CORVALLIS -- Like many others before him, Omar Speights earned a golden ticket out of West Philadelphia through athletic prowess.
Speights, a four-star recruit for the class of 2019, wound up cashing the ticket sooner than expected to escape the neighborhood's dangerous streets.
The murder of a close friend set off a series of events that culminated in Speights moving across the county to live with his older brother, Jeromy Reichner, in Corvallis. Reichner is a junior defensive end at Oregon State.
Speights, who committed to the Beavers in June as an inside linebacker, has flourished when healthy for Crescent Valley's football team.