![]() O’Rourke was surprised when McDonald arrived dripping with sweat and learned a bike was his only mode of transportation. McDonald made an early commitment to Navy and arranged to meet O’Rourke at Northeast High early one morning to submit an application. I’d never had that type of reassurance before.” “Just knowing my future would be secure really meant a lot. “I remember Coach O’Rourke was really enthusiastic about how great the Naval Academy was and how it would set me up for life,” McDonald said. One part of the recruiting pitch stood out: a guaranteed job after graduation. I told Danny right away this is a kid that needs to go to the Naval Academy,” Frioud said.įrioud then told McDonald he needed to seriously consider the Annapolis service academy and listen carefully to what O’Rourke had to say. “I’d never coached a kid special enough to go to the Naval Academy until Xavier came along. Other offers began rolling in, but Frioud made a command decision when Navy assistant Danny O’Rourke showed up at Northeast High. Iowa State was the first school to offer McDonald a scholarship, and Marshall soon followed. Nobody was happier about the turn of events than Frioud, who watched McDonald transform himself into a Division I prospect as a junior.Ĭhris and Amy Compton, who began the process of adopting Xavier McDonald, visit with him at the Naval Academy this fall. It was a steep learning curve for a while,” said Amy Compton, a nurse who works for the Department of Veterans Affairs. “It was a tough transition because we have very strict rules and are very regimented and Xavier had not grown up that way. ![]() With his mother struggling to make ends meet, McDonald moved in with the Comptons and discovered a more structured lifestyle. He began spending a lot of time at the Compton home, which is within walking distance of the high school. Amy Compton became the Northeast High football team mother when her son Luke was a freshman. The Compton family came into McDonald’s life during his junior year. I realized he was bringing it home for the younger brothers.” Helping hands “I would also buy him a ton of food after the games, and he wouldn’t eat any of it. “I would always buy Xavier food at Wawa before games because I could tell he was not eating,” Frioud said. During that time, Frioud would shuttle McDonald to and from Friday night football games. Martinez was eventually released and the family was reunited. When Xavier (along with Kamron) was moved to a different foster home in Clearwater, it was Frioud who made sure he could stay at Northeast High by driving him to school each morning. I found him in school the next day and said ‘Listen, whatever you need, I got you.’ I wanted to do everything in my power to help get the kid through a very tough situation.” “I was blown away when I found out what Xavier was dealing with. “When a kid is getting great grades and doing everything right, you just automatically assume they have a great home life,” Frioud said. That is when he learned from a guidance counselor that McDonald’s mother was in jail. So, the coach was surprised and concerned when McDonald did not show up to practice for two straight days. ![]() I wanted to put myself in position to get into college, to show my brothers they could do it as well.”įrioud described McDonald as “an extremely hard worker who didn’t say a word.” He knew the youngster was a top-notch student and never got into trouble at school. That’s what I constantly thought about and was my motivation every day. “That was a really heavy burden on my shoulders. “During that time my parents were away, all I could think about was: What can I do to be a role model for my younger brothers? How can I show them that, even with all this going on, you can still prevail and do great things? You shouldn’t let your situation or surroundings determine what you’re going to be in life,” McDonald said. He made the Northeast High varsity football team and started at safety as a skinny sophomore, leading the team in tackles that season. Despite the dire situation, McDonald was even more determined to succeed.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |