3/1/2023 0 Comments Last hope barbershop![]() He cringed at some moments, like when he took part in a brawl that forced an EMCC forfeit in the last game of the season, keeping the team from the playoffs. ![]() This footage became Last Chance U, and Ollie developed into the most likable character in the first season. He wanted nothing more than to play for Auburn and pictured himself at a top 25 school within a year. In hindsight, that was the worst thing that could have happened to Ollie, because all those phone calls recalibrated what he thought possible. So did Memphis, Ole Miss, Louisville and Cal. Because he remained a key cog on one of the nation's top defenses, Division I powers started to show interest. In his first season, EMCC won the National Junior College Athletic Association championship. "That was his insecurity coming out," she says. She realized he had been probing, gauging if he could trust her. By the middle of his first season, in 2014, Wagner became even more aware of Ollie's past. He wore them, he told Wagner, to tune out gunshots he felt as if they kept him safe. He had a fear of flying and refused to take off his headphones on the first plane ride of his life. He tried to hide that in bluster, joking and posturing. He clashed with coach Buddy Stephens and his academic adviser, Brittany Wagner.Īs teammates got to know Ollie, they saw his insecurities. He wasn't ready to do the work, on the field or in the classroom. Ollie arrived in Scooba, Miss., to find a rural town much like Shubuta-except sympathetic teachers had been replaced by drill-sergeant football coaches. I'm thinking, What the hell makes me so special?" "I'm looking at these people who came before, other athletes, people who made it out. "I didn't know what was possible," he says. At that point he didn't know that EMCC had sent hundreds of football players to Division I schools, from Ole Miss to Auburn to Texas A&M. He took three of those offer letters, shuffled them up and picked the one on top. ![]() But his grades were so bad that only community colleges offered scholarships. Ollie thought he had an answer: football. It's time for you to figure out what you're going to do with your life." Gray told Ollie he had to stop feeling sorry for himself. But Gray thought his nephew leaned on the tragedy he'd experienced as a crutch for his poor behavior-an excuse for classes missed and weed smoked. He tried, they all tried, to keep Ollie out of trouble. That man, Ray Charles Gray, was often summoned for teacher conferences. He also moved in with an uncle, his dad's brother. The next year he gave up basketball to concentrate on his perceived ticket out of town. In high school, he was more than 300 pounds, a force on the line. In 10th grade at Wayne County (Miss.) High, Ollie flashed enough promise on the football field to make varsity. He starts in his hometown, Shubuta, Miss., population under 500, a town so small there's a convenience store, a stop sign, and the per capita income is under $15,000. Ollie leans forward, ready to tell his whole story for the first time. Rain falls in sheets outside the gym of Ollie's trainer, Justin Allen, in the Houston suburbs, turning the parking lot into a giant puddle. "And what we see," she says, "can be very deceiving." "But it starts not from what we feel but from what we see." "Breathing is healing," the instructor says. He signs autographs for pro football players but would rather call them teammates. He has 77,000 Twitter followers, but no car. He is, in a larger sense, trying to close the gap that dominates his life, to bring who he is closer to what people assume he is. Ollie bends forward, trying to decompress his spine. "Some of you must come over your barriers," she says. She places a scented towel by Ollie's head. The yoga instructor draws the blinds and the room goes completely dark.
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