NELSONVILLE, Ohio — Lei’Tonn Backus had been working at a car rental agency in Columbus for almost a year after high school when Jamell Davis, one of his former coaches at Brookhaven, told him and his younger brother, Ne’Tronne, about the new junior-college football program at Hocking College.
Saturday, the Backus brothers were among more than 90 enthusiastic players at the school’s first media day at Nelsonville-York High School’s Boston Field.
“It sounded like a good opportunity — two years and come out with your associate degree,” Lei’Tonn said. “My father is incarcerated and my mom is taking care of my autistic brother, so (Ne’Tronne) and I thought the best thing for us would be to come to school.