The images cleaved into his mind play like a worn vinyl record, a scratch-filled loop of trapped words and skipping melodies. Kenny Young III can’t escape the things he does not want to hear. There’s cruelty in the chilling screech that repeats when he least expects it – during class at Miami University, on his way to football practice, in the idle moments tucked between homework and sleep.

Skerrrrr. The high-pitched squeal jolts Kenny back to the Tallahassee projects, wearing the same clothes he did yesterday because that’s all he has. He’s 9 years old. He sprints to the window with his cousin, Andrew Glover, who’s more like his brother; they were born on the same day just one year apart, and they live together for now with their siblings and his auntie, Andrew’s mother. She’s not home. Skerrrr, a car careens into view from their apartment in hardscrabble South City.

A man emerges from the car. Others join him, 10 to 15 by Kenny’s count, and the man purposefully approaches an adversary. He hits the other man. Boom. Then he pulls out a gun and aims, firing a bamp, bamp, bamp at his enemy and forever changing the lives of the two kids glued to the glass. The man who was shot does not die. That does little to lessen the hellacious impact.

“I didn’t know what to do. I almost threw up,” Kenny says. “I never saw anything like that. I was sick. I can still picture everything that happened.”

Kenny has heard so much noise in his 23 years that he doesn’t often feel the need to talk. Skerrrr is just one audible harbinger of doom. The briiing of a 2 a.m. phone call is another. That’s how he learned his cousin Andrew was dead, shot at 21 in Tallahassee last fall. Then there’s the briiing of his mother’s unanswered cell phone. Kenny has had a hard time reaching Shani Lane for the last year; he’s convinced she has relapsed into a drug habit she kicked after a prison term years back. Kenny’s dad is in prison in Florida, serving time for second-degree murder. His older sister Kendreia, 25, is also an inmate.

Somehow, Kenny escaped. He eschewed gangs and drugs for sports, spurned Florida-area universities that offered him football scholarships and started life anew on Miami’s picturesque campus some 770 miles from the steaming Florida sun. RedHawks football coach Chuck Martin said the standout running back, the RedHawks’ leading rusher last season, “was like Dorothy opening the door to Oz” when he traded one environment for the other. Now the reigning team MVP, who rolled up 1,175 all-purpose yards, including 781 rushing yards for six touchdowns, anticipates a record-setting fifth-year senior season, a December graduation and a future with his girlfriend and their soon-to-be 2-year-old daughter.

He may not be able to forget difficult memories from his childhood in Tallahassee, but leaving home has cleared a path to a better future. A place where the record will someday spin a little smoother.

“If I would have stayed close to home, I know for a fact that I would have gone home every weekend,” Kenny says. “Sometimes you’ve got to be on your own until you get to your point in life where you feel like you’re pretty successful.”

The day Kenny Young III arrived in this world in 1995, his parents’ world had already fallen apart. His father, Kenneth Young Jr., was incarcerated the prior year and sentenced in 1999. For what, young Kenny was not sure. “Murder” was all he knew.

“He won’t even tell me now, but what I’ve heard is that he was in sort of a gang because my dad, he sold a lot of dope and weed. And my mom was right there with him. What I hear was that there was a gun… I don’t know who pulled the trigger. All I know is that he took the blame. He wouldn’t tell,” Kenny said.

The Sun Sentinel documented the sentencing of the “Parson gang trio,” of which Kenny “Choo Choo” Young was a member. The three men were held responsible for the 1994 death of Alberta Burden, who was gunned down in her car before she could testify against the Parson gang leader. Young, then 27, reportedly fired five shots that killed Burden, who “was found slouched over the front seat of her car, clutching her Bible,” per the newspaper. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 40 years. He’s expected to be paroled in 2025.

The arrests helped shutter West Palm Beach’s most dangerous crack cocaine ring, but all Kenny knew was that his life became an exercise in instability. He bounced from home to home for years. His mother and her boyfriend blended their families for a time – nine kids in one house – and the boyfriend said last year that he might be Kenny’s biological father. Kenny wasn’t sure what to make of it, and no DNA tests have been done.

Court records show that his mother, Ms. Lane, served time for selling cocaine. Kenny said she was in and out of prison until his eighth grade year, and that his saving grace was his close-knit relationships with his siblings – his older sister, Kendreia Goodwin, and his younger brother, Jerry Ray. The kids shuffled from one relative to the next and were nearly separated by foster care before their aunt, Cassandra Lane, took them in. Still, Kenny found the absence of his parents nearly unbearable.

Miami’s Kenny Young III was named to the candidate list for the 2018 Doak Walker Award, given annually to the country’s top running back. (Photo courtesy Miami University)

“There were so many nights that I just cried because my mom basically wasn’t there until my eighth-grade year and my dad wasn’t there. It was kind of tough. And then my little brother looked up to me. And I couldn’t look up to my sister because she stayed in and out of jail,” Kenny said.

He straddled the line between protecting Jerry, who’s 18 now and headed to a Minnesota junior college to play football, and supporting his sister, whom he said has battled addiction. Kenny attributed Kendreia’s fights and poor judgment to her short temper. Her rap sheet includes grand theft of a motor vehicle and drug possession.

