Teen star gets $50G scholarship
A 14-YEAR-OLD high school football phenom’s dreams of gridiron glory were saved Sunday thanks to a Hail Mary of generosity from the family of an alum. Queens teenager Tyriek Dodd received a $50,000 scholarship that will allow him to continue playing wide receiver for the Holy Cross High School Knights. After his father’s death last year, the Springfield Gardens teen and his family had no way to pay his tuition.
The money came courtesy of the friends and family of Rudy Krizan, who excelled in both sports and academics at Holy Cross, and who died last year of pancreatic cancer at 67.
Tyriek — who is already 6-foot-5 and 195 pounds — shared his gratitude to Krizan’s widow, Patty Reimerdes, and said he intends to make plays for his dad and Krizan.
“I have someone to play for now — my father and her husband — I have someone on my shoulder and I’m going to take that with pride,” Dodd said.
“It feels like I know what I’m going to do because before I wasn’t sure I was even going to go to school a couple months ago.”
On Sunday, before the Knights triumphed 20-14 in overtime against the St. John the Baptist Cougars, Dodd met Reimerdes, 64, for the first time.
“I think this was a God thing — Rudy passes and his father passes,” Reimerdes said. “This was meant to be.”
Dodd’s father, Clement Dodd Jr., died Feb. 5, 2015, at 57, from sarcoma after three years of fighting the rare form of cancer.
The loss left the playmaker without his role model.