To Be Young, Gifted, and Black

To be young, gifted, and black
Oh, what a lovely, precious dream
To be young, gifted, and black
Open your heart to what I mean
–Nina Simone, “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black,” after Lorraine Hansberry.

In its 150th year, TCU rang in the New Year with a national championship football game. In my 13 years as a fan of Horned Frog Football, I can hardly recall a more memorable time than the 2022-2023 season. My husband’s role as TCU’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes character coach for the football team has given me the joy of experiencing the dynamics of each season up close. The success of this season was certainly a highlight of my year. However, for me, the greatest gifts of this season were the personal anecdotes of life outside of football that I encountered. One stands out. Emari Demercado, fifth-year running back, is one hell of a football player. He is also one hell of a student.

This is how I came to learn of Emari’s story. We had a marathon traveling season in December and January with the team to include eight days in Scottsdale and five days in Los Angeles. It was perhaps one of the best experiences that I have had getting to know the football players, staff, and coaches off the field. After the Fiesta Bowl victory, I sat with Emari’s coach, Anthony Jones, and his wife, Christina, over a meal. Christina left the table to greet a player and his partner. After her return to the table, she sat down and remarked, “Emari is such an amazing person.”

“Tell me more,” I said. She went on, “He’s one of the most devoted student athletes that I have ever known. He’s so bright; did you know that he just graduated with his master’s degree with a 3.7 overall grade point average?”

The educator, lifelong learner, and academic in me has always had so much appreciation for the experience of the collegiate student-athlete. The synergies of the human who is both gifted as an athlete and in the classroom are almost symbiotic, yet super-human in nature. I was impressed to say the least.

When offered the opportunity to highlight the narrative of a member of the TCU championship team, it was clear that Emari’s story needed to be told. On an unusually warm January afternoon, I sat outside at my home with Emari, his partner Valeria Lopez, Coach Jones, and Christina to talk about Emari’s time spent at Texas Christian University.

Emari’s roots are in Texas, but he grew up in Inglewood, California. In fact, he grew up very close to So-Fi Stadium where he played his final game for TCU. He attended a combination of public and private schools.

“I really didn’t like school in elementary, but it came really easy to me. I always made good grades, even if I didn’t want to.” He particularly enjoyed math and science. “I wanted to be an engineer. I watched my brother who was a mechanic and had a love for taking things apart. Legos were definitely my favorite toy.” While he admits that he did not initially embrace this identity, his mother was committed to his academic success. “If I came home with anything other than an A, she would challenge my efforts. Her expectations were high. She wanted more for my brother and me.”

While he continued to have academic success throughout middle school and high school, it was not until his junior year that he really dialed into football. “In middle school, Pop Warner [Little Scholars program] was our thing. We would talk about whose team was the best at school. I was a multi-sport athlete playing basketball and doing track in addition to football. I really didn’t get serious about my performance on the field until I transferred high schools.” It was at this time that Emari experienced a sense of belonging and being fully seen by his new football coach.

With the power of a fantastic coach-athlete relationship behind him, Emari began to hone his craft. He set goals for his next steps. He wanted to be an engineer, and he wanted to go to a Power Five conference school.  His drive to go Power Five was so strong that he opted for a year of junior college to improve his chances. It paid off. He had multiple Power Five schools pursue him. “I chose TCU because it felt like family.”

photo credit: Carolyn Morris

In his first semester at TCU, he declared his major. “I chose engineering because it’s always been my childhood dream.” He knew he had the ability to do it, but his first engineering professor voiced doubts. “When my professor found out I was a football player, he conveyed concerns about my ability to be successful in this area of study. The class was something that I enjoyed immensely. It was hard with football, but I loved doing the animated drawings in class. This was something that I did in high school and loved it.”

However, after that first semester, Emari had to come to terms with his choice of study. While engineering was his dream, so was football. It had become apparent that both would demand time that was near impossible to commit to collectively. This is often the plight of the student-athlete. He made the decision to change his major to economics with a minor in business. This change was certainly not a less-rigorous path, but it was more manageable. He could have gone easy, but that was not consistent with his goals.

He noted that his engineering professor was sad to see him go. He reflected, “I think it was the right decision for me. There’s a part of me that still thinks about engineering. At the time, I was told that I’d have to miss football in the upper-level courses, and that just did not work for me. It wouldn’t have worked out no matter what. It is what it is. I think it still worked out in other ways.”

