Walker's Journey to West Point a Story to Tell

By: JJ Klein
Army West Point Athletics

WEST POINT, N.Y. - Kell Walker was playing football in the street with his cousins when a car pulled up on the road.

"Kell!" Yelled the woman in the car. "Kell! Kell!" she shouted again.

Eight years old at the time, he did not recognize her.

It wasn't long before the two were embracing and sharing tears. "I'm back," she assured him. "Things will be different now."

The woman in the car was his mother, who he was now seeing for the first time in six years.

When Kell was just two-years old, she left the house with his oldest brother. She left him with his father, who was in his late 60s. His father owned a drywall business and cared for him for the next two years before deciding that it would be best for Kell to move in with his cousin, Rhonda Mayweather. Rhonda had an apartment in the Orton Keyes projects in Rockford, Ill., and she helped provide Kell with some financial support.

"It was a struggle growing up in the projects, but at the same time when you're a kid you don't really pay too much attention to that type of stuff," Walker said. "You're just trying to have fun and everything is pretty much a joke to you at that time."

Though young at the time, he was not completely oblivious to his situation. Things like going to school with clothes that had holes in them, that his parents lacked a presence in his life, or that instead of a white picket fence surrounding the yard, he had burglar bars on his windows served as reminders that he was not like all the other kids at school.

Despite the difficult financial situation that they faced, Rhonda and her boyfriend did the best they could to raise and provide for their family, which consisted of eight children.

Then out of nowhere, Kell's mother returned into his life to bring him home with her.

Thus ensued the nearly 800-mile drive to Atlanta and Kell was optimistic about this new chapter in his life. This provided the opportunity to start fresh with his mother. It also gave him the chance to reconnect with his oldest brother, who had stayed with his mother after she initially left the family.

When he got down to Atlanta everything seemed perfect. His mother now had a new husband and seemed stable.

It did not take long before Kell realized his new situation was far from perfect. His mother's personal struggles became more-and-more apparent, which in turn left much of his upbringing into his own hands, while still in elementary school.

"I started to grow up pretty quickly," he said. "I walked to school. I did everything myself. I ironed my clothes, I made myself breakfast and I got my brother up for school even though he was older than me."

His walk to school would take him an hour. In order to get to anywhere, he had to find his own means of transportation through some rough neighborhoods in Atlanta.

"I'd be walking home from practice and I'd almost get hit by a stray bullet," he said.

Despite his struggles at home, Walker managed to develop a sense of identity around middle school. It was there that he became close friends with India Anderson.

India's mother, Tammie, can still recite the first time she met Kell. It was at her daughter's birthday party in sixth grade.

Kids started to leave the party, but Kell was still there. Not long after, his mother confirmed to Tammie over the phone what she had begun to suspect. Kell wasn't going to have a ride home or a suitable place to stay that night. So, Tammie opened her doors and decided to bring Kell back to her house to stay the night.

"He was a really sweet kid. He had a lot of character, a lot of spunk about him and he was very smart," she said of Kell, without fully knowing his struggles at the time. "He was one of those kids who stuck out to adults, and you thought hmm, there's something special about that kid."

Kell and India's friendship grew during that time and his relationship with the Anderson family continued to blossom.

"I was in the PTA and whenever I was in the school he would search for me and come and talk to me," Tammie said. "And I was constantly checking up on him, giving him the things that he needed and just giving him encouragement. At that point, I still really didn't know what was going on, but I kind of felt that something was wrong."

As middle school transitioned into high school, Kell maintained a strong relationship with the Andersons. He would frequently go to their house or accompany them to church.

Without a strong sense of parental supervision, Kell was self-driven to do things like go to school, but he was not immune to the distractions and pressures of living in a tough neighborhood. Despite being well-focused for someone in his environment, he got mixed in with the wrong crowd and very well could have gone down the wrong path had it not been for football.

As far as sports went, his first love was soccer. Though, in ninth grade he decided to join his high school's football team and immediately became consistent contributor. By his sophomore year, he was fully invested in the sport, which helped provide structure to his life.

With his mother's personal struggles, he found himself staying over at Tammie's house more frequently.

"It started being this weekend, that weekend, and then it would be a week," Tammie said. "I think there was enough that God got into him, that he knew that he needed to change."

"At that point it was like I had one foot in the streets and one foot in the new life," Walker said. "I was kind of getting pulled back-and-forth because loyalty is really a thing in my neighborhood."

