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Wednesday, August 31, 2016
There's never been another like Tremane McCullough, according to Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz.
McCullough was at Arizona Western Community College two years ago when he answered the phone and greeted the man who'd recruited him in high school with, "What's up, Coach Tuke?"
The first time their paths had crossed, when McCullough was at Royal Palm Beach High School in Florida, there were a host of reasons why his recruitment hadn't worked out. McCullough's grades weren't where they needed to be, and certain college tests hadn't been taken because he'd had no guidance from coaches. Then Matukewicz made the move from Northern Illinois to Toledo.
But throughout the next couple years, they kept up with each other.
When Matukewicz called again after the 2014 season, it was with an offer.
Tremane McCullough
Laura Simon
"I said, 'I've got a spot for you, but this thing's getting close. I ain't flying you up here. Either you want to come play for me or not,'" Matukewicz said.
It was only a half scholarship, but McCullough accepted on the spot. Three weeks later his loyalty and trust in Matukewicz paid off, as his scholarship was bumped up to a full ride, something he had no idea was going to happen.
"The one thing I've always appreciated is he's a committed boyfriend," Matukewicz said. "He's had the same girlfriend all through high school and college. A lot of my guys, they've never met a girl they don't like. That tells you a lot about who he is and what kind of loyalty he has."
It's that fierce loyalty that's always driven him.
A loyalty to his older brothers, both of whom were shot and killed and who he honors with his performance on the field and the life he's shaping for himself.
A loyalty to his mother, who he strives to give a better life.
A loyalty to his coaches, who provided him the tools necessary to continue his career.
And most importantly, a loyalty to himself and kids in the same environment he grew up in, to be better and make sure the challenges he faced don't have to impact others anymore.
Tremane McCullough
Laura Simon
Football always has been the one positive outlet for McCullough, who began playing as a child because that's what his brothers Tavaris and Dondi did.
He later realized it was his best opportunity for a better life.
"That's all I knew growing up. That's the only thing I did was play football," McCullough said. "That's all I know is football, football, football. I feel like that's my way out."
People hear West Palm Beach, and the issue doesn't register. Why would he want to leave Florida?
"You have where it's lovely. The beaches and everything is nice -- people want to come there to vacation, which I don't blame them," McCullough said. "I sort of don't really want to move out of West Palm Beach, but I want to move out of the part where I'm at in West Palm Beach. It has its downs where you have bad neighborhoods, you have gang violence, you have drug violence. That's where I grew up at."
He experienced that violence firsthand. Around the time he was in middle school, his 21-year-old brother Tavaris was shot and killed by a police officer after an altercation outside a nightclub.
Tremane McCullough
Laura Simon
In 2013, when McCullough was off at junior college, his brother Dondi, 28, was shot and killed in what prosecutors called a "senseless" murder. A "street insult" that wasn't directed at his murderer led to him being shot 16 times at close range.
"I just lost it all," McCullough said. "I didn't want to play football, I didn't want to go to school, I didn't want to do anything. I texted my mom and was like, 'I don't think I want to do anything. I think I just want to come home.' But she told me, 'You can't come home. You've got to grow up and be a man for yourself, do things that they would want you to do.' She stayed by my side. She prayed with me a lot of times at night. I say God was what really showed me the way, helped me to be strong and have faith, and I'm here now."
Each time he scores a touchdown, which he did five times last year, he kisses his hands and points them to the sky, a reminder that he does it for his brothers and to give his mom a better life.
"What drives me is moving my mom out of the neighborhood that we live in. Move her to the good part, where the beach is at," McCullough said. "It's a little rough over there. I see a lot of kids don't really make it out and a lot of people get stuck in there. ... A lot of kids pass away before their mother, and I don't want to be another one of those kids, you know? I guess seeing my brothers pass away, that's what drives me even more. I know they really wanted me to do this, so I've really got to do this for them and my mom."
LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian
Tremane McCullough
Tremane McCullough
Brendan Kent had just taken over as offensive coordinator at Royal Palm Beach High School, shortly after the entire previous staff had been fired, when he sat down with McCullough during the spring of his junior year.
Many players chose to transfer to other schools, and Kent believes McCullough, who had played receiver that year, was on the verge of doing the same when he sat him down for a meeting.
