Pack Unlocked, Volume 2: Bryce Banks

"It's a long story, but it has a real good ending."

There are 115 players on the NC State football team, but you would be hard-pressed to find one who smiles more often than Bryce Banks. It's not just a polite smile, not a perfunctory one. It's a smile that lights up his face. A smile that makes it almost impossible not to smile in return. A smile that ... well, it just makes you feel happy.

Banks hasn't always had a lot to smile about. In fact, he's been through more in his limited years than many people go through in a lifetime. But the somewhat rocky path that his life has taken brought him to NC State and has given him a story that can impact others and change lives.

TOO MUCH, TOO EARLY

Banks was born in Kansas City, Mo., to a single mom who already had two boys, a five-year-old and a six-year-old. Candias Hardin had her hands full working to provide for three growing boys and therefore, wasn't around very often.

"Mom was always at work, so I had to grow up fast," Banks remembers. "My brothers were always on the go and they would take me with them."

When he was just five, Banks and his mom moved to Columbia, Mo. Following the move, Banks was always alone at home, as his brothers stayed in Kansas City. His mom was gone long hours, so to fight his loneliness, he began to hang out with his cousins and other kids, in places where a young boy shouldn't have been hanging out.

"I saw lots of things I shouldn't have seen at that age. I saw fights all the time and I even saw someone get shot. It was like it was no big deal. That's how it was."

A couple of years later, Hardin moved her son to Richmond, Va. Now, there were no brothers and no cousins. Although it was during this period that Banks began playing football for the first time, it was not a happy time in his life. Over the next five years, he would attend three different elementary schools. In all, he went to five different schools between first and fifth grades.

"We lived in a hotel for a year and we just bounced around," Banks says matter-of-factly. "Nothing was consistent really. I always knew I would never be at a school for more than two years, tops, so I never got to settle in with friends and stuff. I was always the new kid and had to fend for myself. I got into a lot of fights and I was angry. I thought fighting was the way to deal with your anger because that's what I had always seen. I was angry. I got suspended a lot from elementary school.

"People would ask, 'Why are you so angry?' but I didn't know why. Probably because I was always alone. I didn't have my brothers and family and stuff like that. We lived on the south side of Richmond and it was a real rough area. You had to adapt to your environment. I knew the consequences but I didn't care. I didn't care about anything."

In fifth grade, they moved back to Columbia and Banks picked up where he had left off with his cousins.

"It got way worse. I was back with all my family members and I thought I was a real badass. I was in fifth grade and they were in high school. I remember plenty of times they would call me to beat up somebody. There was constant fighting and I liked it, but you always had to watch over your back. It was a lose-lose situation.

"I saw way too much, too early.

"Our house got kicked in a couple of times by the police. I remember sitting on the couch watching TV and the police knocked on the door. I was like 'Who is it?' and they kicked in the door. A friend that was almost like a sister to me got killed. I got hit by a car. I was drinking and smoking all the time.

"I was on my own. Me and my mom have a real close relationship, but I had to fend for myself. She was working all the time so she couldn't monitor me. She would be tired and I would be ripping and running."

"I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING"

As Banks reached middle school, he was in and out of trouble. The only thing that bothered him about the consequences for his bad behavior was not being able to play football.

"I was good at that," he says. "And it was fun. It was a way to release anger. I liked the attention, but it didn't set in how much I loved playing until I couldn't."

When he was in eighth grade, Banks decided he wanted to try to play high school football. He went to Rock Bridge High School, where he met Coach A.J. Ofodile.

After practice one day, Ofodile pulled him aside. "I know what you're doing," he told Banks.

"He had heard that I was good at football but that I was a bad kid," Banks says. "He said that if I changed my life around, I could pick any school in the nation that I wanted to go to. He said, 'You have that talent, but you have to change your environment and the people you're surrounding yourself with.' He said if I didn't turn my life around, it was going to be a waste.

"At that point, I thought I would probably graduate from high school. Only a few people I was associated even did that, so it was a huge honor. But then they just went back to doing the same thing. That's what I thought I would do.

"But it hit me. I thought, 'Maybe he's right.'"

TURNING IT AROUND

Banks knew he wanted a different life, but he had no idea how to go about achieving it. By the time he hit high school, countless family members and friends were locked up, some serving sentences as high as 20 years. But Banks' eyes were open. He started to look around him at some of the other guys on the team.

"Coach O's son, Alex, was a great player and was a workaholic," he says. "I noticed and I thought, 'I want to be as good as him.' I started hanging out with him as much as I could and just doing football things. When I told my family I was serious about it, they supported me. They told me to not end up like them."

One day, a teammate told Banks about an organization called Young Life. "They didn't tell me what it was about, just that there would be a whole bunch of girls there," he laughs. "It was about Jesus. I kept going. We went to Crooked Creek in Colorado for a week and it was the first time I'd been out of the state since I moved back. It was the best week of my life and I got closer with God. That's when the change happened. I started doing better in school because I was surrounding myself with the right people."

