Good read here...whole family is in my area and some of the toughest SOBs you'll ever meet.
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Grooms took a road less traveled
A 26-year-old former marine fulfilling his dream of playing college football at USC
By Travis Haney (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Provided
Matt Grooms (left), a 26-year-old former marine who served in Kuwait, is a walk-on on the South Carolina football team.
COLUMBIA ? Matt Grooms' road to college football has been anything but a straight shot. Heck, it even included a pit stop in Kuwait.
But he made it.
Despite all the things that tried to get in his way, and all the people that attempted to extinguish his spirit, Grooms is South Carolina's backup long snapper.
In a world in which so many fail to follow through on the path to their goals, it's good to know there are still those like Matt Grooms among us.
"Matt's a doer," his father, Donald, says. "He'll do anything you ask him to do. He perseveres."
Admittedly, Grooms was a very average high school player at Marlboro County. The McColl native was an undersized offensive guard who dabbled as the team's snapper on punts and field goals.
From a modest-income family with six kids, Grooms, the third-oldest child, thought football was basically his only shot to go to college. Only problem was, he didn't think any college would want him.
With football moved to the side in his mind, Grooms, like his older brother, enlisted in the Marine Corps.
He went through basic training at Parris Island, shedding 60 pounds in the process. He finished his training, his dad said, with a hairline fracture in his leg. He kept going, through the pain, because he didn't want to let anyone down. And, well, because he didn't want to do it again.
Grooms was then sent to Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina.
There, he learned how to become a mechanic, even though he says he grew up knowing virtually nothing about cars.
Grooms and a few other guys got so good at what they did that they were rewarded, in December 2004, with a ticket to Kuwait.
Even with all the training in the world, Grooms described the nighttime flight to the desert as anything but pleasant. The tension really thickened when, just before landing, everyone was told to put on their bulletproof gear and get their weapons in ready position.
"We all had ghost-white faces," he said. "It was for real."
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