"I said, 'I'm going to make you a running back and you're going to be the best player in Palm Beach County. I just need you to stay here and trust me,'" Kent said. "He looked at me and said, 'Coach, I trust you and I'm going to stay here. You've got my word.'"
The decision to move McCullough, who Kent recalled weighing 158 pounds as a senior, to running back came after watching film from the previous seasons. He'd played receiver and cornerback his freshman and sophomore years and then primarily receiver as a junior, occasionally filling in at safety.
But the explosiveness that many Southeast fans have grown accustomed to was evident to the new staff.
"At the time, I sat our offensive staff down and said, 'We've got to find our best five players on offense that can score touchdowns, and the No. 1 guy's got to be the running back,'" Kent said. "Tremane was the most explosive player we had. He was really good, and he wasn't very big. But we just said, 'If we're going to get the running back the ball 20 times a game, our best player's got to be that guy,' and Tremane was that guy."
He rushed for 1,700 yards and 23 touchdowns on 262 carries that season and was one of three finalists for Player of the Year in Palm Beach County, Kent said.
Matukewicz described him as one of the toughest individuals ever and had a slightly more exaggerated memory of McCullough's workload.
"His coach ought to be thrown in prison -- he gave him the ball like 60 times a game," he said of the now 5-foot-7, 163-pound McCullough. "They rode him. He's itty bitty, but he is tough."
Matukewicz didn't plan on using him in a similar fashion last year, but leaned heavily on him after DeMichael Jackson went down with a season-ending injury.
McCullough rushed for 1,028 yards and five touchdowns on 170 carries a year ago, becoming the first Redhawk 1,000-yard rusher since 2012, and earned first-team All-Ohio Valley Conference honors. In 2016, it's likely he'll be utilized out of the backfield but will spend much of his time at receiver instead, to help fill the void of Paul McRoberts, who's now trying to make the Los Angeles Rams roster.
"I'm not Paul," McCullough said. "I'm not his size. But I can have the same effect that he can bring to wide receiver. I'm faster than he was, but he was much taller, had much bigger hands, much greater hands than me. But I can make a lot of guys miss in the open field. I'm going to play wide receiver. I'm going to play a little bit of running back, too, but the majority will be at receiver."
McCullough had some Football Bowl Subdivision schools looking at him out of high school, including Matukewicz at Northern Illinois before he moved on to Toledo, but he ended up going the JUCO route.
McCullough had no one counseling him on what his grades needed to be or what tests he needed to take to be eligible to play in college prior to Kent and head coach Willie Bueno's arrival at Royal Palm Beach. His grades were lacking, and he didn't hit the required test scores until later in the recruiting process. He redshirted in 2013 at Iowa Western Community College before spending the next two years at Arizona Western Community College.
"We just kind of guided him along, and we placed him at junior college. And we just told him, 'This isn't going to be easy. You need to come home, and when you're home in the offseason, you need to come work out with us at our place and you need to stay focused,'" Kent said. "We guided him that way, and we used his life experiences of some of the tragic instances in his family's life, his brothers getting killed, and we just used those things to help guide him. Thank God he listened to us."
McCullough and Kent have had many heart-to-heart conversations over the years, most including how the running back can "break the cycle" of violence that's surrounded him his whole life.
"My thing with him is he's going to play for you, he's going to get his degree, he's going to have success on the field. If he gets the chance to continue his playing career, that's wonderful, but the degree that he's going to get there and the opportunity that he's going to have once he leaves school -- it's phenomenal," Kent said. "I don't think five or six years ago anybody could've even thought that was happening."
As much as he's grown through the years, he's still the "same old Tremane" to Matukewicz.
"I tell everyone on my team, 'Be like him,'" Matukewicz said. "He's always shown up. He's always worked hard. He's a good teammate. And he's one of our best players."
McCullough's hoping that his best this year will be enough to catch the attention of the NFL or at least lead to a professional football career elsewhere. If not, he plans to still have football, only this time as a coach, being a figure of loyalty and guidance for kids headed down the path he could've walked.
"What he's learned in the last five years of his life, just by listening to the right people," Kent said, "he's really going to get a chance, I think, to change other kids' lives down the road at some point."
