HS football: Ollie found new home with teammate, EPC

Walter Ollie remembers hearing gunshots from his home in Erie, Pennsylvania where he grew up. He remembers, too, the sight of drug dealers roaming the streets being an all too common sight. He remembers wanting to get out.

“Just a few blocks away from my house you could hear the gunshots,” Ollie said. “I just wanted to leave and get out of there because I didn’t want to be part of all of the gang related stuff going on.”

A simple Google search of the northeastern town highlights the attractions for potential tourists. There is the scenic draw of a massive lake and nearby parks. Some sites direct travelers looking for a hometown meal, to suitable places near the shipping port.

But Ollie wasn’t a traveler being ushered to the finest spots. He lived in the neighborhoods where it wasn’t safe to walk outside at night. He didn’t feel safe. The town averages 207 crimes per square mile, while the national average is just over 39, and Ollie was worried about what his life would become if he hung around too many of the wrong people.

When Ollie got a chance to leave, he took it. And it took a family of loving and caring people to help deliver a life that he had searched for when he made the cross-country trip as a sixth grader.

Ollie moved to Freeport with his mother, away from the violence and drugs that filled the small lake town. Freeport was where he met Silas Jacobs.

Jacobs grew up in Freeport and lived with his mother when he first met Ollie through athletics. The two were friendly but never hung out outside of school, until a heavy snowstorm wiped out a basketball tournament their sophomore year.

“We were supposed to have a basketball tournament and it got cancelled,” Jacobs said. “We we waiting around to go home and Walter didn’t have a ride home, so he came over to my house.”

Jacobs’ mother, Leslie Pro, drove the two back to her house in Freeport where Ollie and Jacobs played video games while the snow was piling up outside. Ollie liked shooter games such as Call of Duty, while Jacobs liked playing FIFA soccer. They compromised and played both.

“I knew of Silas but I didn’t know him that well,” Ollie said. “But that one day we were at his house playing video games, I realized he was a pretty cool kid.”

Ollie began spending more and more time at Jacobs’ house. A couple days soon turned into weeks, then months. It was March when he went home to the house his mother had in Freeport. Ollie and his mother traveled back to Erie during that spring to visit family, and when he was there he realized why he had left.

Ollie began texting Jacobs, saying that he wanted to leave Erie for good.

“Silas told me that Walter had been talking with him about how he didn’t want to be out there anymore,” Pro said. “He wanted to come back. Silas’ dad and I talked and we decided we would do whatever it would take to take in him.”

Pro signed papers that legally gave her guardianship of Ollie that summer before their junior year, and Ollie has been part of the family ever since.

Jacobs’ father, Tracy, lives on a dairy farm in Pearl City. Tracy has had a series of medical complications including diabetes and a kidney transplant, as well as an upcoming open-heart surgery appointment scheduled for December.

It has been harder and harder for Tracy to manage the daily demands that the farm requires, and Jacobs wanted to help.

When Ollie returned to Freeport, he came back alone and moved in with Jacobs’ family. Before their junior year began, both Ollie and Jacobs moved to Pearl City to help with the farm and look after Tracy.

“He has never said it out loud but I know that’s why Silas wanted to move out there,” Pro said. “Silas is a very caring kid toward his mom and dad, and he knew that the farm wouldn’t be able to take care of itself.”

Now, Ollie and Jacobs handle most of the farm work. When Jacobs was growing up, the farm had about 70 cows, but that number has dwindled to 20 cows, which need to be fed and milked daily.

The average day calls for them to wake up about an hour earlier than most of their peers, in order to get their chores finished in time for school. They balance late-night athletic practices and homework, with those early-morning duties on the farm and long school days.

“It is definitely an experience,” Ollie said. “I went from the ghetto projects type of living to all the way out here with farm work. I’m still getting used to it a bit, but I know what I’m doing now.”

Ollie feels at home here. Pro said during the time Ollie lived with her, he wouldn’t scoff when asked to shovel the driveway or help with the dishes. In his phone, Pro is listed as Momma Pro, which excited Pro, as she views him as another son.

“I don’t do anything more for Silas than I do for Walter,” Pro said. “I look at Walter and I see a son. Whether it’s Christmas, or a birthday, it’s all 100 percent the same. I absolutely love having him here.”

Their relationship has evolved into that of a mother and son. During Ollie’s first year at Pearl City, he had gotten into trouble. He called Pro, crying, wanting to talk.

Pro’s parents – Jacobs’ grandparents – recently gave money to both Jacobs and Ollie to spend during their trip to Champaign for their state football game on Friday.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Pro said. “I would do it 100 times more if I had the chance. I love bragging about Walter. He really excels at football, and my family has taken them in as well. My mom and dad gave both of them money to spend on something fun in Champaign. They give to both the boys and that’s really great.

Eastland-Pearl City coach Randy Asche has seen a big improvement with his senior star since his junior year.

“He’s adapted well,” Asche said. “I think he realized that sports has been something that has always been a structure for him, and you see him developing into a young man.

“It’s hard what he’s going through, and what he’s had to do because you can’t get a hug through a phone or a computer screen. But he’s been an awesome person to be around, and the kids look up to him, and I think a lot of that comes from what Silas’ family has been able to do.”

Now, Ollie and Jacobs are in Champaign today for the Class 2A state football championship game against Maroa-Forsyth. The Wildcatz will look to Ollie for explosive plays. He is an athletic running back with 1,066 yards on 114 carries with 17 touchdowns this season, despite tearing his meniscus during the first round of the playoffs.

On defense, he has intercepted opposing quarterbacks 10 times this season, including four times in the playoffs.

“It’s nice living with your best friend,” Jacobs said. “He’s really my brother. We fight like brothers do about little things, but in the end we’ll be here for each other.”

“I wanted to get a fresh start,” Ollie said. “This was more than I could have asked for.”