It did. He just graduated with his master’s degree in December with a cumulative graduate grade point average of 3.7. His area of focus? Business analytics.

In his five years with TCU football, Emari worked with several running back coaches. In this historic 2022-2023 season, he trained with Coach Anthony Jones. “In his first season with us, he got us to come along and buy in pretty quickly. He’s a likable person. It wasn’t hard to fall in line when you could see the passion that he had coming in.” Coach knows what he is talking about. “You know when you see his record. He gave us that confidence.”

Emari Demercado and Coach Anthony Jones
photo credit: Carolyn Morris

Coach Jones, his wife Christina, and their two daughters moved here in March of 2022 from Memphis, Tennessee. His coaching pedigree is rich in depth and experience. He’s held the roles of offensive coordinator and head coach at the high school level and served four years in the role of running-back coach at the University of Memphis. His recruitment to TCU was a whirlwind. “I flew down for an interview on a Friday, had the job by Monday morning, and flew back to start Monday night.”

He described his first day on the job. “It was a Tuesday, and I didn’t know anyone. The players taught me the offense before I had a chance to really dive into it myself. I could tell they were a studious group. They paid attention. They were engaged with what the new guy had to say. They let me know from the start that they wanted to be good and win.”

Coach Jones researched each player on the plane ride to Fort Worth. “For Emari, I knew he was the oldest guy in the room. I knew he played a bunch of snaps. I knew he went the junior college route – that told me a lot about who he was. If you can play junior college football, you can survive a lot of stuff. That showed me how much football meant to him.”

That wasn’t all that he learned. It didn’t take long to hear about the reputation that Emari had built for himself. “People around the building raved about him, saying he was smart and a quiet leader. I came to realize that he is the kind of kid you can leave at home and trust him to watch your house and know that nothing will go wrong. I knew that instantly with him.”

So, what is it like to coach such a multidimensional student athlete? Coach Jones mused, “He’s the smartest kid I have ever coached at running back. When I arrived, he already had his undergraduate degree and was working on a graduate degree. A lot of students who are academically smart are not always as talented athletically. Some players that are athletically gifted don’t take academics seriously. I felt that Emari did both.”

“The first day we had practice and Emari did a couple of runs, I knew we had something to work with.” Putting the full picture together, Coach Jones knew that Emari was special. “I said to myself he is going to be the leader of this room. Whether it’s football or off the field, I knew he was going to have a tremendous season.”

The yin and the yang to academic scholarship and athletic success are often complementary. For Coach Jones, he explains this as a continuity of choices that an individual makes. “One of my favorite sayings is the way that you act off the field will be a reflection of how you play on the field. The way you carry yourself off the field – going to class, doing things the right way – will directly impact how you play on Saturdays.”

photo credit: Carolyn Morris

For Emari, his eyes are now set to play on Sundays. As the sun started to set on our gathering, the conversation shifted. Emari shared, “I just got my training schedule, and I’ll be working out all the way across the Metroplex. I also am preparing for my NFL interviews [in Los Angeles] …”. Valeria, who was sitting next to him, smiled nervously. The high school sweethearts and couple of seven years were expecting their first child the very next day. For the couple, the complexity of how many different directions they were being pulled in is not lost on them.

Valeria took a moment to reflect on her journey with Emari. “People often ask what I’m the most proud of Emari for. For me, it’s different because I’m his significant other. Football is one part of our life, but his progress as a person, his accomplishments in the classroom, and his ability to overcome life circumstances stand out the most.”

As they build their family, Emari and Valeria reflect on the importance of education for their child. For Valeria, access to learning is paramount. “I want to give our baby the opportunity that Emari has experienced. Right now, football is going really well, but he has two degrees to lean on if he needs it.” Emari agreed. “It’s super important to give yourself an opportunity. Initially, I did not particularly like school, but I knew that’s what I needed. That initial [engineering] professor that I had in college probably didn’t think that I would amount to anything. I like proving stigmas wrong.”

Proof is not owed to anyone. Emari doesn’t have to prove his worth in this world. However, we all can appreciate Emari’s lived experiences.

In the twilight, the dynamic of the group that sat on my back porch was communal, celebratory, and joyful. Having experienced the mountaintop of the epic finale of this season together, we were connected in a special way. It was clear, however, that for Emari, he is still climbing. We all knew that something dazzling is still unfolding for him and his family, and we will be watching with pride and confident anticipation.

Emari Demercado is the epitome of what it is to be young, gifted, and black.