Pressley learned from struggling mother

Photo by Wisconsin State Journal

Wisconsin running back Chris Pressley almost committed to Tennesseee, but his uncle turned away coach Phillip Fulmer.

MADISON, Wis. — Chris Pressley wants to be a light.

It’s the simple wish and driving force behind an extraordinary 21-year-old junior who is the starting fullback for the University of Wisconsin football team.

“Everything I’m doing, if people see it and they want to do things, be a light,” Pressley said. “As long as you let your light shine on someone else, it’s contagious.”

Wisconsin fans who see Pressley’s light shining on fall Saturdays only see a small part of what he’s about.

A week ago Sunday, Pressley received his degree in agricultural journalism, with a business concentration. He achieved it in only three years. Next semester, he starts work on graduate school.

“I was blessed with an opportunity I can’t waste,” Pressley said. “I’m just going to try and do whatever I can. I’m going to keep going and keep trying to represent everybody that couldn’t do it.”

There are too many people from Pressley’s past who didn’t get this chance. Some tossed it away because they couldn’t see their way out of the darkness. Pressley thinks about them frequently.

He grew up in a troubled area in Woodbury, N.J., with lots of drugs and violence.

“Things you could easily get caught up in,” he said.

He was one of six kids born to a single mother, Jacqueline Pressley, who worked hard but struggled to provide for her family.

If you want to trace the source of Pressley’s light, start there, with his mom.

“We were really poor growing up,” Pressley said. “The electricity could be off, a lot of times not having food. A lot of Christmases, we didn’t have anything. All we had was family.”

There was one Christmas in particular that was rough. When Pressley was in eighth grade, his family was evicted. Their possessions were put in storage and they bounced between shelters and relatives for more than a year.

“You put something in storage and they come and sell everything,” Pressley said. “It was like, what else can go wrong?”

It was a long drive to one shelter and Pressley hated that drive. That’s where the family spent one Christmas, five kids — everybody but the oldest son — and their mom.

“It was hard, real hard,” Pressley said, his voice trailing off. “But you see your mom trying so hard. You never want to see someone you love go through that. To see those tears, I don’t want to ever see anybody go through that again.”

Through the tears, Pressley also saw his mother’s strength, resiliency and more than anything else, her faith, as she attempted to pass on the best of what she had to him.

“She’s a great lady,” Pressley said. “She’s a warrior, a warrior for Christ. She established the Lord in my life at a young age and made sure I was on the right path. If it wasn’t for her, I could have easily strayed away.”

Pressley didn’t have a lot of positive role models growing up, but he saw plenty of anti-role models who served almost the same function. He was the fourth child in the family and he learned from the mistakes of others.

“Instead of someone I wanted to be like, all I had was people I didn’t want to be like,” Pressley said. “In a sense, they were my role models. Like my older brother, he got into a lot of things. He was somebody I didn’t want to be like. I tried to do everything opposite of what he did.”

‘Live your dream’

Pressley couldn’t play football until eighth grade because he weighed too much. In addition to being big, he also was strong. He started lifting weights after getting a weight bench in about seventh grade and now holds almost every strength record on the team.

His first year of football, he was a 220-pound tailback who was named MVP for one of the top youth teams in the area. Pressley rode his bike across town every day to attend practice.

“He pretty much had in mind his goals and he just went after them,” said Glenn Pressley, an uncle. “He was determined. That’s what I love about him. There’s no stopping him once he gets his mind going on what he wants to do.”

Pressley rushed for 3,650 yards and made 334 tackles as a linebacker for Woodbury High School. He was also a National Honor Society member.

His plans almost got sidetracked after he became a father in high school. Chris Jr. turns 4 in February and is being raised by Pressley’s mom back home.

“When you’re young, you make mistakes,” Pressley said. “I have to be a man. That’s why I’m here, just trying to take care of my family.”

Glenn Pressley had also been a standout football player, but he didn’t go off to college after having a son when he was a senior in high school. He is only 14 years older than Chris and the two were so close, some people used to call Chris his uncle’s “twin.”

