Randolph is stylin' for Round Lake

With the aid of only a rotating mirror, Vernon Randolph can turn his entire head into an art form.

Randolph not only cuts his own hair, he also designs it by trimming in anything from words and symbols to abstract images.

Currently, on the sides of his head, he's sporting a row of perfectly straight lines that could pass as racing stripes. In the back, he managed to script the word "Vee" into his hair with the kind of legible penmanship that any grade school teacher would be proud of.

He says that everyone calls him "Vee," which is short for Vernon.

"I love to draw and design things and cut hair," Randolph said. "It's what I do when I'm not playing basketball."

Ah yes, basketball.

Cutting intricate designs into the back of his own head seems like a snap compared to the saga Randolph has had to live through just to get on the basketball court again.

The Round Lake senior guard is flourishing now. In fact, he's the leading scorer in the Daily Herald's Lake County coverage area with a 23.5-point average.

He scored a career-high 39 points against Lakes earlier this season and has surpassed the 30-point plateau four times.

But as recently as one year ago, Randolph was wandering aimlessly through life, convinced that his promising basketball career was nothing but a distant memory.

"I felt like basketball was over with. I pretty much gave up on it," said Randolph, a 6-foot-3 guard who can shoot from long range, drive to the basket and do almost everything with flare. "It was horrible because I felt like I was watching my life slip away."

The trouble started when Randolph began to have problems at home.

He had just completed his sophomore year and, at that time, was a student at Warren, where he had burst onto the high school basketball scene in dramatic fashion.

Randolph scored 40 points for the Blue Devils in a freshman game and got promoted to the varsity for the last part of the season. As a sophomore, he was on the varsity from the start of the season and saw playing time coming off the bench.

In a game against Lake Zurich that year, he scored a team-high 13 points and even led the Blue Devils in assists and rebounds.

"That was the first time a reporter actually talked to me after a game," Randolph beamed. "I was pretty happy with the way things were going for me."

But then that summer, everything changed.

"I started getting into some trouble," Randolph said. "I actually got kicked out of my dad's house."

Randolph says that his father Vernon Jr., who lives in Gurnee, asked him to go live with his mother Cheryl in Round Lake. But then his father decided that didn't seem like such a great alternative either.

"My dad told me that I knew too many people in Round Lake," Randolph said. "He was worried that I wouldn't be able to stay out of trouble."

That's when Randolph headed to the south suburbs to live with his Grandma Gladys, who raised him for much of his early years. He enrolled at Thornwood High School for his junior year.

"My dad just wanted to get me away for a while," Randolph said. "He thought that if I was around people I didn't know that I could focus on getting myself together and also improving my grades."

But Randolph still wanted to play basketball. And when it became apparent that he might not get much playing time at Thornwood, he moved back to Gurnee.

He had stayed only about a semester at Thornwood, which made it December when he returned to Warren.

Randolph wasn't back for long when school officials gave him the distressing news that IHSA transfer rules would prohibit him from playing basketball that winter.

At the same time, trouble was again brewing at home. Randolph says his father was about to go through a divorce.

This time, Randolph's father decided that he would be better off living with his mother in Round Lake.

So in January of 2007, Randolph enrolled at Round Lake High School. But the IHSA transfer rules applied there, too, and he was ineligible to play basketball.

"I just had to watch the season," Randolph said. "I didn't even get to practice with the team. I hated it. It was terrible."

By the time summer rolled around, Randolph was more than ready to turn over a new leaf. He was intent on working as hard as he could on his game so that he could make the most of his upcoming senior year.

But that plan didn't work out so well either.

"I tried to stay in shape. I tried to work hard. But then I started having problems again and no one knew what was wrong with me," Randolph said. "I couldn't breathe very well. My eyes were getting bigger than usual. I saw some doctors, but they didn't know what was wrong either. It was hard to concentrate. I wasn't acting like myself. I started getting into trouble again. I was acting in ways I had never acted before. I was getting into arguments with my parents and everything.

"So everyone decided that I needed to go to military school to really get straightened out."

Randolph began his senior year this past fall at military school. But five days into his stay, doctors told Randolph's parents and grandmother that they finally discovered his problem. He had a thyroid condition that affected not only his health, but also his behavior.

Randolph returned home immediately to begin treatment, which includes a daily dose of medication to regulate his thyroid.

Eventually, Randolph re-enrolled at Round Lake. And with his health and behavior improving, he wanted to start playing basketball.

But once again, he was forced to sit out. He missed the team's first nine games this season so that he could get his academic credits, which were a mess because of all the transfers, in order.

Finally, after weeks and months of waiting, Randolph got his shot. In December, he got the green light to suit up for the Grant holiday tournament.

In a game against McHenry -- his first official high school game since March of his sophomore year -- he scored 18 points.

He's been making up for lost time ever since.

"I remember it was hard to breath in that first game because I wasn't used to being out on the court. I wasn't totally back in shape yet," Randolph said. "But I had a lot of fun. It was such a blessing. I didn't care how much I got to play. I was just excited that I was playing again."

He wasn't the only one.

Round Lake coach Jeff Fisher is delighted to have Randolph in his arsenal, but is even happier that this story has a happy ending.

"Vernon is such a great kid. He just had some rough spots to get through," Fisher said. "We're just so happy for him that he's straightened everything out and is doing well here at Round Lake.

"He's working on his grades, he's being a great teammate and he's playing really well right now. It's really great to see."

Now, Randolph doesn't want to see his career end. Not when it seems like it's just begun.

He's hoping to play basketball next year in college and has been contacted by some schools at the Division III and junior college level. He plans on studying art.

"I wish I could get that (junior) year back and play one more year (of high school basketball) and really make the most of it," Randolph said. "But I think I'll be ready to play in college. I'd really like to do that.

"It would be a blessing. After what's happened, any amount of time I get to play basketball, I just feel grateful."