By TED SILARY
WHEN A KID arrives home from school, his only concern is supposed to be which snack to attack, not that his life is being turned upside down.
For Derrick "Aztec" King, however, a spring afternoon in 2006 hardly evolved in status quo fashion.
As he approached his family's house near 5th and Hunting Park, he noticed...Oh, my God, it's on fire!
"My little brother was playing with matches and my grandmom was asleep," King said. "Luckily, she woke up and was able to get them out of the house. My dog didn't make it, though. A pit bull named Girlie.
"That had me crying. I was so sad because I had her my whole life. I lost some nice [football-related] items, too. I just had to get past it. I saw it as an obstacle I had to step over."
Fifth and Hunting Park, as those with basic knowledge of Philly geography know, is nowhere close to the city's Southwest section, site of John Bartram High.
But King, a 5-9, 170-pound linebacker, is now a senior at Bartram and the fire was directly responsible.
"My mom had connections to get us a house down here," he said. "I wasn't happy with having to leave the place where I'd always lived, but it has definitely worked out."
King spoke yesterday a shade after 5 o'clock and a smile, for good reason, never left his face. With King making strong contributions on both sides of the ball, the Braves bested visiting Central, 21-7, in a Public AAAA quarterfinal that provided respectable entertainment but was also marred by brutal officiating. (Our Saturday paper is too small to get into it all. Just trust me.)
Aside from making a late interception to seal the win, Bartram's first of the playoff variety since 2001, King hustled for six tackles. On offense, making only occasional appearances, he showed good hands on a pair of catches that netted 28 yards; one came in a scoring drive.
Almost no one connected with Bartram's program bothers using Derrick when referring to King. It's exclusively "Aztec" or "Tec" for short.
The reason: While still living in Hunting Park, he starred for a North Philly Aztecs 130-pound team that earned a certain level of national acclaim. Among his teammates, he said, were Gratz' Spencer Moses, Northeast's Deion Barnes, Imhotep Charter's Leland Smith and Germantown's Demetrius "Chico" Saunders.
"I was originally going to go to Frankford," King said. "But when we moved down here, I met coach [Damond 'Smash'] Warren through my old Aztecs coach and it seemed like he had a good program.
"I decided to give them a shot. I never regretted it. Never looked back. I've been starting since the middle of my 10th-grade year.
"When I used to come to practice, I always wore my Aztecs shirt. Everybody just picked up on that and kept calling me 'Aztec."'
Some, both around and away from football, once called King a troublemaker.
"As a young boy," he said, "I used to get in a lot of fights. My mom thought this neighborhood [he lives at 66th and Elmwood, a block from Bartram] would be better. It's really not, but I'm past that stuff. I learned how to mature.
"Coach Warren opened my eyes. He told me how I was never going to realize my football dreams if I kept going like that. Every day I wake up with a smile and think about how grateful I am to be playing for Bartram. Just doing my thing."
Soph Brandon Jones scored rushing touchdowns of 19 (very early) and 45 yards (very late) for the Braves while a 1-yard sneak by Al-Hajj Shabazz made it 14-0 with 2 minutes, 29 seconds left in the third quarter. After a fumble recovery by Jones (great hit by Jeff Byard) was nullified by an inadvertant whistle, Central scored on that session's final play as DeVonne Boler hit Siddiq Cornish for 54 yards.
End Darrell Lane posted two big stops on Central's next-to-last possession, then Shabazz picked off a pass.
With a laugh, King said, "I gotta thank my boy Hajj for coming over here from Bok." (He transferred early in his junior season.)
Donivan Northington added a fumble recovery for Bartram.
Of his interception, King said, "Coach Chapman [Jim, defensive coordinator] told me that play [halfback pass] was coming, so I was ready for it. Since I also play receiver, all I had to do was run over and catch it."