Ex-Wilson star Perez knows what is important
by Kevin Roberts
Saturday, May 27, 2006

WESTVILLE

It's not the prom, really. It's not the graduation ceremonies.

Antwine Perez is home for a few days after beginning his college football career at USC. Perez graduated early from Woodrow Wilson High School, and got a head start on college. He is practicing with the Trojans -- one of the nation's finest college football programs -- and he started at safety in the spring game.

USC encouraged him to come home and attend graduation ceremonies with his class. And there's the prom, and seeing his friends, and certainly spending time with his parents. But sitting in his parents' Westville home, Perez isn't that excited about the festivities.

"It's something I'm supposed to do, but I don't really think it's that big a deal to me," Perez said.

Here's what he describes as "important" during his homecoming: Perez took the time to speak on Wednesday at a local community center, talking to kids who've had scrapes with the law or seen trouble in their young lives. He used to do this sort of thing fairly regularly when he lived here, and he returned to it when he came home.

Asked why this is important to him, Perez shrugged and said: "I don't think too much about it." His mother, Phyllis, heard this and laughed. Perez doesn't much like talking about himself, and he's kind of quiet when there's a notebook out.

"He's always been that way," she said. "Everybody says he's quiet -- except me. I tell people: Just live with him for a while. He's not real quiet. He talks."

Perez isn't quiet when he's talking to kids.

"You'd think you would hear nervousness in his voice, but he doesn't come across like that," Phyllis said. "We encouraged him to do it, but it's really him. A lot of athletes make it, and you don't hear them taking the time to come back and share. They don't bring it back. He wants to give back. He always has."

There is also this -- when Perez was still in grade school, his brother, Louis, fell in with the wrong crowd and was shot and killed. Perez said he knows he can take nothing for granted, and he knows how fragile life can be. He knows it's important to counsel kids to stay out of trouble. He plays football, in part, for his brother.

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