Handling the Harshest Kick

Chad Shrout has usually performed well in important situations. The football championship ring he wears on his right hand is proof.

When Antelope Valley High upset Hart, 36-15, in the Southern Section Division II championship game in 1994, Shrout led the way with four quarterback sacks and three field goals.

But now Shrout is facing another challenge, one more daunting than any he could face on a football field.

After the death of his adoptive mother, Shrout, 19, has assumed household duties and partial responsibility for the care of his nine-year-old brother, Derrick.

Terry Shrout, 44, a single parent of her two adopted boys, succumbed to heart failure Sept. 11, having never fully recovered from a bypass surgery.

Chad Shrout was in a Spanish class at the University of Hawaii on Aug. 30, the eve of the football team’s season opener against Boston College, when two assistant coaches informed him that his mother had a heart attack.

“My heart dropped,” Shrout said. “I had a feeling of helplessness.”

Shrout flew home the same day and has not returned to Hawaii, where he was the punter for the Rainbows.

During the past month, he has been pushed to the brink mentally and emotionally. Watching his mother lose her fight for life was heart wrenching. Then came the taxing tasks of funeral arrangements, checking life-insurance policies and reviewing the family’s finances.

Shrout said his mother was “a pillar in my life. She supported me. She was always there when I needed her.”

Now he is trying to do the same for Derrick.

Shrout spends most of his spare time helping his brother with homework and shuttling him to school and youth football practice. Family responsibilities are shared with Shrout’s grandmother, Valerie Holman, who has taken over as head of the household, and his uncle, Tony Holman, who lives two blocks away.

Shrout’s adoptive father died when Chad was a baby. He is not interested in locating his biological parents.

Growing up, his mother was all Shrout needed. When she wasn’t working long shifts as a security guard to support her family, Terry Shrout went to all of her son’s games.

“Over the past four or five years we were close,” Chad said. “You go through that rebellious stage in junior high, but when I got into high school football and she started going to the games, it brought us a lot closer.”

Shrout gave his mother plenty of reasons to be proud. As a junior, he averaged 46.8 yards a punt and earned all-state honors. As a senior, he saved perhaps his best effort for last--the title game against Hart in which he kicked field goals of 45, 43 and 28 yards.

Shrout also earned a 3.0 grade-point-average, which helped him secure the scholarship to Hawaii.

In their final days together, Shrout gave his mother pep talks. In their final conversation outside of a hospital, on Aug. 29, he expressed excitement about the coming season.

“Mom being mom, she asked me how my classes were going,” Shrout said. “She always made sure school was my No. 1 priority.”

Shrout, who averaged 38.6 yards a punt as a freshman, hopes to return to Hawaii in January and resume his football career next season.

In the meantime, he is helping Antelope Valley as a volunteer freshman coach and special teams assistant for the varsity.

“It’s like an escape from all I had to do when I got back here,” Shrout said of coaching.

Chris Collins, a friend and fellow coach for the freshmen, said coaching has helped Shrout cope with the many changes in his life.

“He’s surprised me and everybody else with how he’s held up,” Collins said. “I’m real proud of him.”

Help is flowing both ways. The outlet of coaching helps Shrout adjust to not playing football for the first time in 11 seasons, and all the while the Antelopes’ kicking game improves.

“It’s a good advantage to have him as a teacher,” said Antelope Valley’s Russell Griffeth, who has a 62-yard punt for the varsity this season. “I’ve learned a lot of techniques from him.”

Perhaps with an eye on the future, Antelope Valley Coach Brent Newcomb encouraged Shrout to try coaching.

“He’s a great guy, and just his presence has been good for our kickers,” Newcomb said. “I’d hire him as a varsity coach, just because he works so well with the kids.”

But if Shrout accepts such an invitation, it probably won’t be any time soon.

Tony Holman said his family is committed to seeing Shrout reach his potential as a student and a football player.

“We are demanding him to go back when the next semester starts,” Holman said. “He’s worked too hard for this and we won’t see him let it go to waste. Everybody’s proud of Chad and they give him all the support they possibly can.”

Shrout senses that support. Even from his mother.

“She taught me how to ask for what I wanted and how to go about getting the things I need,” he said.

“I guess she prepared me for something like this.”

‘Over the past four or five years we were close. You go through that rebellious stage in junior high, but when I got into high school football and she started going to the games, it brought us a lot closer.’