‘He deserved every step of that walk’

Star at Marriotts Ridge graduates after turning his grades around

Kam Young thought he knew everything.

When he was a sophomore at Marriotts Ridge High School in 2018-19, Young’s grades were slipping, and he wouldn’t listen to the many people trying to help him.

“My sophomore year I had a big head,” Young said. “I was making all the wrong decisions, and I was pushing away people who were trying to help me succeed.” The consequences were severe. Young, a star football player for the Mustangs and a Division I prospect, failed a class his sophomore year and was academically ineligible to participate on the gridiron in his junior season.

Last week, nearly two years after Young failed English and was deemed ineligible to play football, the Marriotts Ridge senior walked across the stage at Merriweather Post Pavilion to receive

his diploma.

“It took losing football for that one year for me to understand that I need to do well in school to get to where I want to go,” Young said. “... It felt great [to graduate]. I was so happy I almost did a dance on stage.”

Young, 18, was born in Ellicott City but grew up in York, Pennsylvania. Prior to him starting high school, his family moved back to Howard County.

Before Young even stepped foot on Marriotts Ridge’s campus, football coach Marcus Lewis knew he had a star on his hands.

“I first saw him at a camp in South Carolina that my son was attending. His dad saw me with my Marriotts Ridge shirt on, and he asked me to check his son out,” Lewis said. “I walked over and saw him play. I only stayed two or three minutes and told his dad that he’d start right away. I only saw a few reps, but that was all I needed to see. He is super talented.”

Young started at running back for the Mustangs in 2017 and 2018.

As a freshman, Young led the team with about 500 yards rushing. Then, despite missing four games the next season, Young was a first-team All-County selection at running back as a sophomore. He ran for about 800 yards and 12 touchdowns, including a two-game stretch in which he totaled 377 yards and eight scores.

Young never liked school growing up, but he says he didn’t have trouble until his sophomore year. His bad grades weren’t for a lack of support, as Young said he had several people in his ear telling him to focus on school that year, including Lewis.

“I kept telling him that he was wasting a golden opportunity,” Lewis said. “There aren’t that many people who come along who are blessed with what he’s been blessed with.”

He knew the consequences — get under a 2.0 GPA, and he couldn’t play football — but he was “cocky” and assumed he’d be able to pull his grades up without effort.

When he learned the summer before the 2019-20 academic year that he was academically ineligible, he was demoralized.

“When my dad told me the news, I busted out crying,” Young said. “I knew I really messed up.”

That fall was painful, Young said. Football was the main part of his identity, and he was relegated to watching from the stands. He said the way he felt after his dad broke the news to him and how he felt on Friday nights when he couldn’t play motivated him to turn his grades around.

“I didn’t want to feel like that ever again,” he said. “Ever since that year started, I made sure I was on top of my school work.”

The main difference between Young as a sophomore and Young the past two years is that he now allows others to assist him.

For example, Susan Fugate, a data clerk at Marriotts Ridge who also serves as somewhat of a “team mom” for the football squad, was one of several people Young went to for help when the 2019-20 school year began.

That whole year, until the coronavirus pandemic shuttered school buildings in March, Fugate had Young give her his phone at the start of the school day to prevent him from looking at it in class.

“I used to always text during class. I couldn’t stay off my phone,” Young said. “Not having it made me more focused and engaged, and my grades went up tremendously.”

“He’s a good kid. He just needed that extra push to stay on a straight path,” Fugate said. “... To see him walk across the stage and get his diploma was a great feeling. I’m extremely proud of him. He deserved every step of that walk.”

The result of Young’s renewed focus and willingness to ask for help led to him being a consistent Honor Roll student for his last two years.

HesaidAmandaShearerandDouglasSmith, twospecialeducatorsatMarriottsRidge,werea fewoftheteacherswhohelpedhimone-on-one to improve his academic skills.

“Kam’s journey is definitely an impressive one,” said Smith, who taught Young in a history class and is also the junior varsity football coach at Marriotts Ridge. “Everything changed night and day for Kam from where he started to the high level of academics that he’s performing at now independently. He’s a wonderful success story.”

Shearer, who was an educator in his sophomore year English class, said being ineligible for that football season was “just the kick in the pants” that Young needed to get back on track.

“That was the eye-opening moment he needed. He came back a different student,” she said. “What speaks volumes to me about Kam is that when things didn’t go his way … rather than get down on himself, he doubled his efforts and made sure he was eligible the following year. For me, that shows what Kam’s character is.”

Getting his grades back on track last year allowed him to play football this spring in the COVID-delayed season.

“I was so excited for that first game that I slept in my football gear the night before,” Young said.

In the shortened season, Young was his usual self, totaling about 500 yards from scrimmage and scoring six touchdowns in five games.

The stellar senior season and the improved academic performance revitalized his football prospects, and the 6-foot, 200-pound Young has a preferred walk-on spot to play defensive back at West Virginia University.

When Young was getting ready to walk across the stage at Merriweather on June 2, he was greeted with a hug from Lewis.

“This is my 24th year of coaching. He is easily the biggest success story I’ve had in my entire coaching career,” Lewis said. “I stood backstage as they were getting introduced and waited for him. When he came up I gave him a huge hug and told him I was proud of him.

“I told him: ‘This story is just beginning.’ ”