, getting ready for a great season. My story just begun…
My Story
My name is Maurice Joel Carnell IV, I was brought into this world on October 12th 1994, born and raised in San Diego, California. My parents had me when they were 18 years old in high school. I stayed in the mean streets of Southeast San Diego with my mother and her family lived in the Lincoln Park area. Those two areas were very dangerous, you had gang bangers, drug dealers, killers, etc. My mother moved us to Detroit, Lansing, to live with our relatives and get away from the hood. I was just a baby so I didn’t know what was going on.
We move back to San Diego, I was about 4 or 5 years old now and my we had our own place in the Southeast. I attended Saint Stevens Academy on Imperial Ave in the Skyline Park area. I loved going to school, making friends and playing sports at recess. My mother told me one of the first things I touched was a football. She said she knew she had a future football star as a son. Times got hard so once again Mom packed our things up and we moved back to Detroit, Lansing. Cramped up in a small house with all my cousins, I hated that. Sharing and wearing others clothes, showering only for a certain amount of time to preserve the hot water for others, and only getting a certain amount of food because of so many heads to feed. On top of that I always ate a lot so when I couldn’t get seconds, boy I was mad. That was when actual meals were cooked though, we mostly always had hot dogs or top ramen noodles for dinner every night. I hated the weather, it always snowed and negative degree weather.
I didn’t noticed until it was announced by my auntie but my mom happened to be pregnant again. Her stomach got bigger and bigger and a few days before her due date my pops flew out to Detroit to be there to support my mother. They found out they were having another boy, I was going to have a baby brother. The time came and now my parents had to kids to take care of, and neither of them had a job. My parents were both high school graduates but did not attend any college so getting a job was hard.
Things started to look up. We moved out the Southeast to Mira Mesa into a nice house. Out of the blue my parents ended having a third child, another boy, Marquise. We started doing everything, we went to every amusement park in California, all the San Diego Chargers game. They had me and my little brothers in the flyest gear, we basically got whatever we wanted, life was good.
We hit back on hard times and I had to transfer schools from Mira Mesa High to Lincoln High, which was in the middle of the crazy streets of Southeast San Diego. Going there you had to choose: gang bang or play sports.. My mother never worked so she didn’t have a job, we had to move out our house in Mira Mesa because my mother couldn’t pay rent. We ended up squished in a two bedroom house with my Grandpa John, my mother’s father. Thank God he took us in because my mother didn’t know what to do. We weren’t used to living like that at all, from all of us having our own room to sharing one bedroom. My middle brother and I shared a bunk bed, while our baby brother slept with our mother. Can you imagine that? Life was all bad. But my mother was a strong lady indeed, she got a job and was able to take care of us. We didn’t get everything we wanted like we used to, we got what we could get. Of course my mother was at every single game, that was my number one fan. I was definitely hers. The rest of our family went MIA on us, like they didn’t know us anymore, it was hurtful. Didn’t nobody check on my mother or brothers, not even me. We didn’t sweat it though because we knew it was a blessing coming upon us.
My grades weren’t all that good and I was ready to graduate after the years went by. I had a few D-2 offers and a D1AA but that flew out the window when they looked at my SAT. I graduated, got my diploma and had to take the Junior College route. That upcoming season I got hurt a few weeks before our first game. I broke a bone in my elbow and was out for six months. When the doctor told me that I broke down and cried in my mother arms. All the hard work and dedication I gave that whole summer was for nothing. It felt like I lost the love of my life and had nothing. It was a tough injury to come from, all the surgeries and physical therapy treatment. It was a long process but I stayed strong and got through the struggle. Coming back from the injury I started working out again and lifting weights. Then one of my close buddies introduced me to a very great man, Mike, one of the best trainers I’ve ever met. Since day one, he was always like the father I never had to push me and strive farther for the grind. I done gain a lot of football knowledge from Mike and is blessed that I met him. This is where the marathon at right now, off-season working, getting ready for a great season. My story just begun…