Loss shapes bond for Clemson football duo

Former Florida high school teammates used friendship to overcome adversity

By PAUL STRELOW - pstrelow@thestate.com

CLEMSON — The news came as Jamie Harper reached his public-speaking class late one March morning.

His teacher had received a phone call with word that the father of Harper’s close friend and future Clemson football teammate Daniel Andrews Jr. had died after a relatively brief bout with cancer.

Harper and another friend skipped the class and made the quick drive to Andrews’ home.

“If we had gotten into trouble, well, we’d have gotten into trouble,” Harper said.

Harper and Andrews, recent graduates of Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, Fla., have been by each other’s sides for more than a decade — a key factor in their decisions to play football at the same college.

Life circumstances have stitched their bond tighter, making both all the more appreciative they began their lives away from home this month as college roommates.

Harper’s mother, Dietria, died of lung cancer when Harper was 9. Her name is tattooed across his back.

As Andrews continues coping, Harper has made a point to stick close as a sounding board.

“Whenever it first happened, people don’t know what to say,” Andrews said. “With most, it’s kind of awkward. But he knew how it felt. And ever since then, our relationship has grown stronger.”

GOING SOLO

Their first memories of each other revolve around strength — at least, Andrews’ lack of it.

Harper, a stout 6-foot, 234-pound power running back regarded among the nation’s top prospects at his position, was likewise an oversized ramrod when he began youth football at age 7.

It was then he befriended — and frequently plowed over — the runt-sized Andrews on their first Pop Warner squad.

Born in his parents’ hometown of Waco, Texas, Harper moved as in infant when his dad, Jamie Harper Jr., a Naval air engineer, was assigned to Jacksonville’s base.

A day after Jamie Jr. returned from a six-month mission, Dietria got the diagnosis. Harper was oblivious to the severity of his mother’s illness until she started chemotherapy.

Ten months after the diagnosis, Dietria died, leaving Jamie Jr. to care for their four sons.

He was given an honorable discharge to care for his family and went to work at the local bread factory.

For the past five years, Jamie Jr. has worked for a towing company owned by the parents of one of Harper and Andrews’ close friends.

“I had to do a lot of things on my own, so I wasn’t spoiled,” Harper said. “My dad, he was always working, so he couldn’t always be out there playing catch or making sure you’re doing things right. So I had to get out there on my own.

“There were a lot of rough times financially, and we moved a lot. But we made it work. We just had to come together and stick it out.”

Several people close to the Trinity Christian program suggest Andrews’ father, Dan, grew into a guardian of sorts for Harper — helping him get into Trinity and adjust to its more rigorous academic standards.

Thus, Harper inherited a sense of responsibility when Andrews experienced a similar void.

“I wanted to be somebody he could talk to,” Harper said. “Because that’s the worst part. You have your times at night when you’re lonely and thinking about your parents. You just want somebody to talk to and it seems like nobody’s there.”

SETTING AN EXAMPLE

Harper speaks in short sentences as he recalls the final months of Dan’s life in an apparent effort to avoid tearing up.

Dan, who co-owned a plumbing company, was a prominent figure in the Trinity Christian community.

His dad started the athletics booster club. Harper was among those who attended the family’s open-house Bible study on Wednesday nights.

Dan’s wife and Andrews’ mother, Suzanne, is the childhood friend of Trinity Christian football coach Verlon Dorminey’s wife, and through that relationship Dan wound up serving as a volunteer offensive line coach the past 15 seasons.

So the collective heart of a community sank when, the night before the Conquerors’ season finale, Dan was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is regarded as one of the most painful forms of cancer, and patients typically experience a quicker rate of declining health.

A week later, Dan made a surprise appearance before Trinity Christian’s first-round playoff loss to the eventual state runner-up and gave a pregame speech about mustering the strength to overcome obstacles.

Dan died March 5, a little more than five months after the diagnosis.

“Coaching was his hobby,” Andrews said. “He always wanted to do something to help other people and mentor kids.

“He always looked out for the underdog because one day they would look out for you.”

This spring, Andrews thought it fitting he happened upon the HGTV episode of “Deserving Design” featuring the family of Clemson basketball signee Tanner Smith.

Smith’s dad, Craig, beat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in the early 1990s but is disabled because of a disease resulting from a bone-marrow transplant.

Andrews wears his faith on his sleeve, and the story inspired Andrews to believe he can provide counsel to Clemson classmates who endure similar tragedies. Andrews, Harper and Smith already have made acquaintances on campus.

“Right now you really can’t see why God did that, but you know he did it for a reason,” Andrews said. “Now Jamie and I have the opportunity ... we can say we’ve been there, we’ve been through that, and God will give you peace. I feel like that’s why it happened, so we can help people up there.”