ANGIE THE ANGEL

And then, there was Angie Azzanni. Her calling was to start a ministry for male athletes who were at risk. She told Banks that since his mom wasn't around, she could help him with his homework. That was his introduction to the program she founded called COR.

"There were about 30 kids all from the same situation without the greatest support at home," Banks says. "Sometimes people weren't eating, so it was bad. They provided food for us and just somewhere we could do our homework. We were in school until 4:05, then had practice until 8, then from 8-10 we would be at this church where they were doing this program."

On Sunday nights, the group couldn't use the church, so Angie would bring the whole group to her apartment to help them with their schoolwork.

"We formed a brotherhood," Banks smiles. "Everybody started getting good grades."

Banks' sophomore year, COR obtained a building right across the street from the school. Now, the young men could stay until midnight, seven days a week.

"I was there Monday through Monday. I would stay until 12 at night and then wake up and do it all over again."

While Banks was having a great junior season, his friend Alex was rated one of the top senior wide receivers in the country. Coaches from all over were coming to watch him work out, and therefore, saw Banks in coverage. They were impressed with him and after Alex left to play at Oregon, Banks settled down for his final season.

He received his first offer while he was at COR one evening. After that, the offers started pouring in. One day, Angie mentioned something he'd never thought about before.

"She said 'you've got to visit all these schools.' I didn't have any way to visit, so on my spring break, she took me to like 10 schools. We drove over 1,000 miles. We went to Bowling Green and Ball State. Miami of Ohio, Western Michigan and then drove to Tulsa. She did all of it. She's like a second mom to a whole bunch of kids."

Soon, the Power 5 offers starting coming as well. After attending camp at Missouri, they offered the hometown star. For a kid who had grown up in the shadow of that SEC school, it was a hard option to turn down. Without talking to anyone, Banks committed to play for the Tigers.

LEAVING THE LIFE

Life had changed for Banks. It had turned remarkably around for the better.

"My life was more peaceful," he says, "but I knew I still had family members in that lifestyle. I was never ashamed of them, but I still had to watch my back and deal with that.

"I wasn't living the lifestyle any more, I but hadn't left the life.

"A few weeks after I committed, it started sitting on me. I was like, 'I can't go here." I started thinking about my past and how much God had taken me through and how different my life was and thought I really needed to get out of Columbia. I decommitted. It was real hard because I grew up loving Mizzou."

It wasn't long after he reopened his recruitment that NC State cornerbacks coach George Barlow starting following Banks on Twitter.

"From his profile picture I thought he was going to be mean," Banks recalls. "But then I got on the phone with him and I was like, 'Man, he's nothing like he looks!' He said he loved my film and that he was going to offer me. Coach O liked Coach Doeren a lot and Angie's brother is the receivers coach at Tennessee and he told her that State had a great coaching staff and that Coach Doeren was really doing something special here."

Banks and his mother came to Raleigh for an official visit and both of them loved it. He committed to the Wolfpack in mid-December and a couple of weeks later, he was on campus as an early enrollee.

"A REAL GOOD ENDING"

The path that led Banks to NC State was certainly filled with twists and turns, but he has thrived in his new environment. He has adjusted to college life well, and after going through the spring is now a veteran before his freshman year even begins. He says that spending so much time alone growing up made it easier to move so far from home, but he still has an incredible support system in Coach Ofodile, Angie and his family, as well as his new family at NC State.

The work habits he learned in high school have also carried over. On the weekends, you can find him in the Pack's indoor facility, putting in extra work with veteran corners Jack Tocho and Mike Stevens. As he's adjusted to the schedule of a college student-athlete, he's only been able to attend Athletes in Action meetings a few times, although he plans to get more involved with that organization.

The busy schedule has had positive consequences. "I haven't had any time to get homesick, which is good," he laughs. "I'm usually with some of the older guys so I think that won't happen at this point."

His desire to improve has not escaped the notice of his new brothers. "Every time we're free, he wants to do extra work," says Tocho. "He's a guy who found the positivity and opportunity in his situation. Now he's making the most of it and I'm rooting for him."

"It's crazy everything that God took me through to get me where I'm at and how much different my life is," Banks says. "I thank God every night for helping me come this far. But I know it's just a beginning. I know if I trust in Him, He won't steer me in the wrong direction. I haven't done any of those things I used to do since the ninth grade.

"What I pray for is to be able to go back and show kids that there is another way to go. There's more to life than the streets, selling drugs, committing crimes and things of that nature. You can be what you want to be. I just want to have an impact. If I can just reach out to one kid, it will be worth it."

In other words, it would be something to smile about.

What is Cor?
Cor empowers male student-athletes in Columbia to transform their lives through educational, experiential and athletic opportunities. Through quality resources and caring relationships, students develop hope for the future and a way to a productive and redemptive lifestyle.

Why Cor?
"Cor" is the Latin root for "heart," and also where the French get the word "courage." Just as one's heart, by pumping blood to the arms, legs, and brain, enables all the other organs to function, courage and heart make all things in life worthwhile. We believe imparting courage and heart to youth will enable them to face struggles throughout life.

Players Mentioned

Bryce Banks

Mike Stevens

Jack Tocho

Related Videos