A major goal for Davon Sherrer was put on hold a few weeks ago.
In Howard's very first game this high school season, Sherrer's football career was bumped from his list of priorities.
"I was going for a tackle and a guy behind me fell into my leg. The knee popped," he said of the play he was trying to make on a Baylor return man.
His surgery hasn't yet been scheduled, but the sophomore is doing pre-surgery rehab for torn meniscus, a torn ACL and a torn MCL in his knee along with a chipped femur bone.
"He was a starting running back and we felt he would be a really good football player," Hustlin' Tigers coach Mark Teague said. "The prognosis is good for him to make a complete recovery."
While he still goes to practice when he isn't attending therapy sessions, Sherrer now can devote full time to his studies and his younger brother.
"He's an outstanding student. I think he wants to go to Duke -- and has wanted to since he was in middle school," Teague said.
He's doing it now without his mother, who died when he was in the seventh grade. He lives now with his father and younger brother, David Jr., and his mother's memory.
That memory propels his attacks on homework and reminds him always to keep a protective eye on David Jr.
"In elementary school I was always an honor-roll student. I've always been a student before an athlete," Sherrer said. "It came along with playing sports. Mom always made sure we did our homework before we played.
"I owe her a lot. She worked hard to take care of me, my brother and my sister, and I owe her that same work ethic."
He admits slacking off academically in middle school, quite understandable considering the changes in his life, before righting his ship.
His pursuit of academic and athletic success, along with the memory of his mother, drove him that way, and he now is president of the student government association and vice president of the sophomore class. He also carries a 3.8 grade point average, specifically excelling in math and science.
"I picked it back up. It's a way of getting to college," he said.
It also is a way to set a good example for his brother.
"One thing my mom often said to me was to make sure and take care of my siblings, so every sport and everything else I do, he's the push," he said. "I push myself. I know what I want to do and I guess I'm hard sometimes on my brother, but that's what my mom wanted."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.