Homecoming Game : After Two Years, Nogales High Running Back Edwards Returns Home : Football: The senior had to leave home during his sophomore year when his mother became ill.

It was moments after the final game of the regular season against Rowland High last week, and Nogales running back Tyrone Edwards had his reasons for being excited.

After all, he had scored a touchdown and played an integral role in leading the undefeated Nobles to a victory and their first Sierra League title since 1985.

With his 47 yards rushing, he had also surpassed the 1,000-yard rushing plateau for the second consecutive season.

But for the 17-year-old senior, the biggest thrill of the night was yet to come.

That was when, for the first time in more than two years, Edwards went home to live with his mother in West Covina.

“I didn’t even care if I didn’t get a single yard,” Edwards said. “It just made my night so much better to know I was going back home. It was on my mind all game and my teammates knew about it and that made us all feel better.”

It was Edward’s first night at home since the start of his sophomore year, when his mother, Jennie, was hospitalized with a heart murmur.

“My mother was sick and she was in the hospital a lot, and the bills just got so high that she couldn’t afford for me to live with her,” he said. “So she moved in with a friend and I was given a choice of either living with my dad or moving in with (a guardian).”

Edwards said he wouldn’t have minded moving in with his father, Clarence, who was divorced from his mother when Edwards was 7. But living with his father would have meant transferring from Nogales to Washington High in Los Angeles.

“I wanted to stay at Nogales because I had friends here and I was familiar with the environment,” he said. “I liked it here and I was doing well in sports and in my classes.”

His father agreed to allow Edwards to stay in Nogales and live with a guardian.

“He wanted me to stay with him, but he also wanted what was best for me,” Edwards said. “So he just told me to stay here and handle it, and that’s what I did.”

Edwards found a temporary guardian, junior varsity football Coach Don Montenez, with the help of former Nogales basketball Coach Mike Southworth.

“I give a lot of credit to Mike Southworth, because he gave me the chance to stay here,” Edwards said. “He knew a coach here and he asked if I could stay with him.”

It was a convenient arrangement for Edwards at the time because Montenez also coached him on the junior varsity football team.

“Don Montenez was my coach for my games, so I knew at least I would get a ride home,” he said. “But he lived in Rancho Cucamonga, and after the football season I knew I really had to move.”

About four months after he started living with Montenez, Edwards moved in with Richard George, his junior high school basketball coach. He lived with George for about eight months before moving again, this time for living for about 14 months with Bob Wilson and his family.

“I went to live with a friend from school and his family because it was closer and easier for me to live there,” he said.

The constant moving didn’t affect Edwards’ performance on the field or in the classroom. In addition to rushing for 1,000 yards or more the last two seasons, he has maintained a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.

Second-year Nogales football Coach Brian Beveridge said he has been astonished by what Edwards has accomplished through difficult times.

“When I was introduced to Tyrone last year, the other coaches filled me in about his situation,” Beveridge said. “The amazing thing is that he’s been able to do what he has with all of those things going on around him. He’s done a marvelous job of keeping everything together under difficult circumstances.”

The coach said it would be difficult to tell that Edwards had any personal problems simply by watching or being around him.

“There is not anything outward about him--his grades, his personality or the way he plays--to tell you that he’s had these problems in his life,” Beveridge said. “To look or talk to him, you’d never know about it. You’d never know some of these things even existed in his life. He’s the kind of person who’s just a pleasure to be around.”

Beveridge said that as result of his problems outside of school, Edwards is probably more mature than most people his age.

“My parents helped change my attitude toward myself as if to say: ‘You’re a man now. You know what life is about,’ ” Edwards said. “My mom has been sorry about what’s happened to me, but she’s happy because she gave me the initiative to become a man.”

His attitude keeps Edwards from getting too carried away with his success on the football field.

“When they talk about people having a big head, I know that’s childish,” he said. “I’m over that kind of thing. I’m looking at my sports that I play in high school and my grades as my career right now, and that’s just the way I treat it.”

Edwards rushed for 1,100 yards as a junior and 1,001 yards and 11 touchdowns on 122 carries this season--an average of 8.2 yards a carry.

Edwards said the first three games this season were especially difficult for him.

“I knew they were keying on me, but I didn’t make it any better by being tentative when I was carrying the ball,” he said.

That prompted a heart-to-heart discussion with his coach.

“He had a new line and he had to gain confidence, and we also set him aside and talked to him and how he’s a lot more aware of himself,” Beveridge said. “Since the fourth game, he has really come on.”

Said Edwards: “Last year I was a little spoiled because our line just gave me the holes all the time. After the first three games I talked to the coaches and we decided I just had to bear down more and take whatever (defenses) gave me.”

As a result, Edwards has averaged nearly 150 yards over the past six games.

“He’s big and he’s intelligent and he’s just a good athlete,” Beveridge said. “We’ve been very lucky to have a player like him. As a coach I’ve never had someone with his size and speed together.

The 6-foot-2, 185-pound Edwards said 21 schools have recruited him. He has scheduled his first recruiting trip to the University of Arizona for Jan. 11 and also hopes to visit USC and UC Berkeley.

He said USC is probably his top choice at the moment.

“SC’s always been my No. 1 school,” he said. “If you’re a California native, it’s a big influence to go there.”

Edwards is looking forward to helping the Nobles try to win their first CIF title. Nogales is seeded No. 2 in Division IV and plays host to Covina at 7:30 p.m. Friday in a first-round playoff game.

Valley’s Top 10

Football Teams

Selected by Times Sportswriters Rank, School, League: Record

1. Bishop Amat (Angelus): 8-1-0

2. Nogales (Sierra): 9-0-0

3. Muir (Pacific): 7-3-0

4. Rosemead (Mission Valley): 9-1-0

5. Glendora (Baseline): 9-1-0

6. San Marino (Rio Hondo): 8-0-0

7. Baldwin Park (Sierra): 7-2-1

8. Temple City (Rio Hondo): 8-1-1

9. Walnut (Valle Vista): 8-2-0

10. Sierra Vista (Montview): 8-2-0

Others: Basett (5-4-1), Claremont (5-4-1), Covina (6-4-0), Duarte (8-2-0), Rowland (6-4-0), San Dimas (8-2-0).