Ruskin High School football coach William Perkins saw Aireontae Ersery sitting down in the weight room.
Any football player would know that was not allowed.
But Ersery, then 100-pounds lighter than he is now, had his eyes on basketball.
Once he started working with Perkins and the Ruskin football team, however, there was no turning back.
Ersery's mother, Takita Charles, worked three jobs and fought to keep the family afloat. There was an eviction and brief stay in a homeless shelter and transitional housing, and there was always a will to get back to their own home and on solid footing.
"Everybody there is going through the same thing, so it was a judgment-free zone," Ersery told the Kansas City Star's Sam McDowell. "Everybody's just trying to get back on their feet."
Eventually, Ersery's conversion to a football player paid off with a move to the University of Minnesota, where he began to thrive as a tackle.
Last December, he became the Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the Year.
Read the rest of McDowell's story and help welcome Ersery to Houston.
