Centralight

20 centralight fall '14 Sports • cmuchippewas.com Justin Cherocci had a goal. And a question. As a freshman at Brother Rice High School in Bloomfi eld Hills, his goal was to play Division I college football. He shared his dream with another Rice football player, Shamari Benton, who was then a sophomore on the Warrior varsity squad. "He said, 'What do I do?'" recalls Benton, who at the time was on the D-I path and would eventually sign with Central Michigan. "From then on, we were partners in crime." By the time Cherocci was a junior and Benton a senior, they comprised Rice's starting middle linebacking corps, playing for legendary coach Al Fracassa in the über-competitive Catholic League. Cherocci led the state in tackles in both of his seasons on the Rice varsity, but he received no scholarship off er from a D-I school. "Ever since I was a little kid it was always a dream to play Division I college football," says Cherocci, who had any number of off ers from Division II and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) schools. "I wanted to play at the highest level, on the biggest stage." While CMU initially said no to Cherocci, Fracassa – one of the state's most respected prep coaches – urged the Chippewas to take another look. "He said, 'If this kid ends up on your football team, he will start for you,'" recalls Kyle Nystrom, CMU's assistant head coach who oversees the linebackers. Cherocci came to Mount Pleasant as a nonscholarship walk-on. "Coming in, I knew it wasn't going to always be easy, but it was something I loved, and I knew what it was going to take," he says. Cherocci, like all freshmen, experienced the requisite adjustments to college life and the growing pains came on the fi eld and off . "I was really hard on him," says Nystrom, who has known Cherocci's parents, Jim and Jenny, for more than three decades, a relationship that has paid dividends for everyone. "I could go to places with him that you can't go to with a lot of other kids because of the relationship I have with him. I talked to him like I was talking to my own kid. "He was all over the place on the fi eld but where he was supposed to be," Nystrom continues. "He always had a motor. That was never an issue. It was just getting him disciplined and channeled into structure and developing him in all the areas – academically, socially, athletically – getting him to grow up." As so often happens in athletics, an injury to a teammate opened the door. As a sophomore, Cherocci emerged as the Chippewas' leading tackler and earned Defensive Co-Player of the Year. He was starting alongside his old buddy Benton at middle linebacker, and he earned the coveted scholarship. "When you come in as a walk-on freshman, it knocks you down," says Benton. "He took that, and it really fueled his passion eventually. "The greatness of CMU's program is the ability to develop boys into men. One of Coach (Dan) Enos' famous statements is, 'Boys do what they want, men do what they have to do.'" That maturity comes with time, Benton says. "Everyone goes through that. You start to realize what's important, and you start setting your priorities in your life. And that's what Justin did." Last season, Cherocci – still a tad undersized at 6-foot and 231 pounds – was again the Chippewas' top tackler, and he earned All-Mid-American Conference honors. He's gone from trying to make the team, to making a name for himself, to starting, to stardom. He's grown as a player and as a person, and he is now a key cog on a team that could contend for a league championship and a bowl berth. "I was always thinking about how I could get better myself," Cherocci says. "Now I want to help out everyone and get everyone up to pace and get everyone on the same page. "I'm never really satisfi ed. I always want to do better. In my head there's so much more to accomplish, especially as a team." • BY ANDY SNEDDON Senior middle linebacker went from walk-on to star tackler Driven Cherocci matures into football standout

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