Dawson County football player tackling life’s challenges
DAWSONVILLE, Ga. (BVM) — At 16 years old, your only cares in the world should be getting your homework done, making it to practice on time, and maybe the occasional boyfriend or girlfriend troubles. Nobody deserves to navigate life this young with the added pressure of a sibling facing a life-threatening disease. Yet that was the hand that life dealt Riley Herndon, and he played his cards just right.
Herndon was just a sophomore safety for the Dawson County High School football team when the news was delivered. His sister, 11-year-old Natalie, had leukemia. News that cripples any family’s world. Life was going to change as they knew it, and Herndon didn’t find any of this out until he got home from school that day.
“We all had to sit down as a family and talk about how things were going to change,” Herndon said. “How the house needed to be sanitized, how things would just need to be run differently around the house.”
Soon after this conversation, Riley’s parents’ lives were consumed with travel back and forth to the city, where Natalie stayed overnight at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. This meant that Riley himself was often home alone, with no parent there for more than two-to-four hours at a time. Simple daily tasks that he was often assisted with became his full responsibility.
“Waking up, making myself breakfast, getting myself to school,” Herndon noted. “Keeping the house clean and also going to visit Natalie were some other changes.”
Herndon didn’t allow this independence during these pressing times to get him down. Instead, he took it in stride, seeing it as an opportunity to make a difference and become a better person. With his extra free time, Herndon decided to get a job working at the Habersham Marina. The idea was to take some pressure off of the family.
“There was no sense in asking my parents for money so I can go run around with my friends when I have the free time (to work),” Herndon said. “I took it upon myself to get a job so I could at least pay for my gas expenses and some of my food.”
A decision of maturity far beyond his years for someone in his position. Herndon says that he started to become more responsible when hearing of his sister’s diagnosis. The Dawson County safety says that his outlook on life and how he approached things did a full 180.
“Instead of being laid back with an ‘oh, it’ll happen’ mindset, it was more of a ‘no, this needs to get done now and get done right’ mindset,” Herndon said.
Without sports though, his cool demeanor during these trials and tribulations may not have been possible. Herndon says that football helped him handle his thoughts and ease his mind. During practice, the defensive back says he was able to focus on simply bettering himself as an athlete.
Better himself, he did. Despite the balancing act of personal life, sports, school and work, Herndon continued to progress as an athlete. So much so that he received a scholarship from Union College in Barbourville, Ky. When his time at Dawson County officially concludes, Herndon will join the Bulldogs as a safety.
To put the icing on top of the cake, his sister Natalie is doing great these days. Her treatment has come a long way and the plan is for doctors to give her the all-clear on July 20. A date that the entire Herndon family has circled on their calendars. Until then, they’ll be getting back to their normal ways at home, taking nothing for granted.
One of the toughest tests in life is the battle of seeing a loved one go through a struggle that you can’t do anything about. However, Riley Herndon passed this test masterfully. He controlled what he could control: his thoughts, attitude and mindset. In the end, he’s better for it. A future college athlete and a mature young adult, with an unshakeable mental toughness.
