He tilts his head back, draws a deep breath, and drops his head down slowly. Just as the rain begins to fall, tears begin to flood from his hazel eyes.

“She’s had me ever since I was 3 and she’s never let me go.” Senior Kalen Archangel loves to talk about his grandmother and her importance to him, but it has become more difficult with graduation approaching.

It will be “impossible for me to say goodbye,” he said, to the woman who did not give birth to him but gave him life.
“It’s not like I’m disappearing off the face of the earth,” he said, “but I won’t be able to do what a son should be able to do.”

Six states away lies his new home-to-be – Greeneville, Illinois. He plans to join football alumni Kevin Tran and Andres “Texas” Flores at Greeneville University. His scholarship, however, is for academics. His passion for football will follow him to college, but so will his love for tennis.

Ranked No. 1 on the team, a captain, and considered to be “one of the most self-motivated people (she’s) ever met,” according to assistant coach Mary French, Archangel has surely proven himself to be a threat on both the field and the courts.

Despite his noted skill, his fellow football mates still give him a hard time. They say it’s not “a man’s sport.” “Come out and play me and I’ll show you who can’t handle it and that’ll make you look like less of a man,” he says to them.Tennis, according to Archangel, is a sport he really has to work at.

“The common visual of a workaholic is someone working in an office,” he said. “But I’m always working on my sport.” He lacked work ethic for throughout his elementary years.

“I had to grow up and realize that I couldn’t put life on the back burner anymore.”

High school sports are “a privilege,” he said. He knew if he wanted to continue playing sports, he had to keep his academics in line. The only reason he joined the team was because of a dare.

“He came up to us (coaches) and said ‘I’m probably not going to be out here tomorrow,’” French said. The next day, he was one of the first on the courts.

“I fell in love with the sport,” Archangel said, last year being his first.

Archangel, according to head coach Shannon Markley, is their “sacrificial lamb.”

“He’s playing against other No. 1’s that have played for years,” she said. “He’s got the confidence for that spot.” But it’s not losing that scares him, it’s leaving his grandmother.

“She raised me,” he said. “I feel obligated to take care of her, to return the favor.”

His mother was a great person, he said.

“I don’t know how, but I pretty much got whatever I wanted,” he said. “Her decisions led her to jail.” His grandmother has always been his “pride and joy.” Now that he has a little brother, he feels he must be a role model.

“The only reason I push myself so hard is because of them.”

Last year, Archangel didn’t win a single match. For most, he wasn’t even close. However, this year, his sharpened skill is inching him closer to his first victory.