Jerry Mc Collough

HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS: BASKETBALL; Graduation: Surviving Despite Odds
By FILIP BONDY
Published: Monday, June 24, 1991
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LinkedinDiggFacebookMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalinkTwo of New York City's very best basketball players, Jerry McCullough from Manhattan and Orlando Antigua of the Bronx, graduated from high school this month and are headed to the University of Pittsburgh.

Both have suffered gunshot wounds.

Tall, slim Andre Riddick, a top center and forward at Bishop Loughlin in Brooklyn, is going to the University of Kentucky, where he will room in a spacious athletic dorm and might well become the biggest man on the Lexington campus.

Riddick's older brother was murdered on a No. 2 subway train for his gold chain, when Andre was 12 years old. His father was fatally struck by a cab two blocks from his East New York home in 1980, when Andre was just 5.

These elite 17- and 18-year-olds are headed for a different world, one of full scholarships, verdant quadrangles and packed basketball arenas. With the help of family, coaches and friends, they have survived the perilous neighborhoods, suffered the English homework and cleared 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Now, they await their rewards with high school diploma in hand. Ask them about adjustments and their smiles are wistful.

"I just want to leave here," Riddick said. "Get away from the violence and stuff. I always wanted to go places, but I never had the chance."

Riddick will have that opportunity now, as will McCullough, Antigua and Terence Rencher, a teammate of Antigua's at St. Raymond's High School who was voted the top high school player in New York City and left this week for the University of Texas.

None were A students, and all admit they could have pushed themselves a little harder in school. But these four players were among the most sought-after basketball recruits in the New York metropolitan area, and college coaches were thrilled to offer safe haven.

"Because of the way these kids have grown up, change is very easy to them," said Pittsburgh assistant coach John Sarandrea, who coached eight years at Tolentine High School in the Bronx. "The only adjustment now is that their school days aren't as regimented, and there is some trial and error there. But just that they got this far says something about them."

At Pitt, a Big East power, Antigua and McCullough will carry attendance cards to every class, like all the freshmen, to certify they are showing up for their courses. At Texas of the Southwest Conference, Rencher will be able to take advantage of special tutoring and work-study programs. At Kentucky, which is in the Southeastern Conference, Riddick will live in a dormitory with his fellow players. They will be carefully monitored, maybe pampered a little.

The four stars arrive at this moment of time, and privilege, with quite different tales. Antigua, from the Bronx, still carries a bullet in his head from Halloween night 1989, when the manager of an electronics store on the Grand Concourse fired a shot at some youths who were throwing eggs outside the store. Antigua says he was standing on a car bumper, watching. The bullet just missed his left eye, and his brain. Doctors left the bullet where it was lodged.

"I guess I'll be telling this story a lot at Pitt," Antigua said. "Nobody there has heard it yet."

Antigua rejoined his team at St. Raymond's High School within a month. Soon, there were other problems. Last summer, Antigua's family, which would gather in celebration at St. Patrick's Cathedral this month to watch Orlando climb marble stairs and claim his diploma, was evicted from its apartment, its possessions impounded by the city.

Antigua lived with friends until his mother, Damaris Fernandez, managed to traverse a language barrier and acquire assistance. The 6-foot-6-inch forward didn't miss a beat. He went on to become a dominant player on the city's Catholic High School Athletic Association champions, and the student government president. This spring, he and Coach Gary DeCesare supervised the production of a video yearbook for seniors.

Antigua became protective of his younger brother, Oliver, after the shooting incident. He chose Pitt, he said, because the city is close enough that he can stay in touch, yet without the violence of New York. "I will watch him on television all the time," his mother promised at the graduation. "I will miss him a lot." 'Can't Build Up Hatred'

Lenora Riddick remembers that her little son could never get himself to view the body of his father at the funeral. Andre remembers being awakened by his mother's sobs in the middle of the night, discovering his 23-year-old brother, Alfred Jr., had been shot dead on the subway. "I thought it was a dream," Riddick said. "After that, I kind of stayed to myself."

