Once homeless, South Carolina's Javon Kinlaw found new lease on life through football

Manie Robinson | The Greenville News

Show Caption Hide Caption Gamecock coach Will Muschamp: DT Javon Kinlaw 'an example for us all' South Carolina Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp praised the maturation and perseverance of defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw

COLUMBIA — The 2,000-mile move from Trinidad and Tobago to Washington, D.C., did not daunt Leesa James. She arrived in the United States in 1995 with a heart of hope and a habit of hard work.

The seven-mile move from D.C. to Hyattsville, Maryland, was more difficult. In 2008, James ventured to the D.C. suburb to pursue a business opportunity and provide a more enriching environment for her children. When a partner pulled out of the plan, James was left without work.

And without a home.

“It was a leap of faith that didn’t work out too well,” James said. “That was my only means of work. It was just me, and I was just trying to support myself and my children at the same time.

“Sometimes you trust people thinking they have the right intentions of helping you, and it doesn't actually work out that way. We were literally homeless for a while.”

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Without a steady source of income, James could not keep her family in the house she secured for them in Hyattsville. Fortunately, she found shelter in the compassion of friends and neighbors, including Jillian Behram.

For two months, James squeezed into Behram’s basement with two of her three sons, including her youngest, Javon Kinlaw, who was 10 years old and already more than five feet tall.

“It was really difficult for me, but I knew at that time that I was going to try to do something better,” said Kinlaw, now a junior defensive tackle at the University of South Carolina, which opens the 2018 season Saturday against Coastal Carolina.

Kinlaw watched his mother work tirelessly as the family shuffled between homes. Through misfortune, he forged fortitude. It propelled him along a 10-year odyssey from Hyattsville to D.C. to Charleston to Ellisville, Mississippi, and then to Columbia.

His address was an oscillating abstraction, but on the football field, Kinlaw found a home and eventually found himself.

Home base

Before they had a child of their own, Jillian Behram and Jason Farley were duly deputized parents to the young men in their Hyattsville neighborhood.

"My husband had a huge heart. The boys just kind of flocked to him and vice versa," Behram said. "Javon and his brother lived across the street. They were over all the time. We would do spaghetti dinners for them and help with homework."

And yard work.

"He tried to get us to cut grass and rake the leaves," Kinlaw recalled with a laugh. "He tried to instill some rules. If we messed up, we had to do jumping jacks or run or something. He was really a father figure to us. He would teach us things that men are supposed to know."

Farley's guidance taught Kinlaw how to recognize genuine kindness. Farley's death taught Kinlaw how to handle abrupt loss.

Farley was killed in a motorcycle accident in the summer of 2008.

"I cried like a little baby at that funeral," Kinlaw said. "That was rough on me, because I really loved that he was in my life. It was unreal."

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The bereavement was exacerbated shortly after the accident, when James and her family were forced out of their home. Despite her recent loss, when she learned of James' predicament, Behram continued her husband's legacy of selflessness.

"Regardless of what I was going through, there was a family that was struggling and in need," Behram said. "When their mom asked if they could stay, I don't really think it was an option."

The only sleeping space Behram could offer was her unfinished basement.

"It was not the best circumstances," Behram said. "If you had better provisions to put someone in, you would, but at the time, that's what I had. We had to make it work to the best of our ability."

James gratefully accepted Behram's generosity, and her family joined Behram for many more spaghetti dinners. Two months later, James returned to D.C. where the public transportation was reliable and the work was steady. But supporting her family was no easier. They never enjoyed a place of their own.

James desired more stability for Kinlaw. Thus, in the summer of 2013, she sent him to Charleston to live with his father.

“It was tough. It still is tough,” said James, who still lives with friends and family in D.C. “Parents never get over stuff like that.”

Home away from home

By 2013, Kinlaw had sprouted well above six feet. Tall tales of his size and athletic prowess preceded him through the halls of Goose Creek High School. Timothy Davis was skeptical.

Davis was also a sophomore on the Goose Creek football team. He had not yet met the acclaimed lineman from D.C., but he suspected the descriptions were exaggerated.

“There was no way he was as big as everybody was saying,” Davis said. “The first day of school, he walked into the cafeteria and just stood there in front of all the football players. I just remember thinking, ‘Good gosh, he really is that big!’”

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Davis quickly learned that Kinlaw’s imposing physique belied his relaxed and reticent nature.

“We hit it off, and we’ve been best friends ever since then,” Davis said. “Blood couldn’t make us closer.”

Kinlaw began accompanying Davis to his home after school and practices. Often.

“He would come over to our house every day,” said Calvin Davis, Timothy’s father and a prominent basketball coach in the Charleston area. “We would take him back and forth to school with us. At that time, I had one son and two daughters in the house, and he looked at them like they were his brother and sisters.”

