Change is Good for Lydell
Chris Dufresne
Los Angeles
Times December 30, 2008
Barack Obama's "change" message, delivered to central Pennsylvania last spring at a campaign rally, was a subject Penn State senior cornerback Lydell Sargeant knew well.
As the son of a career military man, Sargeant changed a lot -- mostly addresses.
The summer before Lydell's sophomore year in high school, Drew Sargeant was transferred from Pittsburgh to Lompoc, north of Santa Barbara.
But on dispatch day, with the family car running and ready to go, Rhonda couldn't find her son.
"He and some friends ran away," she said. "We had to find him. It took three hours to get him in the car."
Lydell was discovered hiding in the woods, near a local football field.
Rhonda can't forget that day because she cried through most of it.
Change was hard, but it was how Lydell came to California and ultimately came to love it.
Change helped him to thrive in football at Cabrillo High, earn a scholarship to play for Joe Paterno and turn a 4-7 Penn State program into Big Ten Conference champion.
Change tripped the dominoes that put Sargeant on center stage as he helped get a candidate to the White House.
And change also triggered a return trip "home" to the Rose Bowl as the only Southern Californian listed on Penn State's roster.
Good thing he got in that car.
"He definitely became a man in four years at Penn State," Lydell's mother says.
Rhonda wanted her son to attend Stanford -- or anywhere but Penn State. She's a University of Pittsburgh grad.
"He was not only 3,000 miles away, he was at the wrong school," she joked in a telephone interview.
But everyone is happy now.
Sargeant developed into an accomplished cornerback on the nation's fifth-ranked defense. His four interceptions lead a unit that has given up only six touchdown passes this season.
Sargeant spent only three years in California, and Lompoc is nowhere near Hollywood and Vine, yet he's the player teammates have turned to for a map of the stars.
"I'm the designated tour guide," Sargeant said.
Getting here was quite a trip.
Drew Sargeant has been in the United States Air Force for 21 years. Lydell was born in New Jersey but has lived in Germany, Arizona, Pennsylvania and California.
Leaving suburban Pittsburgh after six years was the toughest transition. Sargeant had formed friendships and bonds. He went from a winning high school football team to a losing one.
His mother says sports helped Lydell assimilate into new situations.
"He always had a team he felt part of," Rhonda said.
Sargeant developed into a star running back at Cabrillo, rushing for 1,772 yards as a senior. He was rated nationally by Rivals.com as the 12th-best football athlete in his class.
Through the prep circuit, he came to know some of the USC Trojans who will be on the opposite sideline in the Rose Bowl -- Mark Sanchez, Kevin Ellison, Rey Maualuga.
Sargeant chose Penn State over Oregon, the other school recruiting him hard, because Justin King, one of his closest friends at Gateway High outside Pittsburgh, had decided on the Nittany Lions. King, a star cornerback, left Penn State after three years and last year was the St. Louis Rams' fourth-round draft choice.
Sargeant was part of a recruiting class that probably saved Paterno an ignominious exit. Penn State was 21-26 in the four seasons before Sargeant's class arrived. The Nittany Lions are 40-10 since.
"He's an angel," Sargeant said of his coach, who turned 82 on Dec. 21. "I think God definitely has a hand on him. To play with the best coach, in my eyes, the best coach to ever coach college football, is a blessing. To know him personally, to have spent four years underneath him, learning from him, kind of watching his every move, is something I'll remember the rest of my life."
Sargeant played 139 snaps as a freshman on an 11-1 team that would have gone to Pasadena if not for the fact the Rose Bowl that year hosted the Bowl Championship Series national title game between USC and Texas. Penn State went to the Orange Bowl instead, defeating Florida State.
This fall, Sargeant earned second-team all-Big Ten recognition. And the spring wasn't shabby, either.
In March, in front of 22,000 on the Old Main Lawn on campus, Sargeant stood on stage at a campaign rally with Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Barack Obama.
Sargeant introduced Casey to the roaring crowd and later handed a Penn State jersey to the man who would become president-elect.
Obama and Sargeant chatted afterward, but not about politics.
"We just had a normal conversation," Sargeant recalled. "It was kind of a blur. It was probably the fastest five to 10 minutes of my life."
Sargeant was so struck by Obama's closing remarks he did a double take.
"At the end of the conversation, he said, 'I'm proud of you.' And I said, 'What?' He said, 'I'm proud of you.' That's something I'll definitely remember."
Never before had Sargeant been caught up in a cause. "I actually had no interest in politics," he said.
Sargeant first became enamored of Obama after hearing him speak at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
Lydell's dad was serving in Afghanistan at the time.
"There were a lot of issues," he said.
When Obama announced his candidacy for 2008, Lydell became a political player.
He joined the "Penn State Students for Barack Obama" campaign and also served on a nonpartisan get-out-the-vote club.
Sargeant spent Nov. 4 mobilizing the masses.
"We made sure students voted," he said. "We had maps for them to tell them what polling places they had to go to."
Sargeant said he secured votes from Jay and Sue Paterno, Joe's son and wife, but wasn't about to press his head coach on the issue.
"He's keeping his vote private," Sargeant joked of Joe Paterno, who spoke at the 1988 Republican convention. "We got three-fourths of the family."
Election night 2008 was a buzz as Sargeant watched the returns come in.
"As an African American myself, to have the first African American president, well, it was definitely emotional," he said. "[Obama's acceptance] speech was amazing. Just that whole night is something I'll never forget."
The week was spoiled only by a last-second loss on Nov. 8 at Iowa, a defeat that cost Penn State a trip to the national title game.
Friends have told Sargeant he has what it takes to run for office someday.
"I don't know," he said. "Politics is a lot of stress . . . People have said I have the personality, but I don't know if that's the road to go."
In one respect, though, running for office is a lot like football.
Said Sargeant: "Politics is only fun when you win."
chris.dufresne@latimes.com===============================
And Vai??Vai Taua performs on national TV today at 1:30 on ESPN from Boise's Humanitarian Bowl.
