Outgoing, competitive, positive. These are three words that describe senior athlete Donavan Richardson. As he strolls the halls he has an happy outlook on life, but not every moment has been positive.
Growing up on the westside of Grand Rapids, he had to fight to earn everything.
“I had very quick temper and felt that I needed to fight to not feel like a target,” Richardson said.
From kindergarten through the 6th grade Richardson attended a different school each year. He recalls even moving to Florida on three different occasions.
In the 6th grade Richardson started playing organized football for North Park rocket league.
“I only touched the ball twice and I scored, so I knew that I had something going with the sport,” Richardson said.
At the start of 7th grade Richardson’s life would take a right turn when his mother had him attend Crossroads Middle School.
“I decided to play rocket football for my first year at Northview,” Richardson said. “It went really well because I scored 22 touchdowns in only six games.”
Richardson’s freshman year he would face a major tragedy.
The passing of his grandfather was sudden and unexpected.
It was so traumatizing that he vividly remembers details from that day: he got his braces on and received the phone call that he would be going to Florida the same day.
“He was my father figure. I looked up to him not only with sports but how to be successful in life as well,” Richardson said.
Going into his junior year he faced the hardest challenge of his sports career.
“We were almost finished with the game when I returned a punt for a touchdown, only when I tried to walk something didn’t feel normal,” Richardson said.
It turns out that Richardson had torn his ACL.
With grit and passion he battled everyday so he can have the best comeback season possible.
“Going into Senior season I had one goal in my mind,” Richardson said. “I wanted to win, I wanted to bring the winning culture back. ”
As the season is starting to come to an end Richardson has been giving thought to what he wants to do in the future.
“My main goal is to earn a scholarship to any school. At the moment I have about seven schools showing interest in me,” Richardson said.
Throughout Richardson’s life challenges have been thrown at him, and through these challenges he’s never given up.
