October 27, 2009

RivalsHigh
Rivals High

Unbeknownst to his classmates, teammates and coaches at South Pittsburgh (Tenn.) High, he often had no place to go after football practice.

He sometimes slept in the press box at the football field, crying himself to sleep.

A life of hardship was nothing new to the senior defensive lineman. After all, he says he had witnessed his single mother take beatings from a former boyfriend. And seen her mother fall into addiction to drugs.

Places to stay were hard to come by. For a few weeks last season, he walked eight miles to a hotel after practice. But that wasn't always the best option.

Blevins told Stephen Hargis of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, he felt like a castaway, alone and burdened by troubles few his age are equipped to handle.

"Nobody really knows this, but for a couple of weeks last year I would wait for everybody else to go home and then I would go up into the press box and sleep there," Blevins told the paper, shaking his head at the memory. "I was ashamed, but I had no other place to go. I didn't want to go back to the hotel and see some of the things my mom was doing, so I would just do homework or walk the track to pass the time.

"Then I would climb the steps, curl up on the table in the press box and, I'll admit, there were a lot of nights I would just lay there and cry."

Then one day, a savior came and changed his life. Read how in Hargis' story in the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

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