 | A day after losing his mother, Karen, in a house fire, Jordan Creel rushed for 232 yards and two touchdowns in a win over Daleville. Courtesy of Jim and Karen Smith |
By Caitlin Moscatello, SI.com
They lifted him on their shoulders and cried.
Sophomore Jordan Creel, a 16-year-old fullback at Alabama Christian Academy (Montgomery, Ala.), had just run for 232 yards, two touchdowns and had nine tackles in a 24-21 upset over Daleville (Ala.) on Oct. 19 when his teammates hoisted him in the air.
"I didn't know what to say," says Creel. "There was a lot of crying, and I think I gave every person in the stands a big hug."
The tears weren't just for Creel. They were also for his mother, Karen, a 43-year-old mother of three, who died of smoke inhalation the night before when the family's home caught on fire. Jordan awoke at 3 a.m. on Oct. 18 to the waling sound of a smoke alarm. When he stepped into the living room, a wall of flames and smoke separated where he stood from his mother's bedroom. He heard her cries for help, and realizing there was nothing he could do on his own to save her, ran to knock on the doors of neighbors. Karen's body was later found in the bathtub holding the family dog, her skin unburned.
"I got a call from Jordan saying his mama just died," said Alabama Christian coach Gregg Baker. "Then I got a call from his girlfriend saying he wasn't doing so good. So I went over there and I told him, 'Look, this is up to you. If you want to play tomorrow night, I'd love to have you play. But I don't want you to do anything you don't want to do."
Creel didn't decide until about half an hour before the buses were leaving from the high school parking lot, when after much back and forth he realized that his mother would have wanted him to play. Alabama Christian's athletic director, who also happens to be the mother of Creel's girlfriend, called Baker from the road and told him they were on their way. "She said to me, 'Don't move that bus,'" says Baker. "Before that, I don't really think anyone was expecting him to show up."
But Creel did show up, his No. 1 jersey in hand, holding the football bag that on any other Friday afternoon would have been packed by Karen the night before. His teammates greeted him with a round of applause. Then, not knowing exactly how to react, they fell back into their usual pattern of telling jokes and playing around.
The tone changed once the team headed into the locker room. There, a somber Baker led the team. "I pulled Jordan aside and said, 'You're going to have the game of your life tonight, and your mama's going to have a front row seat," Baker says.
Creel had some words of his own for his teammates. Once the coaches left the locker room, Creel told his fellow Eagles, "I know she loved me and I know you all loved her, so let's go out there and play for her."
And in the words of Baker, "By golly, they did."
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