Temple recruit stayed focused on dream despite setbacks

BALTIMORE - Xavier Makell might have made a good high school football coach.

And that would have been fine. Teams are always in need of good coaches.

Just ask one of Makell's older brothers, Shawn Waller, who's doing well for himself here as Forest Park High's defensive coordinator.

But Makell, who will play at Temple this season, wanted to play Division I college football. The problem was Division I coaches didn't always want him.

At Forest Park, he was a good - but not great - running back.

Listed at 5-foot-8, Makell doesn't pass the eye test. And it didn't help that a tear of the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee wiped out the final five games of his senior season.

Makell was on the fast track toward a coaching apprenticeship.

At the age of 40, he would have been just like every other Joe Bagadonuts has-been, embellishing his high school career.

And that would have been OK, because chasing a dream is hard. Changing your destiny is even harder.

But for some reason, when the rest of us settled for what is in front of us, Makell reached out and grabbed his dream and hung on for life.

The 21-year-old transferred to Temple after graduating from Alfred State, a junior college in Western New York, in May.

Come Friday, he'll participate in the Owls' first day of training camp as a preferred walk-on. All of this after two junior-college stops and a second knee injury since graduating high school 38 months ago.

"Everybody thought I was crazy for chasing my dream," said Makell, who's expected to redshirt this season and have two seasons of eligibility remaining.

"People were like, 'You just need to chill.' "

Time will tell if he'll become productive at Temple. What's obvious is that the 191-pounder has the drive needed to be successful.

"I have that never-die, never-give-up attitude," he said. "And I'm confident in what I can do."

It's a confidence that kept intact his dream of playing Division I football since the age of 8.

Back then, his oldest brother, Aaron Thompson, began what was the first of four years as a starting linebacker at Maryland.

"So that was a big part of me wanting to play ball," said Makell, who comes from a family of football players. "When I went to my dad's house, you would see all his Maryland pictures, hanging up on the wall. My dad would have his helmets and his books and his game balls and stuff like.

"That's what I looked up to when I was younger."

But despite rushing for 1,600 yards and 18 touchdowns, Makell didn't get any scholarship offers following his junior senior at Forest Park.

"He had it," said Tavon Austin, a wideout at West Virginia and Makell's cousin. "It was just his [lack of] exposure. That's the whole thing about it.

"He was supposed to play with me at Dunbar High for his senior year."

Makell opted to remain at Forest Park, and flourished through the first four games, compiling 750 yards and 13 touchdowns.

He rushed for 90 yards and a touchdown in the first half of the fifth game. Makell, however, tweaked his right knee returning the second-half kickoff.

He decided to stay in the game and tore his ACL shortly afterward. Season over.

Instead of destroying his dream, the injury motivated him to work harder. After several months of rehabilitation, he enrolled at Lackawanna College in Scranton in January 2009. Unhappy at the junior college, he transferred to Alfred State at the end of the semester.

Makell had a team-leading 676 rushing yards following his first season at his new school.

His goals were to rush for 1,000 yards and secure a scholarship the following season. Makell also expected to graduate in the fall semester.

He did neither.

Makell missed four games with a meniscus bruise in his left knee. Prior to heading back to Baltimore in December, he was one speech class short of graduating.

"That news just deflated me," said Makell, who at the time was being recruited by Temple, Akron, and Buffalo.

Unsure if he would get his degree, the schools stopped recruiting him.

Still determined to achieve his goal, Makell took his speech class at Baltimore City Community College.

He also kept in shape by working out four days a week with Waller.

After Makell passed his class, he received a scholarship offer to Akron in June.

That was around the time Temple started recruiting him, again. On July 15, he accepted the Owls' offer to walk on the team over the Zips' scholarship.

"I'm willing to take the short-time sacrifice for the longtime benefit," said Makell, who's confident that he'll earn a scholarship at Temple.

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