For these SU athletes, Mother’s Day holds a special meaning

Amid the celebration of Justyn Knight’s comeback to win the men’s cross country national championship in Louisville, Kentucky, he scanned the crowd — then walked toward the right side of a grass field to embrace his mother.

“I love you, mom,” Knight said as he opened his arms to hug her.

Knight, who graduates this month as one of the greatest athletes in Syracuse history, said finding his mother, Jennifer, after winning the title not only brought him a sense of relief, but was emblematic of how he’s always been drawn toward his mom.

“I had no clue where she was, but she’s always at the right place at the right time,” Knight said. “I’ve always made my mom proud. She’s been proud of me for my wins, my losses, even when I’ve been disappointed in myself. She’s always been there for me.”

Mother’s Day falls after most college athletes are done competing, giving some Syracuse athletes the chance to spend the day with their moms without worrying about practice or upcoming games. For many SU athletes, the relationships they have with their mothers hold a special place in their hearts.

Gabrielle Cooper, women’s basketball: ‘I don’t know what I would be without her’

When Gabrielle Cooper was 10 years old, she and her mother, Benji Hardaway, set off on I-94 West from their Chicago-area home to spend Labor Day weekend at Wisconsin Dells, a tourism destination with theme parks and camping. Cooper’s parents were separated. Her father, Torrance, called to ask if he could see his daughter that weekend. Cooper begged Benji to turn around. Hardaway gave in, and they waited for her father to pick her up.

Cooper said her father “was my everything.” But he died in 2011. If there was a silver lining in his death, Cooper said, it came in the form of a strengthened bond with her mother.

Growing up, Cooper looked to Benji for advice. Her mother would tell her: “Nothing can deter you. What’s for you is always going to be for you.” The words haven’t faded from Cooper’s memory, and they offer her a reminder to trust herself, she said.

Benji, whose May 14 birthday occasionally falls on Mother’s Day, worked nearly 20 years at UPS. She’d take Cooper to daycare, then work 10-, 12- or sometimes 14-hour days. She’d return home some nights at 11 p.m. When she switched jobs to become a hair stylist, her days freed up. Benji and Cooper style hair together at a salon a few blocks from their home in Lansing, Illinois.

Cooper started in each of her first two seasons for the Orange women’s basketball team. Her mother was there watching her at nearly every game, at home and on the road. Courtesy of Benji Hardaway

 Cooper’s idea of a perfect day involves her mother. When she was 5 or 6 years old, her mother took off from work one day — “so you already knew it’d be a good day,” Cooper said. Benji is an “excellent cook,” Cooper said, and she made dinner that evening after a spending a full day with Cooper.

She’s such a good cook that the expectation among Cooper’s teammates is a home-cooked meal when Benji visits campus. She takes a 10-hour train, usually overnight, from Chicago to Syracuse to watch Cooper in the Carrier Dome. Benji has attended all but a handful of Cooper’s games with Syracuse, even those several states and a plane ticket away. Before home games or the day after games, Benji takes Cooper to pick up ingredients at Walmart or Tops, so she can cook for Cooper and her teammates.

Cooper and her mother text, Tweet and Facebook-message each other every day. Back home, there are afternoons when all Cooper wants to do is sit in her mother’s lap or lay on her back. She knows the most influential person in her life inspires her with every hug, every meal and every “I love you.”

“I don’t know what I would be without her,” Cooper said.

Jamal Custis, football: ‘My mom was basically everything’

In September 2000, Custis’ father, Lawrence, died of bone cancer. Few people knew of his condition, and he died unexpectedly, said Jamal’s mother, Jeanette Miller. His death devastated the family and thrusted Jeanette into a single-mother role.

“I didn’t really have that father figure in my life,” Custis said. “So my mom was basically everything for me. She raised me to be who I am now. Sports are usually a man’s role. She put me in sports, which I’m forever thankful for. I feel like I have to repay her.”

Shortly after he was born, Custis spent 18 days in the intensive care unit at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia with whooping cough. His mother was by his side then. And she was there for Custis and his two brothers in the years that followed, working multiple jobs with a lung condition that sometimes required her to stay home from work.

Around the time of the death of Custis’ father, Jeanette noticed that her son gravitated toward her more than anyone else. His father had bought him a basketball hoop at a flea market shortly before he died, enabling Custis and his friends to shoot hoops. But Custis would run home before his friends because he missed his mom.

Custis begins his senior season at wide receiver in the fall, thanks in part because his mother enrolled him in football and encouraged him not to quit his high school team. Courtesy of Jeanette Miller

Jeanette enrolled Custis in flag football. Her most vivid memories of his childhood were the afternoons spent at local fields and gyms cheering him on. Later, when Custis considered quitting football at Neumann-Goretti (Philadelphia) High School, his mother told him to keep his head up. Don’t get too down and keep going, she’d tell him.

