- This image is courtesty of the KC Chiefs & their official website.
If you work your hardest at what you do and you keep practicing anything is possible. My friend Pierre Walters who I have known since we went to school together at Forest Park Middle School has always been a very goofy at times yet competitive person in sports. Whether it was playing softball or football before school and during lunch or gym he always wanted to be one of the better athletes on the field or wherever we played.
It was also the same after we graduated from middle school together and went to school again during high school at St. Joseph High School in Westchester, IL. He played for the 1st time an actual organized football team which was pretty bad throughout most of the high school years but that didn't stop him from working hard to always be one of the better players on the team where he was named all-area and team MVP as a senior.
He also did track and field running the hurdles and throwing discus. He even had the talent to compete in the hurdles for the state meet as a junior. I myself also ran track and field as a long distance runner doing cross country during high school also. Which is one of the things that made Pierre and mine relationship even closer as friends since I would usually get rides from quite a lot with us being from the Forest Park, IL area.
I remember all the good times we would have together during those rides taking to each other about the sports we where playing and watching as well as the Hip-Hop music and culture we grew up on. Just things going on with each others life’s in general.
Then we both went are separate ways to college with it being kind of hard to keep in contact with each other the first year or two with me staying back at home and eventually going to Columbia College and him going all the way to Eastern Illinois. Luckily for us we found each other and kept in contact a little more through this new website we had both found Facebook.
That's where I found out the news about him having the possibility of being drafted for the NFL this year. He worked out for a few teams who liked him and was predicted as a late round draft pick. He didn't end up getting drafted but he ended up signing an undrafted free agent deal with the Kansas City Chiefs. And as everyone knows when you sign as an undrafted free agent you usually rarely end up making the team and get released or put on the practice squad.
So when I found out the news last weekend on September 6, 2009 I was ecstatic for not only my friend making the team but him giving hope to anyone who thinks they can't do something like make the NFL even growing up in a small suburban city like Forest Park. He is the 1st person I know from the area to make a professional team which gives even more hope to people growing up in the area who think not everything is possible.
So once again congratulations to my homie Pierre Walters and hopefully we could catch up and do an interview together someday since I'm aiming at being a sports journalist one day. Hope you have a great season with the Chiefs just as long as you aren’t playing my Raiders. You are inspiration to all who think you can't make it growing up in a small suburb like we did together though Pierre.
