NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Dal'mont Gourdine is the standard bearer in more ways than one. His family, neighborhood, and high school all should be proud.
By the sounds of it, North Charleston-born and raised Gourdine could be the mayor of Storrs, Connecticut, after five years of playing football for the UConn Huskies.
"The people are very welcoming," he said. "They want to get to know you. Coach Hurley [is] over there across the street. Real cool dude - got to know him. Chopped it up plenty of times. The whole university. I know the president."
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He's made UConn his home. When others "portal'ed" to the next spot, the only chasing he did was opposing quarterbacks.
"My game plan going forward is NFL," he said. "Main goal on top of the main goal since I was a youngin'."
That very well could happen. But with what he's already accomplished – it doesn't much matter.
"Where we come from in North Charleston, not many take that next step and next level to go where the family wants them to go," he said. "We probably had eight graduation tickets, but I had to go back to people and say I have like 20 graduation tickets. I have people coming from North Charleston up here. The university helped me get those tickets for the people, who spent the weekend up here."
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His college career is now over. A foot injury at practice late in the season forced surgery. He won't play in the upcoming Fenway Bowl against UNC. He's every bit a part of getting them there. You bet he'll be in Boston for it.
"Waking up at 4:30 a.m. to go to workouts and train," he said. "I'm happy for this team. The guys, the coaches, the families around this team. When things went left, we got them right during the season."
He's also the last of his kind. The final Garrett Tech Falcon to fly. The final athlete from the now-shuttered high school off of Dorchester Road.
"I think about it all the time," he said. "We always talk about high school, what is your HS doing this Friday? I never join in the conversation because I don't have a high school anymore. Garrett is gone. Last athlete, something I can hold my head on. I'm the last to ever do it at the school. Before they built CCSD, I tried to contact the people to get my name on there that I was the last one to do it."
He may not have to ask for that in Storrs, Connecticut.