By Mohamed Bafakih (@MoeBafa):
Change is something Jamal Scott has dealt with tirelessly.
However, homelessness is the change that San Jose State University’s junior linebacker deemed as a life and career-changing one.
Growing up 15 minutes away from Disneyland, the Anaheim native saw more of a smaller world on the outside than inside the park.
“Not that many times, honestly,” Scott said on the amount of times he has visited the Happiest Place on Earth. “Once, maybe for school, once or twice.”
Scott attended Magnolia High School, which is just four miles away from the theme park.
That is where he got more of a glimpse of rollercoaster rides and fantasies, until reality struck entering junior year.
As he prepared to make his presence on the varsity team for the Sentinels in 2012, he also had to prepare for where he’d be sleeping that night.
The youngest of three, Scott (21), along with his older siblings Brittany (28), and Jacob (24), were separated as his mom was dealing with personal matters and dad traveled for work constantly.
“Coming up, I was just pretty much on my own,” Scott said. “My dad would try to help here and there, but for the most part I was staying with some friends.”
His dad worked in sales while most of Scott’s extended family lived in the East Coast, so he had to seek shelter at various friends’ homes as his siblings and mom did the same.
That buildup of personal frustration and emotion imposed toughness and resiliency on the field from that point forward.
“It was a lot of things on my mind from junior year on, and what I thought was ‘football can be a way for me to get away from that struggle … make a better life for myself, and my family and my mom,’ so I used that to fuel me,” Scott said.
Despite Magnolia finishing 3-7 overall and 2-3 in Orange League play, schools began to take notice of the 6-foot-2, 190-pound safety.
The Los Angeles Times featured Scott as one of the top defensive backs to watch heading into his senior year in 2013, alongside Adoree’ Jackson, now of the Tennessee Titans and current teammate Chandler Hawkins.
Scott verbally committed and later signed his National Letter of Intent (NLI) to Arizona State in February 2014 after holding multiple Division I offers.
The 3-star recruit transitioned to linebacker due to his build and hard-hitting ability when he arrived in Tempe that fall.
Scott said it took him a while to get used to the positional switch, especially with a shoulder injury he played through during his senior year of high school, requiring surgery and setting him back.
Now at 237 pounds, the chance of stepping onto the field never came at ASU with coaches believing he wasn’t prepared following his redshirt year.
He used that as motivation and transferred closer to where he grew up to play junior college football at Fullerton College last year.
“Seeing how that JUCO (junior college) struggle is just all fueled me,” Scott said.
Linebackers coach Bojay Filimoeatu, who attended Mt. San Antonio College in Southern California from 2009-10 by way of Utah, knew a thing or two about the JUCO struggle that Scott experienced before transferring to Utah State.
Filimoeatu recalls living in a two-bedroom house with “16 big Polynesian guys” and he being the third smallest at 6-2, 250 pounds, eating top ramen and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
“You’re faced with struggles on a daily basis,” Filimoeatu said. “With trials that you have to go through … and it’s tough because you don’t have the funding.”
Scott, like Filimoeatu, helped his team to a California Community College Athletics Association state championship victory while being honored as an All-California First Team Defense selection at linebacker.
He’s now acclimated to being a focal point of the Spartans’ linebacking corps with fellow junior Frank Ginda by his side.
“He [Scott] adds a different element to our defense,” Ginda said. “He’s a really good, relentless player and gets after it … hopefully we could ball out this season and ball next season. Him and I both have aspirations to play in the NFL, so hopefully we could be a good duo.”
Through four starts, Scott has accumulated 17 tackles, one sack and one fumble recovery for the Spartans.
He relished that very moment before he made his Division I debut on Aug. 22 against No. 19 South Florida.
“Finally here,” Scott said. “All the things I’ve been through, [I’m] finally here.”
