More than number 7

It was a hot, hot day as he thought back. The first day of full pads in fall camp. First day of the season he knew he would play. Darion could feel the excitement amongst the team- the hope they all had. After redshirting the season before, this would be his chance to start what he had left St. Louis to do – make sure that he made a future for himself, Darion Bolden. 

He was having a great practice. Second on the depth chart. Close behind the ones. It was going to be a huge season for him. He could feel it. 

And then he came down wrong.
The pain.
The swelling.
The emotions. 
The doctors. 
The results. 

An ACL and meniscus tear. 

The surgery – the first in his life – put Darion out for the season. For the second time in his life, he was sidelined. This time was different. There wasn’t a car accident, no police cruiser smashing through an intersection; this was just a hot day in July, out on the field with his teammates, where excitement buzzed about the future. 

A season away from the turf was a loss. 

Darion knew plenty about losing something. 

Usually, Darion was losing people around him. Sickness, suicide and old age had all taken people he had loved, frequently. People who were his family. 

“If it wasn’t for football and my family, I don’t know where I would be. Football was my extracurricular activity. It kept me off the streets.” 

Football at the University of South Dakota made sense for Darion. His recruitment wasn’t overwhelming, and he was ready to commit to his future early, even before a campus visit. He wanted to focus on his final year at Trinity Catholic High School. The communication he experienced during his recruitment with Coyote coaches gave Darion the assurance he needed – Vermillion would be a place to make his own. 

“It felt like a home away from home without even visiting.” 

That’s what Darion needed. A place to give him stability, guidance and future opportunities. A university where he could chart his own path. Getting out of St. Louis was a priority for him. 

Thinking back on what his experiences were like, he shook his head a bit. 

“Around the corner from where my grandmother and I lived was a lot of crime. ‘Homicide City’ is what I remember recently reading in the St. Louis Dispatch. The first thing on your mind growing up in St. Louis is to just make it out.” 

As a child, he looks back and knows what it’s like to flip a switch and the lights don’t come on. Or you need a few extra layers because the chill creeps in when you can’t turn the heat on. Darion knows what cheap packets of ramen noodles taste like, night after night. 

And yet, looking at the growing campus leader, speaking with confidence and sincerity, donning a three-piece suit on a humid 91 degree day in September, you don’t see what he has been through. There was just a young man set out to make a difference, to change the world around him.

By the fall of 2019, Darion had healed, made it through fall camp and was back on the field. The Coyotes were hitting the road for the third time and Darion had struck a rhythm. As the Coyotes dominated the Bears at Missouri State, he looked at the fans who had showed up to chant “Go Yotes!” This was one of the competitions closer to home for Darion and people instrumental in his upbringing were able to show their pride as the cheered for him. Aunts, uncles, his ever-present grandmother. And his mom. He wondered how it had happened.

Teary-eyed and emotional, after an in-conference Coyote victory, Darion hugged his mom on the sidelines. It had been a few years. Flashback to the spring of 2015 as Dawne, his mom, was sentenced to prison for the second time in Darion’s life. Darion, in the heat of track season, knew it was going to be a few hard years, but with phone calls to the prison, he was able to rest assured; he would see his mom again. 

“I’ve seen my mother struggle. That is still my motivation, ultimately, to make sure none of my family ever have to struggle again.” 

While his mom was incarcerated, Darion was guided by his grandmother. The biggest thing she did for him? Take care of him as her own son. 

“She’d check my grades, attendance, emphasize literature and that I was always representing my best self. She put me in a position to be great- to do great.” 

She was his backbone. 

During the pandemic, Darion found a new kind of strength. While in high school, the want for a scholarship and to continue playing football quieted him a bit. He didn’t want to risk his chance to play. Looking back, he admits, he could have said more, done more. That’s changed for Darion now. 

A self-touted ambivert, Darion knows when it is time to use his voice. 

“The death of George Floyd triggered me to speak up. The death of Michael Brown had hit home first. That happened in my hometown.” Darion, an executive member of USD’s Cultural Wellness Coalition, a student organization driven on making a difference, is evolving. 

“The pandemic is a blessing in disguise. I look at the freshmen on our team and I tell them, ‘this is your chance.’ More practices, getting stronger, more time to prepare – no other freshman class has been able to have a college experience like this.” 

Darion is opening up and teaching those around him; a future leader in the making.

“I want people to look back and say ‘Darion could be depended on. He would always give 110 percent. He would always try his best.’ I want to be helping others – helping the community and helping the team in any way I can.

“I want to be a role model.

“I don’t know where it’s going honestly but being here in Vermillion – I hope my legacy says Darion was genuine.

“Other St. Louis kids can attest to St. Louis. We all have that same mindset – get out of St. Louis. We love our city, but we have to get out. 

“I’m sharing my story to hopefully help my teammates do the same. Everyone has a story. Everyone has to persevere. 

"This is me and I am more than just number 7.”