"At the time, me and my dad were going through a little process," Kinlaw said. "Really, I didn't have anywhere to live, so I was always at their house. They treated me like family, and that was what I was always looking for."

The Davises provided as much support as they could for Kinlaw, but with his living situation still unstable, Kinlaw was compelled to provide for himself.

“I'd been doing grown-up stuff since I was a kid,” Kinlaw said. “Just trying to get myself stuff to eat and put money in my pocket. I would buy little candies from the store and go to school and try to sell it for higher.”

Kinlaw’s candy enterprise never flourished, but coaches, friends and mentors noticed his resourcefulness and resilience. It translated to the football field.

“Javon’s life was obviously not easy. He faced a lot of obstacles. He worked daily on trying to overcome those obstacles," said Chris Candor, who was Goose Creek’s defensive coordinator from 2006 to 2014 and then head coach from 2015 to 2017.

By the end of his first season at Goose Creek, Kinlaw was 6-foot-6 and nearly 270 pounds. He excelled on the defensive line and attracted the attention of then-South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier.

“They said they were offering me a scholarship. I was like, ‘What are you offering me?’ I didn’t really know what it was,” Kinlaw said. “I was like, ‘Wow, I can really try to do something with this. I'm going to try to stick it out.’ I was just playing football to pick up a hobby and stay off the streets at first.”

Kinlaw elevated his effort on the field, but he did not match that effort in the classroom. His grades worsened. Interest from major programs waned. Kinlaw fell into a rut between indifference and indignation.

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"I was getting in a lot of trouble. Sometimes I just wouldn't go to school. I wouldn't do the work," Kinlaw said. "I just never really took it serious at that time. The way I was thinking was, 'If I don't go to college, it is what it is, and it's over with.' "

“Somebody could say something to him and it was almost a fight,” Timothy Davis said. “Some of the adults at the school really didn't give him a chance to express who he really was. It was like, 'Oh, he has a bad rap sheet, so we're going to treat him accordingly.' There were only a few adults, mainly the coaches, that pushed him and said, 'This guy is going to make something of himself.’ ”

James, Candor and Calvin Davis joined forces as a chorus of encouragement. They implored Kinlaw to clutch the opportunity that was slipping through his hands.

“It would’ve been easier probably to kick Javon off the team,” Candor said. “But that’s not what sports is about. It’s easy to kick kids off. The hard thing is helping them. So, we stuck with it.

“I think having the football family around him allowed him to channel his energy. It gave him a positive in his life that he needed at that time.”

Will Muschamp replaced Spurrier as Carolina’s head coach in 2015 and quickly revived the Gamecocks’ relationship with Kinlaw.

"He'd never met me in his life. I'd never talked to him on the phone," Muschamp recalled. "I don't think that introduction over the phone is very good. You want to try and sit down eyeball to eyeball and talk to somebody about it."

Muschamp drove to Goose Creek High and shared a tailored plan to develop Kinlaw as a player, student and man. Kinlaw agreed to play his final season at Goose Creek and enroll in the GED program at Jones County Junior College in Ellisville, Mississippi.

"He really didn't have to talk me into it. I was homeless at the time," Kinlaw said. "My dad was staying in a motel. When Coach said 'Mississippi,' I really didn't know what I was doing or where I was going. But free food? Free bed? Why not?"

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“He got a second chance. He got the opportunity of a lifetime that he probably thought he would never get,” Calvin Davis said. “He made a conscious decision to make the best of it.”

Home renovation

After his senior season at Goose Creek and before leaving for Mississippi, Kinlaw participated in the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas. Prior to the annual showcase game, players visit the Shriners Hospital for Children in Greenville.

Meeting young patients who were battling orthopedic and neuromuscular conditions adjusted Kinlaw’s outlook. It placed his pain in perspective.

"They always say someone's always got it worse off than you. I realized that seeing those kids," Kinlaw said. "It made me want to focus and do a lot better for myself, because what I had could be gone in the blink of an eye."

Gamecocks' Javon Kinlaw recalls inspiring visit to children's hospital South Carolina Gamecocks defensive lineman Javon Kinlaw and his high school coach reflect on a life-changing experience at the Shriners Hospital

“I saw the light go off,” Candor said. “He really fell in love with those kids and started giving them his cleats and signing them. I swear when he came back, he just seemed changed, and the light just kept on shining.”

Kinlaw’s transformation accelerated in Ellisville.

Steve Buckley served as an assistant coach at the University of Southern Mississippi and Louisiana State University before becoming the head coach at Jones County in 2016. He knew exactly what Kinlaw needed to salvage a Division I offer.

