Early Years
Alexander was raised by a mother who worked all of the time to support her family while his father was in prison. His oldest brother was in and out of legal trouble and the middle brother was following suit. Alexander met the Barham family, David and Melinda, while he was in junior high. In need of a stable living environment, the Barhams spoke to Alexander's mother, Siene, about having Alexander move in with them. The Barhams never legally adopted Alexander. David Barham accepted a job as the football coach at Christian Life Academy in Baton Rouge, LA and he brought Alexander with him. Alexander became a dominant player, leading his team to district titles his junior and senior year. Barham began to actively pursue colleges on his behalf as Alexander was listed as a top 20 high school linebacker. Barham initiated contact with Oklahoma's defensive coordinator Brent Venables in December 2001. The Sooners offered Alexander a scholarship and he chose Oklahoma over several other offers.
Read more about this topic: Rufus Alexander
Famous quotes containing the words early years, early and/or years:
“I believe that if we are to survive as a planet, we must teach this next generation to handle their own conflicts assertively and nonviolently. If in their early years our children learn to listen to all sides of the story, use their heads and then their mouths, and come up with a plan and share, then, when they become our leaders, and some of them will, they will have the tools to handle global problems and conflict.”
—Barbara Coloroso (20th century)
“In the early forties and fifties almost everybody “had about enough to live on,” and young ladies dressed well on a hundred dollars a year. The daughters of the richest man in Boston were dressed with scrupulous plainness, and the wife and mother owned one brocade, which did service for several years. Display was considered vulgar. Now, alas! only Queen Victoria dares to go shabby.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“It would astonish if not amuse, the older citizens of your County who twelve years ago knew me a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flat boat—at ten dollars per month to learn that I have been put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family distinction.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)