So Kenny did his best on his own, shielding Jerry from unsavory avenues that could have un-moored his potential. He’s the only consistent father figure Jerry has known.

“I looked up to him. He made me work harder and be who I am now,” Jerry said. “He has always been humble. Anything you give him, he’s going to make more of it. That’s the type of person he is. He’s just a special guy.”

There was someone else who appreciated those qualities in Kenny: Khadijah Dickey, his girlfriend since eighth grade. Her family embraced Kenny and helped heal some of the fractures of his youth. Even the return of his mother eventually produced strife. Ms. Lane was on the right track for years, Khadijah said, earning a degree in social work and becoming a store manager. Then the good times eroded and she “just went and left again,” Khadijah said.

By then Kenny was at Miami. He laid the foundation for his future at Godby High School, where he amassed a stunning highlight reel in track and football. A gifted sprinter, he was among seven Godby track stars invited to compete at the Nike Track Nationals in Oregon in 2011. Godby’s football team also won a Class 5A state title in 2012; Kenny returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown in the 2013 state championship.

It’s there, on the football field, where soft-spoken Kenny finds his voice, Khadijah said. The stresses of life melt away and his play speaks so loudly that it practically howls.

“If it wasn’t for football, I don’t think he’d be able to express himself,” Khadijah said. “Kenny expresses himself through football. When I see Kenny on the field, I’m like, ‘There he goes. Finally.’”

Miami University football was in a state of disarray in 2013, anchored by an abysmal 0-12 season with arguably the worst roster in the Mid-American Conference. Martin, hired that December, started the substantial work of rebuilding the program. His first class included the speedy and crafty Kenny Young, an anticipated qualifier as a freshman.

The NCAA Eligibility Center dictated otherwise after flagging his transcripts for missing core classes. Kenny red-shirted in 2014 to straighten out his academics, which provided a valuable opportunity to grow comfortable with his tutor and make up for lost time in high school. It wasn’t that he was a bad student then, Kenny said. It’s that he didn’t take advantage of the education he could have acquired.

“I thought that coming up here, it was going to be really, really tough. My (tutor) really helped me out. In high school it felt like I didn’t learn a lot. I don’t know why. I didn’t apply myself. I should have. I was hanging with a lot of friends. I actually did more than them but I could have done better,” Kenny said.

Kenny Young III rushed for a team-high 781 yards and six touchdowns last season. The fifth-year senior is just 378 yards shy of the 2,000-rushing yards career milestone. Only 13 other Miami football players have achieved that feat. (Photo courtesy Miami University)

It’s interesting, then, that academics were a pivotal part of his football recruitment. Martin said some coaches told Kenny he’d never make it at Miami because of his high school transcripts. His GPA usually wavered between a 2.5 and 2.7. Martin flipped the argument, telling Kenny the other coaches didn’t think he was smart enough to go to Miami.

Martin disagreed. Kenny didn’t earn an A on each Miami test or carry a 4.0, but he tended to details – like completing every assignment and claiming every bit of extra credit – to lift his final grades as the years progressed. Martin still shares with recruits “The Kenny Young Story,” that remarkable tale of determination, and said he’s never been prouder of a player for working so hard academically.

“He wasn’t really super-prepared for what he was getting himself into here at this university, but instead of running or instead of making excuses like a lot of kids do, or saying it’s too hard, he’s become a really good student,” Martin said.

Miami intervention learning specialist Marilyn Elzey shepherded Kenny through the initial storm and said he quickly found his footing. The retired high school English teacher has worked with Kenny on nearly every class since his arrival on campus four years ago and witnessed immense growth in his pursuit of a Sports Leadership and Management degree.

“He was extremely shy at first. It took a long time for him to open up. He felt like he was really out of his element, I think,” Elzey said. “But he has gained so much confidence over four years, both on the field and off the field. For example, he refused to take a speech class. He was scared to death. Well, last semester he took a speech class and he was wonderful.”

Elzey encouraged Kenny to write letters to his father and sister and he did, opening channels of communication that otherwise would have been limited due to distance. He continues today with the correspondence; Elzey drops the letters in the mail. He volunteers for philanthropic endeavors while staying the course on his studies, but still he’s Kenny – quiet and reserved, unwilling exploit his student-athlete status for any extra attention or special treatment.

Watching him excel on the football field – his dreadlocks flying in the wind – is a sight to behold, Elzey said. And of all the students Elzey has taught in the last three-plus decades, nobody has persevered more than Kenny Young. She knows his heartbreaks could fill books, including the latest chapter: the September murder of Andrew Glover.

It happened before Miami played at Central Michigan. The briiing of the phone preceded the gut-wrenching news of his cousin’s death. Kenny didn’t know what to do. His other cousin, Alicia, Andrew’s sister, was on the other end of the line, bereft, and he was more than 12 hours from home. Helpless. What had happened under the cloak of night? Why?

There isn’t much that will break Kenny Young. That call came close.

“I just busted out crying and hung up the phone. He was like a brother. That was real hard,” Kenny said.