He wanted to be there to help pick his mother up, but the combination of eviction notices, neighborhood shootings, and a house fire that nearly claimed his life, led to his decision to leave home at 16 years old.

"My brother woke me up and we all got out right before the front door melted off," Walker said. "That's when I realized it was time for me to leave."

Subsequently, Tammie opened her door to Kell for him to stay permanently, on the condition that he would abide by her rules.

"She sat me down and said, 'Look, I've got two daughters. I'm a single black mother. I'm going to allow you to stay here because I love you and I want to help you out and because it's what God called me to do, but you need to do your part.'"

His part was to stay off the streets and stay away from the wrong people.

Moving in with Tammie gave Kell the ability to enjoy something he hadn't been able to in his first 16 years – to be a kid.

"From that point on, it was about focusing on being a kid. I started to enjoy things I never even knew about, like hiking, water tubing and jet skiing"

There was one more condition for Kell to stay under Tammie's roof -- he was to go to college.

With the encouragement of Tammie, Kell began taking AP classes and started to take ownership of his academics. While he started to excel in the classroom, he was also starting to make a name for himself on the gridiron. So much so that he began to receive offers to play Division I football.

Walker drew the eye of Army West Point's offensive coordinator, Brent Davis. When Kell first heard word that Army was interested in him coming to West Point, he was not too enthralled about the idea of going to Army.

"I didn't want that." Kell said his thoughts were at the time. "The only time I saw Army was when I was flicking through the channel and I was watching Army-Navy. It was crazy because that was a little bit of foreshadowing and I didn't even know it."

walker — Walker with Tammie and his mother.

Other suitors came with offers for Kell, but according to Tammie, the Black Knights' coaching staff was the most persistent school in their recruiting efforts.

"I like an underdog story, you know, guys that haven't had everything handed to them and they've had to work for it," said Army head football coach Jeff Monken. "Certainly he had to do that. He had to overcome some things."

The more Tammie and Kell learned about West Point, they became more intrigued with what it had to offer.

"There were people around that knew more about West Point and they were like 'oh, he's got to do it.' And I was like 'why?' I didn't really know much about West Point." Tammie recalled. "So, I just talked to people that said this can be life-changing for him. They told me if you want his life to change, this is going to be the most impactful school for him."

Walker was driven to become the best possible version of himself. He knew that West Point would mold him into that person.

"The whole community around me would say, 'this is the best choice for you'," Walker mentioned. "'Think about where you came from, think about where you want to go.' So I knew I had to go to Army."

Since he first arrived at West Point, he's been challenged and pushed to be the best version of himself. His life experiences have given him some advantages over his peers.

"I definitely think it helped. In a sense that when I feel like my back is against the wall, it helps me to be more resilient because what I've had to do here are not the hardest things I've done in my life," Walker said.

"We can't control where we come from, our background, circumstances might effect where we're at in our lives at a certain point in our life, but each person is responsible for who they become. I think he's done a great job of taking responsibility for that and striving for something great," Monken said.

On the football field, in 47 career appearances, he's run the ball for 1,677 yards on 256 carries, good for an average of 6.6 yards per tote. In his four years, his class has left a legacy, helping bring Army football back to prominence.

On Saturday, he'll play in his final game. It will be against Navy in the 120th edition of one of greatest rivalries in college football. In the stands cheering him on for the fourth straight year will be both of his mothers, Tammie and his birth mother.

"Nobody can tell me that isn't my mother," Kell said speaking of Tammie. "She helped raise me. She took on that motherly role and she opened up her home to me."

He's also been able to keep a strong relationship with his birth mother, who he says has made tremendous strides and supports him in everything he does.

"She made a huge turnaround in her life and I couldn't be more proud of her," Walker said. "She found her religion as well, which is Christianity, and she found her purpose in life."

His mother comes over to Tammie's house to celebrate holidays and has been welcomed in as part of the family. She'll often call Tammie to thank her for everything she's done for Kell.

"I'm sure that's really hard for her," Tammie said. "That's his mom and she loves him with all her heart and he loves her with all his heart."

"I'm happy with how my whole life has played out," he said. "I have a lot more of life to live, but I wouldn't change anything in my life at all."

In the coming months, he will face another big challenge. He'll graduate from West Point and become a second lieutenant in the United States Army.

He's bound to face some difficult challenges in his future military career, but one thing is for certain – the most difficult part of his life is already in his past.

Army West Point Athletics

Walker's Journey to West Point a Story to Tell

Players Mentioned

Kell Walker

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