STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Shareef Miller remembers the three phone calls as if he just received them.
It was May 2015, nearing the end of his senior year at George Washington High School. Classes had just let out when his phone rang the first time.
His mother, Tekeya Cook, was hysterical. Shareef’s 25-year-old brother, Mikal Powell-Miller, had been shot four times following an argument in West Philadelphia.
When the phone rang again, Shareef, now a Penn State redshirt freshman defensive end, didn’t answer. He didn’t want to hear that his brother and best friend was gone.