The Road Less Traveled – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/17/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 17, 2005
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Robert Frost would have liked Nate Salley. That much is for sure.
Frost, the famed American poet and winner of four Pulitzer Prizes, and Salley, Ohio State’s senior free safety, have one unmistakable thing in common – “The Road Less Traveled.”
Frost wrote it. Salley lives it. Frost’s piece begins with the presentation of a choice. Salley, an avid poetry enthusiast himself, chose his road less traveled out of his Fort Lauderdale, Fla., neighborhood.
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;”
Like every kid in his locality, Salley had choices. For Salley and the kids living in his tough section of town, sometimes the wrong choices appear easier. He watched as many of his friends got involved in crime, fights and drug use.
“A lot of stuff went on in my neighborhood,” Salley said. “It wasn’t the worst part of town, but it certainly wasn’t the best, either. We would go to the park to play basketball and there were always people on the side selling drugs. I wasn’t afraid, though, because I knew them.”
Salley made a promise to himself to be different. With encouragement from his parents, Salley’s commitment to academics became his top priority. With a dream to one day earn a college degree, he became the first member of his family to graduate from high school.
While he now carries a reputation for big hits from his spot in the Buckeyes’ defensive backfield, a reputation of a different sort walked with him as a young teenager.
“Sometimes when something was going on, they would say, `Nate, stay out of this. You don’t want to get caught up in this.'” Salley said. “They knew I was going somewhere.”
The road he took toward that destination, and the maturity and responsibility that came with it, was so unlike most of the kids in the neighborhood, it surprised even his parents.
“I was overwhelmed sometimes,” Patricia Salley, Nate’s mother, said. “He would say certain things and I would just think `Wow. I should be the one saying that. I’m the parent.’ His conscience kept him out of trouble.”
With maturity beyond his years, Salley became a leader and an incredible positive influence in his neighborhood. Even older kids looked up to him.
“If he would tell me he was going somewhere and I didn’t answer him in a positive tone, he wouldn’t go,” Patricia Salley said. “Nate has such a good conscience. He would not be happy with himself if he didn’t do the right thing.”
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“I love where I’m from,” Salley said. “It made me the person I am now. I thank God I am in the situation I am in. Good people can get caught up in harmful situations. I could have easily been in their shoes.” Nate Salley |
“Then took the other as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,”
In what would prove to be one of the most important decisions of his life, Salley faced a dilemma. Following eighth grade he had his choice of several high schools. His choice was between Ely High and St. Thomas Aquinas, and the two could not have been more different.
Ely, a public school, was known for its powerhouse basketball program. Salley, anticipating attending there, had even played for the school’s varsity team that summer in a camp at the University of Florida. St. Thomas Aquinas, a private high school, also had a good athletics program but required a rigid entrance exam and, as evidenced by its mandatory uniform code, was known for its discipline.
Salley’s decision was rooted in the promise he had made to himself. While he watched many of his friends and even his siblings make decisions they would later regret, Salley opted for a different route.
“I was getting to that age when I was either going to go down that path or pick a better way of living for myself,” Salley said. “Through either academics or sports, I knew that I had to get to college.”
With that goal, Salley transformed himself from an adequate student into the distinguished student he has been ever since.
“At that point, I changed my whole attitude,” Salley said. “I never thought I would go to a private school. I grew more in those four years than at any other point in my life. It prepared me for how life was going to be.”
His mother was amazed at how focused her son became on his school work.
“I never had to ask Nate if he did his homework,” Patricia Salley said. “In the beginning, I wouldn’t believe him that he had it done, so I would ask to see it, and he would always have it done. He would just keep bringing good grades.”
“And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet, knowing how way leads onto way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.”
Options abounded for Salley. Some kids in his neighborhood, like former Buckeye Chris Gamble, even opted for Dillard High School. Very few went along with Salley to attend private St. Thomas.
Had he chosen to attend Ely High, the school’s basketball coach told Salley he would have been a member of the varsity squad as a freshman. Salley said he likely would not have even played football had he gone there. Perhaps it is ironic, then, he helped turn St. Thomas into a basketball powerhouse. The school would go to three consecutive state basketball final fours, win one state basketball championship along with a state football title.
Had he known his experience at St. Thomas would turn out to be extraordinary, surely his decision would not have been so difficult between the two schools.
“I was stuck between St. Thomas and Ely,” Salley said. “It was a crazy time for me. I found out one week before school started that I had been accepted into St. Thomas.”
His mother, who had already signed Salley up for classes at Ely, quickly reenrolled her son at St. Thomas. The rest was up to him.
“I wanted to get on top of things from the beginning,” Salley said. “There were times I would ride my bike home from practice and go straight to work on my homework with my football pads still on.”
That kind of dedication set Salley apart from all others.
“Nate made a choice to be different,” Patricia Salley said. “He could have gotten into wrong ways because he sure had it around him. He made a commitment to himself. Nate would even write goals and put them on the refrigerator. “
Salley would go on to graduate from St. Thomas with a 4.1 grade point average. In an area that has produced countless college athletes, he was named the Broward County Athlete of the Year.
“To me, grades always come first, and to hit it off with sports made it just that much better,” Patricia Salley said. “He just had it all. Nate is a winner, and I’m not just saying that because I’m his mother.”
In a society where people often let their ending destination be determined by where they start, Salley is the contrary.
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
With an attitude like the one Salley has developed, it could be argued it did not matter where his journey began. It was destined for success.
“A lot of the people I knew growing up are in jail,” Salley said. “When I knew them they were young and joking around, but at some point in time they went down a different path. When I see them now, they say, `I wish I went off to school, too.'”
It is nothing new for his friends to want to be like Salley. From a young age they knew there was something different about him, and they wanted to be like him.
“My mom always taught me not to be like the crowd,” Salley said. “People knew I wanted to do something positive with my life. I wanted to be a difference maker.”
More than anything else, the road Salley chose for himself has shaped him into the man he is today.
“I love where I’m from,” Salley said. “It made me the person I am now. I thank God I am in the situation I am in. Good people can get caught up in harmful situations. I could have easily been in their shoes.”
Just as Frost’s traveler went his own way, Salley’s path has been one few have taken.
Perhaps that is why there are so few like him.