It required Kinlaw to climb a mountain of coursework. Buckley gave him a backpack and helped him take the first step.

“I saw a glimmer in his eye that he wanted a chance to be great,” Buckley said. “We knew we didn't have much time to get him where he needed to be, so we strapped it on, bowed up and got it done.”

Buckley had a single season to improve Kinlaw’s grades and sharpen his technique on the defensive line. He did not have time for leniency.

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“Everybody’s got a story here,” Buckley said of junior college football. “There’s a reason all of them are here. I didn't give him a grace period. We didn't back down from what we believed in. We pushed him probably differently than he had ever been pushed before academically and athletically.”

The hardships Kinlaw endured through his childhood dissuaded him from trusting others. But by the end of the spring practice session, Kinlaw recognized the coaches’ sincerity, and he welcomed their guidance.

“Growing up, I really wouldn't try to take a lot of help from anyone,” Kinlaw said. “I came from being isolated and not really wanting to talk to a lot of people. I had to realize that people weren't against me.”

“Sometimes it was tough love,” Buckley said, “but once he realized we were for real and really cared about him, it clicked for him. He's not even the same person. He's always upbeat now. He knows the path to his destination, and he's striving to reach that goal.”

In 2016, Kinlaw compiled 26 tackles, 8.5 for loss including 4.5 sacks through nine games. He earned National Junior College Athletic Association All-American honors. He was also named to the dean's list.

With his grades in good standing, he attracted scholarship offers from Alabama and Southern California. However, he honored his previous commitment and signed with South Carolina.

Kinlaw arrived in Columbia weighing 340 pounds. He adjusted his diet, dropped to 300 and started 10 games last season at defensive tackle. He recorded 20 tackles, including two for loss. He also deflected three passes, recovered two fumbles, forced a fumble and blocked a kick.

“You have to put the work in, and he really put the work in,” Leesa James said of her son. “I'm really proud of that. He's been working his buns off. I just watch the way he carries himself. He makes my heart glad.”

Kinlaw closed the season 40 pounds lighter and much more lighthearted. He left Charleston as a reserved, guarded child. He returned to South Carolina as a confident, gregarious young man.

“Before he left, he was very quiet, very shy, very awkward,” Candor said. “His whole demeanor has changed. The way he treats people. The way he shakes your hand. The way he looks you in the eye. It’s the greatest turnaround I’ve ever seen in my life with any kid.”

"Sometimes a young man just needs an opportunity, needs somebody to believe in him," Muschamp said. "I've seen a guy mature tremendously, a young man that's been through some tough situations and continues to fight and persevere. He's an example for us all."

Home games

The support system Kinlaw collected along his journey has followed him on each subsequent step. Candor is now a financial advisor in Ladson, but his office door remains open for his former players.

There are four times as many undergraduate students on the USC campus as there are residents in Ellisville, Mississippi. Any time Kinlaw needs a quiet getaway, he can visit Buckley at Jones County.

Timothy Davis is a member of the track team at Charleston Southern University. He and Kinlaw remain each other’s biggest fans. The entire Davis family drives from Charleston to Williams-Brice Stadium to catch as many Carolina home games as they can.

Kinlaw nurtured his relationship with his father and also credits him with facilitating his transformation.

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"I love him. He is my dad, and without him I wouldn't be in this situation," Kinlaw said. "He made it possible for everything that's going on right now."

Leesa James cannot travel from D.C. to Columbia as often as she desires. She attended one of Javon’s games last season, but she watches on television every game she cannot attend. Even with nearly 500 miles separating them, Kinlaw and James remain inseparable.

“I send him a text every day. We message every day,” James said. “When I don't hear from him, I call him just to hear his voice.

“There are no words to describe how proud I am of him. He had to figure out his path and just figure out life, dealing with so much stuff. As a child, he was always strong-minded. He probably didn't know it at the time, but I knew he would be OK.”

The conversations James and Kinlaw share now are much more pleasant than the moments they shared in Hyattsville or in guest rooms in D.C. Yet, Kinlaw does not attempt to forget those memories. They fuel his focus.

“All those situations I've been in, they’re really like nightmares for me,” Kinlaw said. “I still dream about things like that. I don't want to go back to things like that. I just want to keep pushing, best I can.”

Kinlaw is scheduled to graduate in December with a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies. Another strong season could extend his odyssey to the National Football League. Whether on or off the field, Kinlaw aims for a career that will help him move his mother one last time.

Into her own house.

“My mama’s been here for 25 years and ain’t had her own place,” Kinlaw said. “It's all I want. I care about nothing else. All that other stuff will come, but right now, when I get the chance, I just want to have somewhere for us to call home."