THE TIES THAT BIND

Trinity Christian Academy, tucked in the pines just off the interstate in west Jacksonville, includes grades K-12 as well as a college, church and day-care facility.

While the spacious campus consumes 158 acres, it by no means exudes private-school opulence, either.

The cavernous weight room and coaches’ office are inauspiciously housed under the football stadium’s aluminum bleachers. In general, the football facilities are befitting a program that plays at the 2A high school level.

Although there were 118 seniors in the school’s graduating class, it merely seems everyone migrated to Trinity Christian through their connections to the Normandy Athletic Association, the nearby youth sports organization.

Andrews and Harper’s core group of friends all played together in the Normandy leagues, including Harper’s 17-year-old younger brother, Tony. Clemson quarterback and early enrollee Kyle Parker also attended Trinity Christian as a freshman before transferring.

Andrews attended Trinity Christian for his primary and secondary education, but Harper did not make the move until his freshman year.

Harper’s two older brothers attended the same public high school, and Jamie Jr. said he wanted to explore alternatives.

When Harper’s sixth-grade elementary school teacher informed Harper Jr. that his son had expressed desire to follow his friends to Trinity Christian, the father relented to consider it as a high school option.

“Until you experience it, you can’t believe how big of a family it is there,” Harper Jr. said.

MAKE IT A COMBO

Harper’s stock soared after a March 2007 recruiting combine showing in which he was timed at 4.35 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

USC offered a scholarship first, but Clemson had made a favorable impression on Harper by being the first to mail him letters.

Andrews said he and Harper talked often about attending the same college, but the 6-foot, 194-pound safety remained a blip on the radar until Harper’s recruitment intensified.

Harper said they never were exclusively a package deal, nor did they paint that picture to recruiters.

Still, it raised eyebrows when competing schools showed interest in Andrews at roughly the same time.

Last summer, Florida offered Andrews a preferred walk-on spot, Andrews said. In early November, Miami and Clemson, respectively, tendered Andrews scholarship offers.

Andrews said Florida responded by saying while it lacked room in its class, it would find a scholarship if Harper chose the Gators.

“That’s when we kind of backed off,” Andrews said.

And when Clemson shifted into the driver’s seat.

Harper said he felt some schools tried to use their friendship to obtain his services.

Andrews, meanwhile, said he believes Clemson and Miami had legitimate interest in his abilities.

Andrews and his dad developed a close rapport with the Tigers’ Jacksonville recruiter, receivers coach Dabo Swinney — to the degree Andrews suggested Swinney will be his father figure while on campus.

Clemson also was aided by the fact the Andrews family owns a home in one of the Upstate’s upscale golf communities, so there was a familiarity and comfort with the area.

Andrews figured he and Harper were bound for Clemson until Harper “put a scare” in him.

Harper said he “fell in love” with Illinois in early December because of how he fit in with its players.

Florida’s demise was cemented when running backs coach Stan Drayton, their recruiter, took a job at Tennessee in January.

Harper and Andrews contend they seldom discussed recruiting in the month leading up to signing day, with Andrews telling Harper he would let God handle it.

“I wasn’t worried,” Andrews said. “Everything happens for a reason, and I think Clemson happened for a reason.”

During a signing-day ceremony televised live by ESPNU, Harper told Andrews he was sorry Andrews would have to be on his own as a college senior at Clemson; he would be gone (presumably to the NFL) in three years.

“I was ready to go to Illinois, and everybody thought Davis’ decision was going to have a major effect,” Harper said, referring to Clemson starting running back James Davis’ surprising withdrawal from the NFL Draft in mid-January.

“But it was a plus to me to have two guys in front of me who know how to play and work hard. To be motivated by them, there was nothing better.”

“Then I thought about all the guys from here (Jacksonville) who are going to Clemson and how far it is to Illinois and how hard it would be for my family to go see me play. It started to narrow things down, and in the end, Clemson was the place for me.”

Harper is expected to net situational carries this season behind Davis and C.J. Spiller, then inherit the starting job if Spiller bolts to the NFL as assumed.

Andrews has worked at strongside linebacker during drills this month and hopes to make an impact on special teams.

Harper and Andrews share an on-campus dorm suite with another of the six Jacksonville-area newcomers, deep snapper Matt Skinner.

Andrews has eagerly awaited the college transition as a new beginning that will help him move past the painful trials of the past several months.

Whether Harper made his choice with Andrews in mind, Andrews is more than thankful.

“It would be hard, after going through (the grieving), to go up to Clemson without knowing someone,” Andrews said.

“But having Jamie and knowing he’s been through the same thing, it’s going to make it easier.”