The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Perseverance Guides Chris Woolbright to UAB
10/24/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
BIRMINGHAM, Ala - His football journey carried him across the country from his Brooklyn home to Fresno, Calif., before venturing to Birmingham. In between Brooklyn and Fresno, UAB linebacker Chris Woolbright also had a short stop in Daytona Beach, Fla. and a period when he thought his football days were finished.
A straight forward journey it was not, which is probably fitting for a person who battled his way through some of the meanest streets in New York City.
"Every day I wake up and it's still mind blowing the situation I'm in," the 6-foot-3, 230-pound Woolbright said. "Knowing I can look my name up, can see myself on the internet and know I'm in a spot that millions of kids would kill for. It's still mind blowing but I'm grateful for what I did at the end of the day."
Woolbright grew up in East New York with his brother and mother, who adopted the boys when Chris was an infant. He grew up in what he describes a "really rough neighborhood" but doesn't elaborate any further, other than say "you name it, I've seen it."
As a youngster, he followed the downward progression of his surroundings.
"It's what I was used to, I liked going outside and causing trouble," Woolbright said. "Now, that I'm out of there, I know it was stupid back then, it was foolish. It's just the neighborhood. You get used to living in the atmosphere."
Woolbright said that, in New York City, students are allowed to choose the high school they will attend, provided it's within 90 minutes of home. He pushed that limit to the max, choosing to attend the High School of Sports Management at Lafayette High School. He would awake at 6 o'clock each morning and had to be out the door within 30 minutes to have a chance to make it to school on time. He traveled on a city bus and two trains to reach school and followed the reverse path home after football practice each night.
It was there that he began playing football for the first time. High school football doesn't carry the same passionate following in New York City as it does in other parts of the country.
"There are some good kids out there but recruiting is terrible," Woolbright said. "The competition is really bad. There are probably some o-linemen my size out there."
The city produces many more college basketball players than it does on the gridiron. Woolbright chose to play football but it wasn't part of his long-term plan.
"I really didn't want to graduate high school at first," Woolbright said. "I was done my freshman year and knew I could drop out sophomore year. My mom told me `You need to be a man now.' After that, I decided to stick with school and football."
So where would he be without that decision?
"Getting in trouble, probably be in jail right now," Woolbright said.
Woolbright said things turned for him on the football field when he attended a high school combine in Philadelphia before his junior season.
"I saw where I stood, regionally, and then it was like `OK, now I need to start taking it serious," he said.
He signed with Long Island University Post, a NCAA Division II school, out of high school but changed his mind a few days later because he wanted to play at a higher level. Stony Brook would have been an option but his grades fell short. He chose to travel to Daytona Beach to enroll at Bethune-Cookman but left before his first season began.
At that point, he felt football was finished.
"I wanted to keep playing but had nowhere to go," Woolbright said.
Coaches at Fresno City College in Central California offered him a chance to play. It wasn't easy. He got in the work-study program to pay his bills but often didn't have any extra money. Some days, he'd walk the three miles to his apartment after football practice because he didn't have money for bus fare. But he thrived on the field and in the classroom. He had 44 tackles, including six tackles for loss, a sack, two interceptions and two pass breakups as a sophomore and was a December graduate.
Woolbright said college recruiters started paying more attention after he played well against traditional JUCO power City College of San Francisco. His scholarship offers included UAB, Wyoming, Idaho and Texas State -- and San Diego State was also interested.
"We combed the country," UAB head coach Bill said when asked how they began recruiting Woolbright. "He was on that linebacker list. We scoured the country and he showed up."
Clark has been pleased with Woolbright's play since the athletic linebacker showed up on campus in August.
"He's a really smart guy and he's got some physical gifts," Clark said. "His drops are really good. He's learning to play with a lower pad level. Like all of them, there are things he needs to work on, but he's a worker."
Woolbright certainly fits into the plans at a talented and deep linebacker corps. More importantly, he is on his way to getting an undergraduate degree in communication and beginning work on his master's degree in business. His long-term goal, after his football days are over, is to own a gym.
"I want to help young athletes in my situation," Woolbright said. "I want to steer them on the right path, give them places to work out. I want to teach them it's not impossible, you just have to work for it."
Woolbright won't have to look far to find an example.