The Tallahassee Democrat said Johnny Anderson III shot Glover in the parking lot of a Pita Pit restaurant. Both men and their respective friends went to a club that night, per court records. A friend of Glover’s got into a scuffle over a girl and had to be separated by Anderson and security. Records say Glover grew angry and also tried to start a fight, which ultimately led to the adversaries’ change of location by the Pita Pit. Glover was shot six times. Anderson faces one count of first-degree murder.

“He called me when that murder happened… and he wasn’t able to talk at first. He just broke down and talked about him and how he was like his brother and – oh my gosh. I was really worried about him,” Elzey said. “I thought, Oh my God, he’s going to go into a depression. And his studies are going to be affected and he’s not going to want to study anymore. He picked himself right up. The next day he was back into things again. That’s the story of his life. No excuses. He gets back up and keeps rolling along.”

Kenny flew to Tallahassee for the wake but could not stay for the funeral. He flew on to Michigan, suited up for the Central Michigan game, and played a pivotal role in the 31-14 win. He rushed for 91 yards and a touchdown and caught a pass for 14 yards while his stomach churned and his head pounded and his eyes stung.

“It was hard,” Kenny said softly. “I played the game and felt like I was about to die.”

Glover’s death was only part of the story, Khadijah said. Kenny lost his grandfather, another cousin (via a car accident) and Glover all in a row. Back to back to back. She has noticed the impact.

“Kenny lately, he gets mad about a lot of stuff really quick. He’s never had a quick temper. Anything you say to him, he just snaps back. I’m like, ‘What is wrong with you?’ I don’t think he’s been able to grieve and cope with it like he wants to because he’s so far away and he’s not physically here to feel it,” Khadija said. “I told him, ‘You have to grieve sometime.’ But his schedule is so hectic that he’s like, ‘I’m trying to focus on football, I’m trying to do school, I’m trying to focus on y’all as my family. I can’t let it bring me down.’”

Khadijah lives, for now, in Tallahassee with their baby daughter, Khalani. She just finished her dental assistant studies and graduates next week. The geographical arrangement between Khadijah in Florida and Kenny in Oxford has been bridged by daily FaceTime chats, and that seems to work well. Kenny stops what he’s doing in the RedHawks’ locker room or on campus to tend to the video. It’s the highlight of any day.

Miami University running back Kenny Young III (right) and his girlfriend, Khadijah Dickey, are the parents of a daughter, Khalani, who’s almost 2. (Photo provided)

Khalani, whose name means “the heavens” in Hawaiian (with an ‘h’ to honor Khadijah), is his sweet, unscathed lullaby, the tune he desperately wants to hear. Her name spills across Kenny’s left forearm, each letter tattooed in a different baby block. Although he vowed not to cry at her birth, that’s exactly what he did, overcome by emotion and the purpose she imparted.

She is his sunshine, Khadijah said.

“I want to give her what I didn’t have,” Kenny said. “I didn’t have a lot, so I just want to provide for her. I don’t want to let her see me struggle or I don’t want her to struggle. Whatever she needs, whatever she wants, she’s going to get. That’s my mind set. That’s why I’ve got to do the best for her.”

From the ashes, this phoenix will rise. Kenny Young dreams big, whether it’s winning a MAC Championship or finding his place in the NFL.

He knows there are things he cannot fix, like all the problems within his family. He yearns for reunions he used to attend, big celebrations packed with extended family members, but those get-togethers wilted long ago under the heat of longstanding arguments.

“I don’t know how everything changes. It was just so fun – family reunions with all your cousins, all your family members, running around and having a good time. And now it’s not like that,” Kenny said.

Some Miami teammates have seen glimpses into his personal life. None know the extent of his anguished past, but that’s fine with him; he simply loves being around the RedHawks. He feeds off the playful energy of the newcomers and feels at home with the veterans he came up with. To them, he’s Kenny the star running back. Kenny the playmaker.

His stats have inflated in tandem with Miami’s growth under Martin, in part because Kenny has reshaped his body and maintained the streamlined physique. He had multiple hamstring injuries when he was younger because he was out of shape, but now he’s chiseled and strong, a compact 5-foot-7 and 179 pounds. Last week, he earned a place on the candidate list for the Doak Walker Award, given each year to the country’s top running back. He’s 378 yards shy of the 2,000-rushing yard career milestone, a distinction held by only 13 others in Miami football history. While he won’t be the most vocal guy on the field on any given game day, he will be the most dependable.

No. 3 is always in the mix when Miami makes a big play. Just watch, Martin said.

“Anybody who sees Kenny Young play football knows he’s great. He’s too small to block? He blocks. He doesn’t look like a receiver? He catches balls and runs routes. There’s nothing he can’t do on a football field. He never has a bad day out there. Even though he’s not tall, he’s super strong. If there’s a play to be made and Kenny’s involved, Kenny’s going to make it,” Martin said.

Kenny’s going to make it. The hopeful words stretch beyond football. Is this the new chord in his mind, a prophetic phrase on repeat? With a lifetime of grief behind him, there’s nothing he wants more.

(Top image: Miami University running back Kenny Young III finds paydirt. | Photo courtesy Miami University)