Palatine reaches out to Brooks

Few signs indicated Feb. 6 would be one of the biggest days in the young life of Monroe Brooks.

Brooks was hardly an athletic prodigy. He made a last-minute decision to go out for football his freshman year at Palatine High School.

He believed his future was in basketball and opted not to return for football his junior year. Then he got into trouble that would have kept him off the field anyway.

It could have been a dead end for the 6-foot-6, 245-pound Brooks. But he took a different direction.

"It made me sit down and realize all this stuff was holding me back," Brooks said. "I looked at my frame and said, 'You can go somewhere and you're just wasting it.' "

Others who might have seen helping Brooks as a waste of their time didn't. He returned to the football field for his senior year and was chosen as co-defensive player of the year in the Mid-Suburban West.

A sudden wave of big-time college interest followed for the previously unknown prospect. Brooks saw Purdue as the best fit of four Big Ten schools that offered scholarships in a span of a few days.

And on the first Wednesday in February, Brooks will be among the few thousand kids fortunate enough to sign his name on a letter of intent to play Division I football.

He'll also be the first male in his entire family to go to college.

"I'm really proud of him," said retired Palatine special education teacher Nancy Grybash, who has been one of Brooks' biggest influences. "He's one of those kids who has just turned into such a fine young man.

"He should be given so much credit. He could have gone the other way because it would have been so easy."

Joining the team

Although Brooks' father Monroe Sr., played high school basketball at Farragut on Chicago's West Side, there wasn't a big push for Monroe Jr., to play sports.

Brooks smiles and laughs about not making his seventh- and eighth-grade basketball teams with now 6-9 teammate Josh Rustman.

And football wasn't part of Brooks' plan. Then he asked Ryan Hourigan, who started on defense with Brooks this fall, to spend the night at his house days before the start of their freshman year.

"He said, 'I've got this football thing in the morning,' " said Brooks, who was already 6-2. "I said, 'I'll come out and watch you.' "

Brooks decided he would play after talking to freshman coach John Nalley.

"You make a play and you get so much energy out of it," Brooks said. "And being with the guys was really fun."

Brooks immediately stood out to Tyler Donnelly, who was a varsity assistant and a year away from taking over as head coach. Donnelly played fullback at Illinois and lettered in 1993.

"In my mind this was a kid football-wise who would be a Big Ten kid for sure, from my experience," Donnelly said. "Those kinds of kids were in our locker room at Illinois.

"When I saw him play I said there's no doubt. Even as a freshman he had the ability and he wasn't afraid of hitting."

But as a sophomore he quit and didn't play for 2 games before returning and finishing the season. Brooks thought basketball was a better fit and decided to leave football behind.

"As a junior I didn't think I'd be that big of a factor," Brooks said. "At first I didn't think a tall black person like myself played football."

Ironically, Donnelly planned to build his defense around Brooks but couldn't talk him out of his decision.

Then came a decision that changed everything.

Others cared

Brooks said he had started hanging around other kids who had quit football and basketball. Late in his sophomore year during volleyball season, he was caught stealing at school and was suspended from all sports his junior year.

He figured people at Palatine would just write him off after his second offense.

"What changed everything was he was surprised people cared," Donnelly said. "He found out people were really disappointed in him. He was shocked and started taking things more seriously.

"There isn't a person in the school that isn't rooting for him."

People from Donnelly to Grybash, from boys basketball coach Ed Molitor to Annie Hernandez and Terri Murphy in the athletic department. They all wanted Brooks to succeed.

"That changed me a whole lot," Brooks said. "I thought I was just some average kid who was never talked to by a coach. I felt if I quit nobody cared and nobody would want me back.

"After I got in trouble at meetings at school they all still wanted me to play. It just struck me."

Brooks knew he was down to two strikes and would be out with a third. He had been coming in early in the mornings before school to work on his basketball skills and his good behavior led to an early return to the team.

About a year ago, he talked to Grybash about a return to football. She understood the importance athletics could have since her sons Dan and Jeff were athletes at Fremd.

"It helps with academics and it keeps him on the straight and narrow," Nancy Grybash said. "It's something he needed to do."

Donnelly wanted Brooks back as long as he was fully committed. Brooks told Donnelly he would practice and play as hard as he could if given another chance.

"The kids started saying Monroe wants to play next year and I'm rolling my eyes, a believe-it-when-I-see-it type thing," Donnelly said. "By the time the summer came we trusted each other enough."

Brooks figured, "I'd do this for fun and get to hang around the guys."

Little did he know how much fun he would have.

Change of dreams

Basketball was still No. 1 on Brooks' list going into the fall. He had a Division I interest that included a scholarship offer from Central Connecticut State.

But his play on the football field was rising to the levels Donnelly envisioned when Brooks was a freshman.

He became a force at defensive end as Palatine returned to glory with its first playoff trip and victory in 10 years. Brooks was a Daily Herald All-Area pick with 12 tackles for losses and 6 sacks.

Then came his first college call from Purdue assistant head coach Mark Hagen.

"I went home and I was like, 'Whoa,'" Brooks said. "They told me I looked like somebody they had just put in the NFL draft (2007 first-round pick and Cowboys outside linebacker Anthony Spencer). I went home and cried a little bit. It was crazy."

Indiana made the first scholarship offer and Purdue offered an hour later. Illinois and Michigan State offered a few days later.

Brooks attended the Old Oaken Bucket game and he was sold on Purdue even though Indiana won. And he convinced his parents the prospects were much brighter for someone his size in football than basketball.

"It was a place where I wanted to be," Brooks said. "Everybody was nice and I felt it was a good place for me to spend four or five years."

Donnelly and Brooks said he's projected to redshirt next year and be a three-year starter and four-year player at defensive end or tackle. They both figure he'll thrive with year-round training and conditioning geared toward football for the first time.

"He's not as fast but he's bigger than Simeon Rice was," Donnelly said of his former Illinois teammate and three-time NFL Pro Bowl selection. "Simeon was in the same situation, he wasn't highly recruited and played one year of high school football (at Mt. Carmel)."

Brooks did have one snag a couple of weeks ago when Joe Tiller announced he would retire as Purdue's head coach after next season.

But former Purdue assistant Danny Hope, who was named Tiller's successor and will be associate head coach next year, came in with Hagen to reassure Brooks little will change in the program.

Brooks visited the West Lafayette campus last weekend. He was excited to learn he'll be rooming with Tommie Thomas of Richards, who Brooks knows through basketball.

Now Brooks, who has increased his grade point average to 2.7 and scored 19 on the ACT, is dreaming of someday playing in the NFL. But that's not all as he's thinking about.

"If I don't make it to my dream, or even after my dream, I want to show people what I was taught," Brooks said of studying to become a physical education teacher and coach. "Some people give up on people who were bad but at Palatine High School, nobody gave up on me. They were always right there."

Grybash is still there to talk with Brooks two to three times a week. Her sons Jeff, who teaches and coaches at Buffalo Grove, and Dan, a minor-league pitcher, have become a big part of his support system.

"This is not a young man who ever gets down and he sees the upside of everything and everybody," Nancy Grybash said. "It's just great to see him grow into himself and grow with confidence -- to know, 'I can make a change.' "

And now all the signs point toward success for Brooks.

"This is his ticket -- I tell him it's a lottery ticket for him," Donnelly said.

"I used to work at a furniture store and I thought I'd be there for the rest of my life," Brooks said. "I've been truly blessed. On a scale of 1 to 10, I've been blessed a 12."