![]() ![]() ![]() Chris had a tough upbringing and I knew of his background. “Chris was very coachable but he didn’t like school much when he got here. He got with me like, ‘Chris, you’ve got to make a change, if you want to make it to college at all.’ ” “And the classwork was so demanding, there were so many papers that you had to write and I wasn’t a good writer. ![]() “The teachers were so helpful – but I’m not a guy who is big on receiving help,” Garrett said. Twice he scheduled Garrett for testing, and twice Garrett was a no-show. Wisconsin Lutheran football coach Joel Radue recognized this and stepped in. “My sophomore and my junior years were pretty tough. I started to realize how bad my situation was. Everything from my childhood started to pop up again. “I think I was depressed for the first time in my life. “I was just under a lot of stress and I didn’t know how to cope,” Garrett said. Already quiet as a kid, he turned inward even more. Sometimes he’d get debilitating migraines. He felt immense pressure to be as good athletically as his older brothers. While navigating a difficult relationship with his father, Garrett also said goodbye to Crawley-Reid – his younger brother and closest friend, who was adopted by another family and moved out.Īlthough Garrett had a more stable and supportive environment with his grandma and Wisconsin Lutheran, the family and academic issues remained. That was evident when we went to private schools we were pretty behind.” “It was hard, it was bad, we weren’t really learning anything. “We had a pretty messed up childhood, so we were in and out of school,” Garrett said. Garrett was well behind his peers academically. After Garrett attended a handful of Milwaukee elementary schools, his grandmother enrolled him at Atonement Lutheran School for the middle school years and then Wisconsin Lutheran, through the Wisconsin School Choice program.īut there were still major challenges ahead. He’s been by my grandma’s side no matter what.” “He was the one that stayed with my mom the longest even though she was struggling. “We did have a grandmother that cared,” Crawley-Reid said. But his mom’s on-again, off-again relationship with one particular boyfriend was the tipping point Garrett eventually moved out and lived with his grandmother, Ambretta Reid, who was battling health problems. “It overwhelms me to think like that.”Īfter Garrett’s parents divorced when he was 6, he lived with his mom but it wasn’t a good environment. His story is already a successful one, especially when you hear how it could have been otherwise. ![]() Typically, Division II standouts are a non-headline here in our world of pro and big-time college sports.īut I find myself now a fan of Concordia, Garrett and the D-II chance, whether he makes it to the NFL or not. Paul, where he led all Division II schools in sacks last year as a sophomore.Īnd this month, the 21-year-old returning All-American was back on the practice field, this time reunited with his brother Darios Crawley-Reid, a standout running back from Martin Luther High School in Greendale from whom he was separated as a kid. So Garrett blazed his own trail, five hours to the northwest across the Minnesota border to Concordia University, St. And he put in so much work in the gym that he allowed himself to dream of playing football for the Wisconsin Badgers.īut it wasn’t enough to get him into Madison.ĭivision III college football programs in Wisconsin are a good option for a lot of students, but those schools can’t offer athletic scholarships.ĭivision II football programs can offer full and partial scholarships, but of the 168 D-II schools that offer the sport, none is in Wisconsin. He still graduated from Wisconsin Lutheran High School. He survived separation from his family and then isolation, anxiety and depression, all by his 18th birthday. Chris Garrett endured an unstable childhood in Milwaukee, a transfer to a choice school and an all-out hustle to catch up academically. ![]()
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