Making us proud

I called this one, and Bobby Casaletto can back me up.

It might say that Tyronne Pruitt's home town is Brockton on his Boston College football team bio page, but he spent most of his childhood in East Boston and was a member at the Salesian Boys & Girls Club. I worked at the Club for 13 years, leaving in the fall of 1997, and I knew Tyronne, as well as his three brothers.

Tyronne was at the Club virtually every day, and he was a great kid. Unlike older brother Gary -- who was just about the most outgoing and funniest person you ever want to meet -- Tyronne, the youngest of the foursome, was reserved and deliberate. He was an excellent athlete, but I'd seen a dozens of excellent athletes in my time as a member and staffer at the Club. Tyronne was unique in the attention he gave to his studies.

In the time after the Club opened at 2:30 and before we started running events, I distinctly remember Tyronne -- then in the 5th, 6th and 7th grades -- grabbing a table, pulling out his homework and getting it done, patiently and neatly. Other kids did homework at the Club, but I have no memory of any particular youngster doing it most every day -- except Tyronne. He cared about his grades, and he was an A student.

He was a smart athlete, too ... good at most everything he tried. It was football, however, that I saw as the perfect match for Tyronne. We only played tag football on the cracked asphalt outside the building, and I never heard Tyronne indicate that he loved the game above any other sport, but the combination of brains, build and ability led me to say aloud that I thought he would be an exceptional football player someday -- probably a running back. I know I said this to my friend and co-worker Bobby Casaletto.

Tyronne is now a senior at Boston College. He's not a running back now, but he was in Brockton, where the family moved not long after I left the Club. He was all-scholastic in his junior and senior years at Brockton High, rushing for more than 1,000 yards in each. He was also team captain those two years, which speaks to his character.

A defensive standout at linebacker in high school, BC put him in that spot and he started every game (except yesterday: sprained ankle) over the past two seasons for the nationally-ranked program. Tyronne is a political science major, and I'm going to guess that he invests some time in his studies as well.