Just Preps : Dorsey’s Diggs Works for Reputation

It’s easy to understand why Na’il Diggs felt like giving up on himself two years ago.

As he was preparing to celebrate his 15th birthday, Diggs’ life turned upside down when his mother, Faye, died after suffering a massive stroke. It had been just the two of them for years, and they were very close.

“I went home and found a kid who didn’t care about too much,” said Roslyn Simpson, Diggs’ older sister. “He seemed very lost. He wasn’t excelling in school, and he wasn’t even playing football. Football had always been his favorite activity.”

He was not close to his father, Bob, so Diggs decided to make a fresh start after his mother died. He moved from Phoenix to Los Angeles to live with Simpson, who became his legal guardian. He enrolled at Dorsey High and went out for the football team.

On his first day at Dorsey, Diggs witnessed a shooting on campus. It opened his eyes to his new environment, but it did not scare him off.

That lack of fear has carried over to other things. He has gone from a “D” average to a “B” and is enrolled in the school’s magnet program for college-bound seniors. He is interested in engineering.

Diggs has gone from a tall, skinny athlete playing tight end to a muscular outside linebacker who is being recruited by Division I colleges across the country. USC Coach John Robinson was so impressed when he watched Diggs on game film last spring that he immediately offered a scholarship, Simpson said.

“I’ve pushed Na’il a lot the past three years,” said Simpson, 31, who ran track at USC in the mid-1980s. “I just didn’t want him to graduate from high school with no real options in life. I wanted him to have positive choices.”

Diggs, 17, takes it all in stride. At 6 feet 4 1/2 and 220 pounds, he is used to being one of the biggest players in school and on the team. He knows size does not mean much without hard work.

His first season at Dorsey, as a sophomore, Diggs was on the freshman-sophomore team instead of the varsity. He was moved from tight end to linebacker and the learning process took time. He spent much of the next two summers lifting weights, running and studying film.

The extra effort paid off. As a junior, Diggs earned a starting job on the varsity and responded with 11 sacks. Dorsey finished 10-3, advancing to the City Section Division 4-A semifinals.

The Dons have sent many players to college, so when recruiters came through Coach Paul Knox’s office last spring to watch film, they all wanted to know more about the big linebacker.

Word began to spread about Diggs, who has appeared in most preseason recruiting publications as a player to watch. He is grateful for the attention but is not resting on his laurels.

“I was shocked to find out my game was at a high enough level to take it to the next step,” Diggs said. “Now that I’m getting some recognition, it’s important to me that I’m not an overrated player. I want to live up to my reputation of being a top prospect. And that means a lot of hard work.”

In Dorsey’s 42-0 victory over Manual Arts last Friday, Diggs finished with eight tackles, three sacks and a fumble recovery. He is a big reason the Dons (2-0) are expected to challenge for a city title.

“He’s our most recruited player,” Knox said. “That tells you a lot right there.”