Chris Rainey likes the feeling he gets from being a role model for a number of kids from at-risk environments who are part of the mentoring program that has been established by Coach Urban Meyer and former Gator Terry Jackson at the University of Florida. Being a role model is uncharted territory for Rainey, who has gone through a few tough times in this journey that has taken him from Lakeland to the Gainesville campus, but the time he spends with these kids fills a void in his life and gives him an added sense of purpose.
“I never have done something like this,” said Rainey, a redshirt freshman tailback who quickly saw the value of mentoring young boys who are 11-14 years old. “In Lakeland, I had a brother that helped lead me in the right direction but now I’m the one that has to lead. I like showing someone how to do good and I like it when I see someone maybe doing something good because he sees this is the way I’m doing it.”
Meyer handpicked some of the Florida football players involved in this program specifically to give them a sense of responsibility for the very first time. Rainey was a mega-star football player in Lakeland but he had a tough family situation to deal with. Fortunately, Rainey had an older brother that helped along with coaches like Bill Castle at Lakeland High School and teammates, who with their families, helped to give him a sense of stability.
Rainey came to Florida with a reputation for playing hard in games and going soft in practice and for doing just enough to get by in the classroom. Always popular with teammates and classmates, Rainey seemed to get by on natural talent alone. Instead of hard work to develop his football skills or to improve in the classroom, he spent way too much time socializing.
Now that he’s been involved in the Florida football program for the last nine months, there has been a complete about face.
“With his background it’s unbelievable the changes he’s gone through,” said Meyer. “He grew up in a tough family situation but he came through it. Now he’s doing well in school. He’s grown up a tremendous amount in a year. I love Chris Rainey.”
Selected by Meyer to be a mentor, Rainey has embraced the opportunity to function as a role model and a big brother.
“I don’t drink and smoke and do drugs and I never did those things but I can tell kids that nobody can be perfect but you can take care of yourself and you can do right things,” said Rainey. “Everybody makes mistakes but you don’t have to make big mistakes like that. If I can help them make a good decision about not doing something bad that’s going to hurt them, then that’s what I want to do.”
And Rainey is well aware that there are several sets of eyes watching his every move. Knowing that he’s a role model and being watched closely by kids who will emulate whatever he does helps Rainey to stay on the right track.
“You got people watching you and they’ll do what you do,” said Rainey. “That makes me work harder on my grades because I can’t tell them to work hard in school and make good grades if I’m not trying hard, too. I work harder in practice, too. I can’t tell them to give 100 percent if I don’t give 100 percent.”
Meyer smiles when he hears comments like that from Rainey.
“He’s come a long, long way since he’s been here,” said Meyer. “I’m really proud of Chris.”
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The mentoring project was the brainstorm of former Gator and San Francisco 49ers running back Terry Jackson, whom Meyer calls “one of my close friends.” The project is designed to use one of Gainesville’s greatest resources to re-direct at risk kids and get them headed in the right direction.
“All these young people have to make right choices and what better way than using the role models in this town than using the football players and let them get with at-risk kids?” said Meyer.
The Florida football players spend time with the kids individually and as a group. Wednesday afternoon, all the kids were guests of the Gators at football practice. There was a cookout after practice and then it was time for fun. Cameron Newton threw passes and the kids ran routes, cheering loudly when they caught a pass from a real Gator quarterback.
Later they divided up into teams for a game of Gator ball. Maurkice Pouncey, one of Rainey’s high school teammates at Lakeland, watched with a huge grin on his face. Maurkice and his twin brother Mike are mentors and they think they get more out of this than the kids they are mentoring.
“It’s a two-way street what we’re doing,” said Maurkice, a freshman All-American as a guard last year but now moved to center where he’s running with the first team line. “The kids learn something from me, I learn something from them. In the long run, they’ll teach me more than I’ll teach them because they make me think about everything I’m doing and I have to make some right decisions. I don’t want to embarrass them, my family or me.”
Maurkice knows that he better back up everything he says, too.
“I can’t tell a kid you do this or you do that and then do something dumb,” he said. “If we make the front page of the paper for doing something stupid and the kids see us, they start thinking these guys are nothing … just a bunch of fakes. You want to know what would be embarrassing? That would be embarrassing.”
Because so many eyes are watching, Mike Pouncey says the responsibility is huge but well worth the weight.
“I’ve got someone looking up to me now and I want to make sure that I’m a good example,” said Mike. “This is a big responsibility but I like it. I want them to see someone who will do right, be respectful and do right in school and that’s what I try to tell them they need to do.”
Meyer embraced this program because he wants his players to know and understand that young kids look to them as role models and heroes. He wants the players involved in his program to feel those sets of eyes that are watching so closely. He wants his players to know that there can’t be a double standard. You can’t tell someone to do one thing while you do the exact opposite.
“That’s one of the reasons we did this,” said Meyer. “It’s no different than having a son or a little brother. If you want to embarrass yourself or your son or your little brother, then go out there and do something stupid. Make that dumb mistake that you make because you think nobody is watching. The guys that make those mistakes, they’re usually the ones that don’t have a son; they don’t have a little brother that watches every move they make. If they know someone is watching and someone looks up to them, then maybe they think twice and make the right decision.”