For Wright, journey to UNM wasn't easy

Lobo cornerback DeAndre Wright has a message for his Aunt Velma: Thank you.

It's true that much of the success Wright has had at the University has been the fruit of his hard work. However, if it wasn't for his Aunt Velma, Wright might not have made it to NewˇMexico.

"She's the one who helped me get to UNM," he said. "Whenever my mother didn't know what to do, she'd turn to her, and she'd come talk to me."

Growing up in the Washington D.C., area, Wright described his surroundings as "not the friendliest." Without the guidance of his mother and aunt, Wright said he could have easily caved in and been subdued by the brutal nature of street life.

"It was hard for me - just to keep going straight without getting distracted by that type of stuff," he said.

In his senior year at Gwynn Park High School, Wright moved out of his parents' house.

"My auntie stepped in," he said. "She gave me a phone call. I met up with her, and we had a little talk. She got me back home, and everything was all good."

But that wasn't the end of Wright's heartache. Wright endured watching one of his best friends go to jail.

Wright said it was something that shook him to the core, especially since Wright and his mother had taken his friend in after he was kicked out of hisˇhouse.

"He was like my brother," Wright said. "Everything that he did, I wanted to do, and everything I did, he wanted to do."

For Wright, it was another obstacle, another defender to detour him from the end zone. But Wright's parents were determined not to let their son lose focus.

"My high school football coach - my mother and father had a talk with him," he said. "And then my high school football coach had a talk with me. And he was like, 'Where do you see yourself in five years?' And I said, 'I don't even know.' Then he just sat there and told me I had a chance to play Division I football."

Wright said at the time he had received some offers from some Division I-AA programs, but college wasn't on his mind.

Then, like a group of gang-tackling linebackers flowing to the ball, it hit him.

It was a playoff game: Gwynn High vs. River Hill. The Gwynn High Yellow Jackets were trailing 21-7 at halftime. Coming out of the locker room, Wright stopped to talk with one of his teammates, Andrew Banks.

Banks was a backup quarterback for the Yellow Jackets and seldom saw playing time.

"You're getting in the game," Wright told Banks. "We're going to run up the score so you can get in there."

"You do that, guaranteed you're going Division I," Banks told Wright.

Wright said Banks didn't take him too seriously. Fourteen carries, 259 yards and three touchdowns later, Banks laced up his cleats and ran onto the field.

"He ended up throwing two touchdowns," Wright said. "We ended up setting a state record. We scored 42 points in one quarter. It ended up being 49-21."

For Wright, not only did he end up scoring a friend and teammate some playing time, but he said it was the first time he bought into what his coach had been telling him about playing Division I.

"After that, it was all about football," he said.

With football at the forefront of his mind, it was once again Aunt Velma who helped Wright fulfill his dreams.

"I sat down and made my own highlight film," Wright said. "And I gave it to my aunt, and she wrote the letter, 'cause she said she was a good writer. She sent it in the mail, and then about five or six days later, I got a call."

Wright said UNM brought him out on a recruiting trip and offered him a scholarship.

"They told me they had given all the running back scholarships away," he said. "But they had one for a DB. I said, 'I don't care. Just give it to me. I'll play defense.'"

After getting first team All-Mountain West Conference

honors and becoming a Jim Thorpe Award watch list honoree, Wright has his parents and aunt to thank.

"My Auntie, that's like my second mother," he said.