“The one thing I took away from my mom is never giving up or quit,” Custis said. “If I know that she’s strong like that, I have to be strong like that.”

Custis said what sticks with him most is his mother’s sacrifice. Jeanette told her children not to work part-time jobs after school because she saw that as a distraction. She wanted Custis to focus on sports, which he utilized to earn a full scholarship to Syracuse.

“After his father died, life was getting tough,” Jeanette said. “Black male boys his age were getting into a lot of trouble, drugs, gang wars, crime. The only way I could keep Jamal safe was to keep him in sports, which have taken him a long way.”

Jamal was born on Nov. 6, a day after Jeanette’s birthday. Every year, they share a cake and put both of their names on it.

“He’s my life’s gift,” Jeanette said.

Justyn Knight, track & field, cross country: ‘Mama’s boy’

The most decorated runner in Syracuse history said his best friend is his mother. He texts her throughout the day, after runs or between class and was the first person he embraced after winning the one thing that had eluded him for three-plus years: a national title.

“Everybody knows I’m a huge mama’s boy,” Knight said. “I take huge pride in that. That’s why we are so close: I tell her about everything. As soon as I do something great, like get an A on one of my tests, the first person I call is my mom. She always picks up the phone.”

In kindergarten, Knight looked forward to the snack his mother prepared when he got home from school. They bond over board games and will chat on the phone about upcoming races or nothing at all.

Knight said his mother could have bought “the Gucci brand stuff,” but she instead directed that money to enroll her kids in sports and pay for tutors.

For Knight, the lasting advice from his mother traces back to high school basketball. He said it’s helped him at SU and will certainly remain in the back of his mind after graduation, when he’ll set his sights on shoe companies and the 2020 Olympics. Knight said his mother preached the power of humility, which he ties to some of his success.

Knight didn’t start running cross country until he was a sophomore in high school. He said he was one of the top guards in his area before high school, and basketball was his true love. After he hit 3-pointers, he usually made sure to celebrate by throwing threes in the air. He stared down his defender in the face.

“When I scored, I’d let you know about it,” Knight said. “So when I started running, it was almost a second chance at being great.”

Knight’s mother helped him turn that energy into quiet confidence and grace.

“I owe my mom a lot,” Knight said. “She always told me to always be humble. God gave you a talent, as easy as you got that talent, it could easily be taken away. I know that kids are watching me, people who look up to me are looking at what I do. They’re going to mimic what I do, thanks partly to my mom.”

Devin C. Butler, football: ‘She’s all I got’

Every time Butler arrives at an away game, he walks onto the field and FaceTimes his mom, Tanya Moreland. He FaceTimes her three or four times per day: after practice, between classes, in the morning and before bed.

“At games, I show her the stadium, like mom, look where I’m at, look where we’re at right now,” Butler said.

Butler is motivated by his mom, Tanya Moreland, who raised him as a single parent. Courtesy of Tanya Moreland

Butler is close with his mother: They go out to eat together, with TGI Fridays being the go-to spot. They play cards and video games at home. Tanya said she didn’t miss a single one of Butler’s high school football games. One of the only games she ever missed came when Butler was 8 years old in little league, and she wasn’t there because of a stomach virus.

Butler said he heard his mother screaming from the sidelines at high school games. He said her voice can be heard in some of his highlight videos, because she never sat down and always positioned herself as close to the field as possible.

Before he turned into a star at Frederick Douglass (Maryland) High School, Butler started at quarterback as a freshman, but he “just got bored with football. I wasn’t having fun,” he said. He wanted to quit, but Tanya said that wasn’t an option.

As much as Tanya provided on-field support, she offered more encouragement off the field. He saw her as a role model and someone he could aspire to be, regardless of the circumstances and struggles that followed. Tanya often worked two jobs as a single mother to put food on the table for her kids. She changed jobs regularly in search of better hours or pay, and she worked early mornings and late nights.

“If we didn’t have much to eat that night, she found a way for us to eat,” Butler said. “I asked her if she wanted something to eat. ‘Nah, I’m good.’ That was her response all of the time. You know your mom’s hungry, but she’s sacrificing. Whenever I need clothes, and we were both broke, she said, ‘Just give me a minute, I’ll find a way.’ She finds a way every single time.”

“She would always say, ‘What if you don’t make the league?’” Butler said. “‘What are you going to fall back on if you’re not paying attention in school?’ That keeps me on the right path because it’s not sugarcoating it. It’s keeping it real. If I don’t got to the league, what do I have to fall back on?”

But Butler knows what he wants most. If he gets signed by an NFL team next year, he said he’ll probably celebrate with dinner with his mom at TGI Fridays.

“I hope to be half of who she is,” Butler said. “She’s all I got.”