“He hid it from me at first, about his son, because he didn’t want Uncle Glenn to find out,” Glenn Pressley said. “The best thing I could do, when I found out, was tell him, he’s in the best situation to support the little boy, to go off and do what he plans on doing. I didn’t have anybody to tell me that — ‘Go on and (live) your dream, you’ll be in a better situation to take care of your family, if you go to college and do what you need to do.’ “

On his own

Glenn Pressley also helped Chris through the football recruiting process, accompanying him on most visits. The uncle urged his nephew to make a list and diligently weigh the strengths of each school, including academics, which were a high priority.

Wisconsin was at the top of the list until Chris Pressley went on a visit by himself to Tennessee, the Badgers’ opponent in the Outback Bowl on Jan. 1. He had such a good time, he gave an oral commitment on the spot, which his uncle read about the Internet.

After Chris got home, his uncle held off Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer, while urging his nephew to give Wisconsin the same thoughtful consideration as the other schools.

“Coach Fulmer was on the phone, with me, talking to me,” Glenn Pressley said. “I said, ‘He may have said yes to you guys, but we’re still talking about things.’ Once he did the plusses and minuses, he kind of got his mind back straight. Wisconsin still led the way. It was his decision.”

Glenn Pressley worried when Chris went off to college, being so far from home and on his own.

“I know he had to endure being out there by himself,” Glenn Pressley said. “I said, ‘Everybody here knows what you’re going through.’ He had friends from different schools that same year, all were fullbacks, all went out to Division I schools. He’s the only one left. He’s the only one that stuck it out and he was the furthest way, with the least support. What can you say? He’s strong-minded.”

Life and football

It’s so bad back in his old neighborhood, Chris Pressley has come to dread when the phone rings. Too many times, it has been bad news about someone he cares about.

He had one of his best games of the season against Northern Illinois, when he carried five times for 31 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown. He came into the game with just one carry in the first seven games.

Afterward, Pressley told reporters how his grandmother and uncle had unexpectedly died less than two weeks earlier. He flew back for the joint funeral in Camden, N.J., a week earlier. While he was there, his older brother, Steven Ross, suffered multiple stab wounds in the neck, chest and leg. Pressley went from there to join his teammates in State College, Pa., for the game against Penn State.

The Badgers played their worst game of the season, losing 38-7. The next week, offensive coordinator Paul Chryst made an effort to get Pressley more involved.

“When he (Pressley) scored that touchdown, just to see the excitement on our sidelines by the other kids,” Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema said. “I think it was going into the Michigan or Indiana game, just the middle of the afternoon on a Monday or Tuesday. I texted ‘Press,’ I just said, ‘Our offense really responds to you. Just keep that in mind as you prepare this week.’

“I really believe that. I think he’s a good energy guy for our guys. If he plays well, we play well.”

Pressley hopes for an NFL career, but he has realized in college his mind is more powerful than his 259-pound body.

“For a long time, growing up, you feel like you have to use your body to do whatever you’ve got to do,” Pressley said. “Now, I realize, I’m not dependent on that. I can use my mind to get to where I want to be.”

‘Don’t give up’

Pressley has talked to college advisers about ways to give back to his community and help underprivileged kids. He was redshirted last season after breaking an ankle in fall camp. He went home for Christmas and spent one night talking to his uncle about a mentoring program he was trying to start at Wisconsin.

“It wasn’t, ‘Is he going to get back on the field?’ ” Glenn Pressley said. “He wanted to start this mentoring thing when he got back. I could tell he had a passion for it.”

After taking a trip to China last summer through the UW School of Business, Chris Pressley gained more of a world view. He said his ultimate goal would be to help children in a Third World country.

“Being in college, you learn a lot more about countries that are even worse than your situation,” he said. “You think yours is bad? Theirs is far worse.”

When Pressley went home for Thanksgiving, he got a chance to see his older brother, who is recuperating from his wounds and doing better.

“He almost lost his life,” Pressley said. “That experience, I think, changed him. This wasn’t the first time he got stabbed ... but this was a life-changing experience for him.”

Pressley still hears from friends back home who want to know: How did he make it out?

“I’m just trying to be a light, so you guys don’t give up,” Pressley tells them. “I know it’s hard, I know you’re going to go through things. Don’t let it get you down, don’t let it beat you up.”

“Everything’s for a time. That’s what my uncle told me. Nothing is forever. I want them to know that. Sometimes they get caught up, ‘This is all we have, this is going to be it.’ That’s my main driving force.”