By Bruce Gallaudet
Davis Enterprise

Getting an opportunity to be a college athlete is tough enough, even when things go your way.

But for UC Davis senior Shamawn Wright, maybe just being alive is reason enough for celebration - let alone that the injured cornerback is about to graduate with his focus still on an NFL tryout.

Wright, a sociology major who is missing the rest of his last Aggie campaign due to a foot fracture, has seen the abyss.

As a youth, his parents lost the family home. His mother and father fought each other while his father battled drug and alcohol addictions.

Wright and his two brothers were physically and verbally abused, living in shelters after their dad left.

After his mom went to prison for beating him, 8-year-old Shamawn wound up in foster care for two years. At 10, Wright was in the house when his cousin Eric Bailey was murdered by a shotgun blast in a domestic dispute.

All the way through his sophomore year at Antioch High, the former Oakland resident was swimming upstream against an environmental torrent that tried to drown the determined youngster.

"It's true my dad was an alcoholic and drug user," Wright told The Enterprise during a candid but emotional interview. "But my dad wanted to change his life. That's when he met my mother in church."

Mom was a graduate of San Jose State and together, Wright's folks tried to make a go of it.

Living in Oakland, Dad was a longshoreman while Shamawn's mom stayed home to raise her three sons.

"With my dad as the sole provider, the stress got to be too much," Wright recalls. "When he got laid off, he turned back to alcohol and drugs. When that happened, he began getting really abusive."

Wright said his dad would come home drunk, high or both, and get physical with his family, adding, "That was the scariest thing for us. He finally left, and for me and my brothers that was the happiest thing."

But now all the strain and stress were on his mom, who began to fall apart.

Without work and not enough income from welfare to support a family of four, the Wrights lost Shamawn's grandparents' house.


After moving to a subsidized project, "everything started to go downhill fast," says Wright.

"I started hanging out with the wrong crowd. My brothers started going around with the wrong crowd. It didn't get any easier. We got kicked out of that housing … into a homeless shelter."

A homeless shelter that wasn't built yet.

During the wait, Wright, his mom and brothers were living out of their car, often sleeping in Rainbow Park (Oakland) or staying with relatives.

It was during one such stay at his cousin's house that Wright witnessed Bailey's murder.

"Everybody I grew up with …" Shamawn takes a deep breath, looks skyward, gathers himself and goes on. "Everybody. I'm like the last man standing.

"My best friend is in jail right now. His little brother, my little brother's best friend, is in San Quentin. I just lost my other best friend a month ago. Cartier Ely … he was murdered, too."

There has been other recent tragedy. Another neighborhood friend of Wright's who didn't make it to safer ground, Jermale Tucson, was killed in a drive-by shooting in May.

"Growing up in that situation, you just become grateful knowing none of my kids will ever have to grow up around any of that," says Wright, who now lives in Davis with Aggie teammates.

Wright knew at a young age there must be some way out of the madness. Eventually, he moved in with his mom and her friend and enrolled in Antioch High.

Age 14 at the time, Wright got little attention at home. His domestic life remained chaotic.

"I would be studying on floor with brothers and mom arguing in the background; that was the best-case scenario," Wright relates.

To get away from the noise, he'd jump in his mom's car, drive to a safe area and study. Sometimes, even then, he was cast out to spend a night in an area park.

With poor grades the norm, Wright knew there was a better way. As a sophomore at Antioch High, he reached out to his football coach Wilson Pica.

Pica and his wife Kim saw the light in Shamawn's eyes …

"They said you can stay for two days, then you're going to have to find somewhere else," Wright says. "But two days turned into two weeks, two weeks turned in two months … eventually Kim and Wilson became my guardians.

"He was kicked out of his house. He had nowhere to go," Wilson Pica remembers. "With his drive to succeed, all he needed was a little positive reinforcement and stability in his life.

"For Shamawn, failing is not an option."

Wright adds: "They really helped me with stability in life. I had to go to bed at a certain time, I had to get up a certain time. There was structure, accountability."

Finally, Shamawn Wright had a safe haven, a supportive environment for his studies and someone at hand who saw and nurtured his ability in athletics.

His grades went from an early 1.6 GPA to consecutive years of 4.0. He was being noticed by Oregon colleges, but former UCD head coach Bob Biggs threw his hat in the Wright recruiting ring, too.

After watching the films, hearing from Wilson Pica and seeing him play, the Aggie staff was sold. A scholarship was offered and Wright accepted on the spot.

"His story is remarkable," Biggs says. "To know what he's accomplished after all he's been through, there isn't another word for it. He is an incredible young man … we were able to see all the good in him and were (happy) to provide him with a chance.

"He certainly hasn't disappointed anybody. It's a shame that he's been injured," the coach continues, cautioning people who think his playing days are over. "I know he'll accomplish anything he sets his mind to.

"To come out as the young man he is? Like I said, remarkable."

Current Aggie head coach Ron Gould shakes his head in amazement when talking about what his standout defensive back has endured.

"Even with the injury, he's staying involved," Gould says. "He's a coach on the sidelines. Telling the guys where to be, offering encouragement.


"He's just an amazing young man."

Wright threw down the crutches on Friday and promises he'll be running in two weeks. During his UCD career of three years plus two games, he's shown the flashes of brilliance necessary to play at the next level.

Wright hopes to work his way into a couple of postseason all-star games and maybe get a call from an NFL team.

If pro football isn't in his future, Wright is ready to give back. He wants to be a juvenile counselor.

"I want to help kids get on the right path," Wright says. "No one is brought on this earth to just live, sell drugs, kill people and die. Everyone has a higher purpose and I want to show them that, that everyone has a talent."

Wright hopes to open a nonprofit youth organization that starts with "elementary kids … help them with their reading and writing at an early age. Trying to get them on a college level eventually."

For kids going through what he saw, Shamawn has words of advice:

"I know it's not easy, but just stay in the fight. Sooner or later, the sun is going to have to shine through."

Notes: Siblings Isaac, 24, and Elias, 20, are on the straight and narrow, according to middle brother Shamawn. But it hasn't been easy: "Isaac had a nervous breakdown and he still struggles," Wright explains. "But he's working, trying to get it together." Meanwhile, Elias, who served a three-year prison sentence - most of it while Shamawn was at UCD - is out, working as a security guard. "He has a girlfriend and a place in Pittsburg. I wrote him every day while he was in prison … it was my heart in those letters, telling him he had a better life ahead."