Lenora Riddick kept telling Andre, "You can't build up hatred." She decided that her youngest son would go to a Catholic school, to Bishop Loughlin. "The Catholic schools let you know when your child is absent," she said. "The kids have to face the world, but you try to be protective."

Andre Riddick didn't like this notion of private school. He didn't work hard; he rebelled. "I got suspended a few times," he said. "I tried to be bad, because I never wanted to be here. If I had tried hard, I could have been a valedictorian."

He didn't like basketball much, either, but he played it out of boredom and because he was big. Riddick grew during high school, from 6-5 to 6-9, and the letters started pouring in from different colleges. They became handwritten letters, which meant the coaches were serious. Riddick visited his allotted five campuses, including the one at Lexington to see the Wildcats' persuasive coach, Rick Pitino. "He didn't make me any promises," Riddick said, "but I just thought I'd do the best there."

McCullough's father, James, was a New York City police officer when Jerry was 3 years old. One day, Jerry and his brother, Dennis, stacked three chairs in a bedroom to reach his service revolver. The gun backfired, a bullet ripping all the way through Jerry's left elbow. "My dad retired from the force right after that," Jerry McCullough said.

His left arm was permanently twisted, but the injury was no handicap on the court. McCullough demonstrated such pure point-guard skills at Rice High School in Manhattan, that Sarandrea says he will see plenty of time his freshman season.

"Jerry is going to be thrown in deep water from the beginning," said Sarandrea, who recruited McCullough and Antigua for Pittsburgh Coach Paul Evans. "Jerry is what an inner-city basketball player is supposed to be about. A suburban kid scores a basket and says, 'Now, I've got to get back on defense.' A city kid scores and says, 'How can I steal the ball?' "

McCullough is not like Riddick, the introvert. McCullough's basketball pace feeds off the city's vibrations, and that is why he chose Pitt. "The area off campus reminded me of 42d Street," said McCullough, who might room with Antigua in a dormitory tower on campus. "Bar, bar, fast-food place. I like the city life."

Rencher, like McCullough, was raised by two working parents: Marsha, a travel auditor for Saks Fifth Avenue, and Paul, a carman for Metro North. Terence stayed out of trouble, although he was no egghead. "If he ever studied, I'd be scared of him," Marsha Rencher said. "He ended up with an 81 average, and I don't think he ever opened a book. But he got it done."

Rencher is a silky 6-3 guard who exploded his senior season, turning the heads of DeCesare and a wave of scouts from South Carolina, Rutgers, Seton Hall and Florida State. Rencher chose Texas -- even though Coach Tom Penders was not one of the more aggressive recruiters -- after he watched the Longhorns on television and noticed their wide-open pro style. Austin was nice, too, and a single dorm room was waiting.

For Rencher, Texas became an obsession. From the end of his high school season, he counted the days.

"I waited for so long, it seemed like graduation never was going to come," Rencher said.

This past week, Marsha Rencher watched her son pack his belongings and head for Austin, where Penders had helped arrange a summer job.

"It was hardest at the airport," she said. "I was brave. I didn't cry."

It helped, Marsha Rencher said, knowing that her son could be home by Thanksgiving, for the pre-season National Invitation Tournament. If Pitt and Texas win their first two games, they could face each other at Madison Square Garden: Rencher against McCullough and his former teammate, Antigua.

College kids, survivors, back for a visit.

Photos: Heading for higher courts: Terence Rencher, far left, with Orlando Antigua (and Emanuel Richardson in center) on graduation day at St. Raymond's; Jerry McCullough with his mother; and Andre Riddick, right, with classmate during preparations for ceremony at Bishop Laughlin. (Ruby Washington/The New York Times; Jim Estrin for The New York Times) (pg. B6)

A version of this article appeared in print on Monday, June 24, 1991, on section C page 1 of the New York edition.More Articles in Sports >

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