It’s always sad when you hear stories like this. A young man on his way to a promising future only to have it cut short by violence. It seems we are getting at least one of these stories per year now as youngsters struggle to get out of their environment and onto the promise of a great opportunity.
The latest victim is Rajaan Bennett out of Powder Springs, Georgia (McEachern High School). Bennett was an outstanding running back at McEachern as he racked up over 1,800 yards his senior year and this was after grinding out 1,001 as a junior. From a recruiting stand point, Bennett was a 5’11” 210 lbs, could bench press 325 lbs and squat over 500. That’s a stud by anyone’s standards and with that Bennett had the grades to get into Vanderbilt, the school he signed with on February 4th. The promise of a great education and possible football future laid ahead of him. However, it was all snuffed out last Thursday as Bennett intervened in an argument between his mother and her ex-boyfriend. Apparently, the argument was over money and got out of hand. When all was said and done, Bennett was shot and killed by the mother’s ex-boyfriend, Clifton O’Neal Steager a Detroit native who also severely wounded Bennett’s friend before turning the gun on himself.
Every year now we are seeing young men who have made a tremendous sacrifice to achieve and when they do, they have it all thrown away by senseless violence whether it comes in the form of domestic, gang or juvenile. It’s a horrible testament to what’s going in our American cities as young men live a day to day struggle to survive.
You can check out Bennett’s exploits on the field on his highlight video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhVUVhAaK0g[/youtube]
Chad Wilson is a college football recruiting expert and creator of the GridironStudsApp which allows high school football players to gain exposure to college football coaches and fans. Wilson is a former college football player for the University of Miami (92-94) and Long Beach St. (’90-’91) and played briefly for the Seattle Seahawks (’95). He is also a former youth and high school football coach for over 15 years most recently for 5-A State of Florida Champs American Heritage. He runs All Eyes DB Camp a defensive back training company located in South Florida IG: @alleyesdbcamp. Wilson’s oldest son Quincy plays in the NFL for the New York Giants and his younger son plays cornerback for the Arizona Cardinals.
