Photo and Story By Iman Lathan

Nevada linebacker Jonathan McNeal sat in the corner of the hot classroom. He was slouched down at his wooden desk, watching each second tick slowly on the plastic clock. He was disengaged from the English lesson in front of him. His educational background did not consist of literary themes and figurative language.

The lessons McNeal learned were more related to the gang activity and drug-ridden environment that surrounded him on Sunset Avenue in Venice, Calif.

“I never wanted to be a good athlete that didn’t make it out,” McNeal said.

FENDING FOR YOURSELF TO SURVIVE

Even in his tidy two-bedroom apartment in Sparks, Nev., McNeal wears his usual stoic expression. But that serious exterior with a tinge of sadness is broken when he smiles. It’s infectious. His smile resembles the innocence of a young child — a smile that contrasts his childhood.

McNeal’s muscular six-foot-one and 235-pound Ray Lewis-like frame towered over the small kitchen table as he stood from his chair to start making dinner.

He comfortably handled the array of pots and pans. Reaching his hand into the cool air of the refrigerator, he pulled out a pack of raw chicken. His giant hands gently washed the meat clean. It was carefully chopped, then seasoned. He placed it into the pan, while more noises and shuffling brewed. It almost seemed like McNeal was more comfortable in the kitchen than on the football field. He flowed smoothly through his kitchen, in and out of cabinets amongst the steam and aroma of his home-cooked meal. After an hour had passed, McNeal revealed perfectly seasoned chicken, fried potatoes and a side of broccoli.

“In the house I grew up in, you had to know how to cook if you wanted to eat,” McNeal said.

McNeal didn’t spend his childhood walking on a neatly laid out red carpet, enjoying the silver spoon placed so conveniently in his mouth. Instead, he grew up the youngest of nine children in his family’s three-bedroom home in Venice in the Westside district of Los Angeles.

It was a city that was subject to gang activity, drug abuse and the crime associated with it.

“Jon did not grow up with a lot of the luxuries that many people grew up with,” said Angelo Gasca, high school football coach at Venice High School. “He worked hard for everything he had, and no one gave him anything.”

He was born to a parent who battled substance abuse, exposing the youngster to drugs at an early age.

“Picture police with guns drawn raiding your home for drugs every month when you’re a little kid,” said DeMoss Bosley, McNeal’s godfather.

School provided only more struggles.

HOOKED ON TRIUMPH 

In the sixth grade, McNeal was placed into special education because he read at a very low level.

“It made me feel like a stepchild,” McNeal said. “All of my friends were in regular classes, so it made me work four times harder than the next man. It made me keep going until I saw results.”

Despite his frustration, he continued to stay away from the choices he saw his older brothers make. He always found solace and a release in football.

“He always wanted to be different,” Bosley said. “He understood that he had a choice, and he chose to take a separate path from his older brothers, who were influenced by the Venice neighborhood.”

Instead of drug dealing, McNeal found a different way to make some cash in between classes. He sold chips and candy to the kids at school.

There was something within McNeal that separated him from his peers, making him able to travel a path of his own. This mentality of his was clearer than ever three years later when he stepped on the campus of Venice High School. McNeal was prepared to make something of himself during his freshman year at VHS.

He went to his two mentors, Bosley and Gasca, and asked a question that would change the course of his life: ‘How do I get to college?’

The two men instructed him to do what he could to get out of special education. His coaches understood that the youngster had a huge upside athletically, but he needed more than that to advance to the next level. McNeal had to go above and beyond in the classroom. Without hesitating to accept the challenge placed before him, he eagerly took the necessary steps in order to achieve the goal he had planted in his mind. To McNeal, the days of being remedial in classes needed to end.

The motivated McNeal invested in Hooked on Phonics, typically used by early elementary school students. Instead of hanging out with his friends like most high school kids, McNeal studied. At home after school he heard kids outside his window enjoying their free time, while he reviewed his sounds and words to improve his reading skills. Reading out loud, sounding out unfamiliar words in the privacy of his bedroom, McNeal made steady progress.

“I had to study harder than ever before,” McNeal said. “I had to give up my free time to make sure I understood the material.”

His hard work paid off. McNeal’s reading levels skyrocketed, and he was then placed in regular classes that same school year. Always on his books, McNeal began to excel academically, eventually graduating from high school with an astonishing cumulative 3.8 GPA.

Life was looking up, as he was dominating on the football field as well.

The Venice High School football team saw three consecutive conference championships with McNeal as their leader. Division I football programs such as USC, Hawai’i, San Jose State, San Diego State and New Mexico State showed strong interest in the versatile athlete who never left the field, playing offense, defense, and special teams. McNeal was the very definition and embodiment of a student-athlete.

Yet, as everything was going right, another speed bump was placed in the young athlete’s life.

A SUDDEN DETOUR 

A medial collateral ligament tear early in his senior season, accompanied with surgery, worked as a roadblock in McNeal’s Division I football dreams. The schools that had shown interest disappeared. Disappointed, McNeal would have to take the junior college route. He hesitantly attended the neighboring Santa Monica Community College.

“I wanted to kill everybody and make a name for myself,” McNeal said.

All about business at SMCC, he earned first team All-Pacific League and accepted his first and only offer, to Nevada, after one semester.

He began his journey at Nevada in the spring of 2011.

However, McNeal soon learned that he had to redshirt his sophomore season due to the coaching staff’s doubts of him making an impact for them that year. McNeal then worked intently in preparation for his opportunity to show his talent the following season. Gazing longingly on the sidelines of the gridiron each and every game of his sophomore year only fed his starving drive. McNeal studied the game and pushed his mind and body to the limits in order to make a name for himself.

OVERCOMER 

McNeal proved his raw talent and high football IQ after his junior season at Nevada. Last season, he was the most consistent defender for the Wolf Pack with 103 tackles, and recorded a career-high 15 tackles in its victory over San Jose State.

In lieu of using the obstacles in life as a justification to roll over and play the victim, he used it as motivation to propel himself forward. One of his biggest motivations is his mother’s advice that constantly rings through his head: It’s a whole world out there; all you have to do is reach out and grab it.

Coupled with his push for success is also a heart for servant hood. He consistently volunteers at the Boys and Girls Club of Truckee Meadows. He wants to show those kids that they can achieve anything no matter what the doubters might say.

“Jon wants to make a difference to the younger kids in Venice who are in gangs, in special (education classes), or that do not have a father,” Bosley said.

McNeal possesses selfless life goals: getting his family out of Venice, setting up more Boys and Girls Clubs in order to help youth achieve their goals and to one day be able to say that he made it in life

His strongest motivation is making his mother proud.

From working his way out of special education, his volunteer work, and applying for graduate school to competing at the Division I level, it would be hard for his mother not to smile at her son’s achievements.

Iman Lathan can be reached at euribe@sagebrush.unr.edu.