Athlete prevails over hurdles

UNM track athlete Domnick Meadows has been through it all. But when the times were tough, he battled his way through.

by CHRISTOPHER SANCHEZ

When Domnick Meadows was in high school, his greatest fear was getting a girl pregnant.

After all, he was a star athlete. He played football, basketball and track. And he mastered ever one of them. Colleges were jamming his mailbox with letters or interest, and recruiters wouldn’t stop calling him.

But then the news came. When he was a senior, his girlfriend told him she was expecting a child.

“I was shocked when I found out she was pregnant,” he said. “It was crazy. I was like, 'Oh, my God.' All of a sudden, bam — it's like a slap in the face. It just hit me.”

Everything was running through his head — he would have to drop out of school. He would have to find a full-time job. He would never attend college.

But Meadows decided to stick it through. He wouldn’t let his dreams dissolve. He had already been too far along his journey — a long road from Oklahoma City, where he sold drugs, where he was a thief, where he joined the Bloods gang in the sixth grade.

An everyday trouble day

Meadows grew up in northwest Oklahoma City — the bad part of town.

“The neighborhood was real rough,” he said. “I don't know. It was like survival of the fittest — like, you know, just ripping and running through the streets all night, selling drugs. It was crazy running from the police down there every day, ditching school to hang out with your homeboys. It was an everyday trouble day for us.”

His neighborhood was full of Blood gang members, and he started hanging around them when he was still in elementary school.

“It was either be in the gang, or — I mean, shit, there wasn't anything else, because we didn't know anything else,” he said. “All the guys we hung out with were way older than us, so we wanted to be just like them. They considered us a part of the gang, so we did whatever we had to do to keep that respect.”

Meadows said the gang used him to steal bikes, sell drugs and beat on other kids.

When Meadows was in the sixth grade, he never imagined he would one day be in college. He wasn't even thinking about going to high school. He couldn't even see himself getting past the sixth grade. But that was until he became reacquainted with his uncle, Lonnie Neal.

Neal told Meadows’ father he wanted to take him to New Mexico. He said he had dreams.for him: He wanted him to graduate high school and head to college.

Meadows said he didn't think twice. He needed to grow up, he said, so he went down to New Mexico for a visit. And after a short time, he wanted to stay.

“It was way better, just the scenery and all, because I had never seen mountains before, and I was like, 'What the hell are those?’” he said, laughing. “I was like, 'I like this place.'”

A passion for sports

Meadows’ uncle became an instant role model.

Unlike anyone in Meadows' family, his uncle had graduated from high school and went on to college, where he played basketball at Panhandle State. And his career didn’t stop there. He had a short stint playing basketball overseas before he wrecked his knee.

Meadows said there is no better coach than his uncle, who is head of the girls’ basketball team at Eldorado High School.

And it was in Albuquerque where Meadows found a passion for sports.

“I wasn't really any good until he started coaching me,” he said. “And then it was just like that. I picked it up. I just started using my athleticism, and I started playing varsity my freshman year.”

With that promotion, he had to grow up quickly. He was always trying to battle it out for positions, and it made him stronger and smarter.

Meadows also ran track and played football while in high school. When he was a senior, he received all-state honors in basketball and football.

Though he wanted to play college basketball, football was his game.

He said his mailbox was jammed with recruitment letters from all over the country. And when he wasn’t getting any mail, he was getting phone calls.
They wanted Meadows to play for them.

But then one day at practice, he tore his anterior cruciate ligament, and the letters and phone calls stop coming.

Just when he thought it was about as downhill as it could get, he found out his girlfriend was pregnant.

Breaking the news to his uncle seemed impossible, he said.

“I was so scared to tell him,” he said. “It was like a couple of months after I found out she was pregnant that I did it. I was like, 'I don't know what I'm going to tell him. I don't know what I'm going to do.' But it finally came down to it, and I had to tell him.”

Passing the slump

Though his uncle was disappointed in him, he wouldn’t let Meadows give up. He dragged Meadows from Oklahoma City to Albuquerque, because he had dreams for him.

Meadows said he was able to attend UNM because everyone supported him when his girlfriend gave birth to their son, Jameer.

Because of that, he was able to join UNM's track team and perform the triple jump. Though he started as a walk-on, the coach gave him a scholarship after his performance at the conference championships.

But he said he wouldn't have been able to do it without the support he received from everyone.

He said he takes Jameer, now 3, to practice anytime he can't find a babysitter.

“All the teammates know who he is. Number one, because he's bad. He likes to fight. He fights,” Meadows said, laughing. “Everyone knows him just because of who he is and who I am. But they like being around him.”

Meadows, who recently became a father for a second time, said it can be a handful taking care of two children. His 7-month-old daughter, Jaden, wakes up at odd hours of the night.

“She wakes up because she's hungry,” he said. “So, usually, I toss and turn through the night, and I wake up when she screams and all that, and I try to get to class at 8, 9 in the morning.”

But it hasn’t affected Meadows’ grades.

Meadows, who is majoring in criminology, is scheduled to graduate in the fall. And once he is finished, he plans to join the Albuquerque Police Department.

“It hasn’t really been a struggle taking care of them, and I’m thankful for that,” he said. “It’s been real cool.”

Written May 8, 2008

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