Resilient Roberson

Matanzas High's Kendrick Roberson was hospitalized for 24 days in September 2009. Now, he owns the school record in the shot-put.
by Andrew O'Brien | Staff Writer


Crouched in the shot-put ring, the 5-foot-11, 205-pound Kendrick Roberson rocked back-and-forth and then exploded up to hurl the 12-pound, gold ball.

"Don't worry, I'm just throwing," he said to Matanzas High School assistant track and field coach Jeremy Schaefer. But "just throwing" in Roberson's mind translated to 40 feet. He was just having fun.

Schaeffer talked Roberson into playing track and field while Roberson was a freshman. Prior to that, Roberson was pure football.

"Kendrick has a very strong work ethic," Schaefer said. "He doesn't stop." He said that on the football field, Roberson "would catch the ball and run over the defensive backs." Roberson started to get attention from colleges, including Florida Atlantic University.

Then, disaster struck.

It was week two of the 2009 season. Roberson had been feeling poorly for a few days, but he continued to push hard.

"I was sick, I was weak," he said. "I couldn't run, and coach was getting the team lined up to do sprints. I was ready to tell coach that I couldn't do it, but the whole team pushed me. When I got home, I didn't even make it into the house. I was sitting in my truck because I was too weak to move."

Roberson's mom came home and saw him sitting in the truck. They scheduled a doctor's appointment for the next day. After 10 minutes at the doctor's office, he was told he needed to go to the hospital.

"It was either the hospital or death, so I didn't have much of a choice," he said.

Roberson had been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease similar to Crohn's diseas, in February 2008, but it hadn't affected him much until now. Over the course of 24 days in the hospital in September 2009, he lost nearly 60 pounds.

"I was about 150 pounds, wearing my little brother's pants," he said.

But while his family, coaches and friends were concerned for his health, Roberson had other things on his mind. At one point, he was told he wouldn't play high school football again.

He said, "I looked at my mom and said, 'No, I will be back on the football field.'"

He was told to take him off, but he wouldn't quit. "I think it was the next day after he got out of the hospital that he was doing push-ups and squats," said his mother, Dawn Roberson. Now, Roberson is doing what he knows best: throwing. At the Ron Riddle Invitational on Feb. 19, Roberson threw for a school record 45 feet, 10 inches. It was a personal best and far enough for first place. He has placed first in all three meets in 2010.

This season, Roberson aspires to make it further than last year's sixth-place regional finish. The top four qualify for the state finals.

Back at practice, Roberson made that gold ball look small in his hands. As the wind blew, he said he felt free, just as he did when he was released from the hospital.

Schaefer said he didn't expect Roberson to be back, but said now he's better than ever. "Kendrick is a fighter and a survivor," he said.

Contact Andrew O'Brien at andrew@palmcoastobserver.com.