TRANSFERS
let go as head coach. He also had offers from LSU, Auburn and Texas Tech.
“I just feel like it’s about to be a lot of change going on with HBCUs,” Land said.
Norfolk State football coach Latrell Scott said the change is encouraging, adding, “it’s not about black or white,” but what’s best for the athlete.
“It’s special for me because I’m a product of an HBCU myself,” said Scott, who played for Hampton University. “I know the nurturing environment of the HBCU fit me better than some of the other places did. … It’s about what gives you the best opportunity to be yourself and also have the opportunity to be prepared for life. I think HBCUs give us those opportunities. There are other kids that function better in certain environments, but there’s certainly tons of kids who function better in an HBCU environment.”
That’s what happened in Brandon Gaddy’s case. He admits he was just doing enough in the classroom to stay eligible for football at Maryland. But when he got to Alabama State, it was a whole different circumstance under Hill-Eley. Gaddy saw a father figure in him but, more importantly, someone who cared about his well-being as a person.
But it wasn’t an easy transition.
“It was hard at first … we had to really focus,” said Gaddy, a three-star recruit coming out of high school. “He takes school very seriously. Like this past semester, I had a 3.0. I’ve never had a 3.0. At Maryland, I had the tools and I just pushed (education) to the side. But at Alabama State, I really had to focus and do things on my own because Coach Eley wasn’t messing around.”
Hill-Eley, a Suffolk native, said he was straightforward when he made his pitch to the Gaddys. Much of their discussion had little to deal with football. He said he was recruiting them “to save their lives.”
Eley knew they could play football, but he also knew they were marginal students who were “basically doing enough to stay in school and get by.”
“Since they’ve been here, I’ve seen guys that are now — because of the resources and smaller environment — able to prosper,” Eley said. “Now you got guys who go from making C’s and D’s to making A’s and B’s because of the interaction with the teachers. … They have things in place where they can have more success after football.”
Hill-Eley, who starred in football at the old John Yeates High in Suffolk and later at Virginia Union, feels a special bond with Hampton Roads athletes. His current roster includes lineman Juwan Callines (Norcom), linebacker Devin Chambliss (King’s Fork) and lineman James Collins (Oscar Smith). He believes it’s important for him to make sure he prepares his players for life after football.
“I know they can play football. I’ve watched them all of my life,” Hill-Eley said about the Gaddys. “What I’m trying to do is once that clock runs off the last second that these guys aren’t back in our neighborhoods not being able to provide for their family. When football is over, I want Breyon and Brandon to be able to come back to Norfolk and make an impact and make a living for their families.”
Being looked at as more than just an athlete is what brought Christian Angulo and Byron Perkins to Hampton University.
Pirates head coach Robert Prunty was the associate head coach/defensive ends coach at Cincinnati when the Bearcats recruited Angulo in 2015. But in 2017, Prunty was named the head coach at Hampton.
Angulo entered his name in the NCAA transfer portal following the 2018 season.
“I wanted to go to a program where I could trust the coaches and where the coach had my best interest,” said the Miami native. “I wanted to have an opportunity to truly display my talent. I wanted to go to a program where the coach cared about me beyond football but as a young man, as a person.”
That led Angulo to transfer to Hampton because of his relationship with Prunty.
“He played a big role as far as me deciding to attend Hampton University,” said Angulo, a cornerback. “And it was the best decision of my life. … It’s just prepared me for the blessings that I’m receiving now.”
This past season, Angulo finished fifth in the Football Championship Subdivision with 14 pass breakups. He was named to the Big South AllAcademic team and was a secondteam All-Big South Conference pick.
His play earned him an NFL free-agent contract with the New York Giants, and he believes finishing his career at an HBCU was crucial to his development.
“The relationship that you’re going to have with your coaches and with faculty and staff, as well as members of the student body, is going to be much different because you’re going to be much closer at an HBCU,” he said. “It feels like a family environment. Oftentimes at PWIs, you may live off campus and you may not get that same experience. Overall, I’m very appreciative that I was able to build those relationships and I’ll cherish them forever.”
Perkins transferred from Purdue to Hampton in January. The Chicago native felt like he wasn’t getting the most of his ability as a player or a student.
“I decided I wasn’t going to go to a school that didn’t generally care about me, not only my success as a football player but my success as a young man as well,” he said.
What sold Perkins on Hampton was the talk he had with Prunty before making his final decision.
“Coach Prunty emphasized me and my development,” he said. “He was genuinely concerned about my wellbeing to the point where he said, ‘I am willing to take a chance on you so much to the point that even if you get hurt — just as long as I keep my grades up — I will still guarantee that the school will pay for the rest of your years here.”
Like the Gaddys, Perkins said the change was tough at first.
“It was a huge transition coming from Purdue, a predominantly white college with a population of a lot of students in the middle of nowhere, to coming to Virginia, which had a very small population,” he said. “But it feels great. These coaches actually give me the opportunity to not only develop as a player but as a young man. I felt like at Purdue, I wasn’t developing. Not as a football player and not as a young man. You’re just a number.”
Like Scott and Hill-Eley, Prunty said it’s good to see more highly touted Black athletes now considering HBCUs.
“They feel like they are around coaches who have their best interest,” he said. “They’re also picking places where they feel more comfortable as far as the academics of the university and the coaching staff.
Perkins and Angulo said they like how the recent trend is going.
“When a No. 1 recruit transfers to an HBCU, that shakes the world,” Perkins said. “As players, we know each other better because we can relate to each other’s experience because we are Black.”
“It’s nice to see kids not getting caught up in the hype and being true to themselves,” Angulo added. “I think it will put a light on HBCUs.”
Larry Rubama, 757-575-6449, larry.rubama@pilotonline.com