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DeJesus Always Did It Right

JHS?Commencement Speaker Has Been Motivated Since His Years On Football Team

Terrance DeJesus

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article on Terrance DeJesus originally appeared in October 2011 when he was a senior at Jamestown High School. In light of the fact he delivered the commencement address at the JHS graduation Friday night, it was deemed appropriate to tell his story again.

Sportswriters aren’t supposed to root. We’re supposed to cover the games, talk to the coaches and players, take some photographs and file the story. That’s it.

Who wins and loses can’t matter to us. It’s our job to be impartial.

For two hours on Saturday afternoon, I’m breaking that rule.

While Post-Journal sports editor Jim Riggs is covering Jamestown High School’s Section VI Class AA semifinal football game against Kenmore West, I’ll be glued to the radio listening to my friends, Tom Ames and Bill Race, broadcast the game for Media One.

Here’s hoping that senior running back Spencer DeCinque — the Red Raiders’ 1,000-yard rusher — finds plenty of holes to run through; that junior quarterback Dennis Drew has time to throw; senior all-purpose threat Jake Dwaileebe gets open in space and the Blue Devils are unable to catch him.

If all that happens, Jamestown’s offensive line, including senior right guard Terrance DeJesus, will be doing its job.

Terrance is the reason I’ve lifted — for Saturday only– my rooting moratorium. After reading what follows below, I think you’ll understand why.

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Terrance lives on Elam Avenue on Jamestown’s southside, several blocks from Strider Field, the home of the Red Raiders. For the past two months, he has helped Jamestown (7-1) post its best season in a decade. A win tomorrow earns the Red Raiders, who are ranked 20th in the state, a berth in the sectional championship game for the first time since 2000.

“Terrance has done a great job,” head coach Tom Langworthy said.

On and off the field.

For those who attended the Red Raiders’ game against Clarence you’ll know that Terrance was chosen the homecoming king. His significant other, Jordan Johnson, was the homecoming queen. Pretty cool stuff and a nice way to start his senior year.

But, really, the story has its origins months ago, long before Jamestown’s special season had even begun and right about the time Langworthy became aware that Terrance might not even pull on the shoulder pads or snap on his chin strap this fall.

“We didn’t see him much in the offseason,” the fourth-year coach said. … “We definitely had our doubts whether he’d come out.”

The reason Terrance wasn’t part of the team then wasn’t because he was blowing it off. Rather, his absence, Langworthy said, was because he was working — at the Kentucky Fried Chicken/Taco Bell on Fairmount Avenue in Lakewood the last 14 months — as much as he could to help out his mother, Jomarie Nagel, make ends meet.

“My mom has always been a hard worker,” Terrance said. “Her raising me I know about having to go out and do what I have to do. … Football has taught me to do what’s right and work hard.”

So, in Terrance’s world, what was right was working as much as he could, even if it meant that he might be jeopardizing a promising high school football career. In his absence from the team, Terrance tried to stay as close as he could to the program by checking in with his teammates, learning as much as he could.

But his No. 1 priority throughout the offseason was punching the clock and helping out at home, even if it wasn’t always convenient.

Langworthy remembers the time that he saw Terrance walking on Baker Street, almost to Southwestern Drive. Surprised, Langworthy turned the car around and pulled up next to Terrance, who hopped in and his coach took him … to work.

Yep, Terrance was on his way to KFC/Taco Bell — on foot. The distance from Elam Avenue in Jamestown to the Lakewood restaurant is between five and six miles.

“I’ve done it a couple times,” he said. “I had to do what I had to do.”

Travel time?

Oh, about 90 minutes. According to Terrance, he never called his boss to say he couldn’t work because he didn’t have a ride. He never gave it a thought.

“I was raised with the mindset to do what I have to do to make it (to work),” he said.

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The Red Raiders are one win away from a trip to Ralph Wilson Stadium. But to Terrance and the rest of the Red Raiders, they’re looking no further than tomorrow’s game against Kenmore West.

“We take it one game at a time, one team at a time,” he said. “We came in as underdogs and we’re starting to get our name out there, but it doesn’t matter.”

That figures.

Terrance and the Red Raiders still have work to do.

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DeJesus is now a cyber security expert and owns his own digital marketing business after earning a degree in information technology with a focus on network security and forensics in 2014 from Pittsburgh Technical College. He was inducted into its IT Hall of Fame, an honor only given to three other students in the past 15 years. Today, DeJesus is first and foremost a loving father, but he’s also a cyber threat researcher and data science professional with experience in cyber security.

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