North Carolina State University Athletics
Program Spotlight: John Deraney
9/27/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Raleigh, N.C. – John Deraney rises to the challenges that face him in life.
On the football field, the senior from Fayetteville, Ga., as handled the responsibility of being a rare three-way starter at the kicking positons for three years now, as NC State’s punter, kick-off specialist and field goal kicker. And he’s maintained perfection for nearly six years now, having never missed an extra point in high school or college.
But kicking a football around Carter-Finley Stadium is not the biggest challenge Deraney has faced in his five years at NC State. In the spring of 2000, when he was just a sophomore in high school, Deraney learned that his father, Rick, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a debilitating, degenerative neurological disease that slowly steals all motor skills.
Deraney knew nothing about the disease. And he was used to his father, a former punter at Troy State, having trouble getting around. He had used a cane to walk for nearly 10 years prior to his diagnosis.
Deraney was surprised at just how quickly his father’s ability to get around deteriorated. By the time Deraney was a college sophomore, his father could stand and walk short distances, but needed a wheelchair most of the time. By the time he was a junior, his father was in a wheelchair permanently.
It has made things tough for Deraney’s mom, Ginger. With all three of her sons away at college most of that time, she was responsible for Rick’s daily care. It also made traveling the seven hours in a car to see her middle son’s football games a near impossibility. Flying here was not an option, not because of the expense, but Rick Deraney refused to put his expensive, custom-made electric wheelchair on an airplane. He had seen too many things happen to delicate equipment in the cargo bay of an airplane, after spending his career working in the customer care department for Delta Airlines, where he specialized in lost and damaged luggage.
So Deraney goes home when he can, he talks on the telephone daily and he gets reports from his fiancée, Brittany Parker, who still lives in Fayetteville, Ga., where the two first met when they were at Fayette County High School. Deraney proposed on the field at Carter-Finley Stadium, following the 2004 spring game. They are planning a June 30 wedding next summer.
That’s a lot for a 22-year-old college kid to have on his mind. But Wolfpack coaches say Deraney has been amazingly focused on his team and individual duties in Raleigh, even with so many things going on back in Georgia.
“Like everybody else, I got things back home that weigh on my mind,” Deraney says. “But I am old enough and have been playing football long enough that I can block things out and focus on the task at hand. Better, I would say, than when I first got here.”
Deraney finds help in his deep belief in Christianity.
“I rely a lot on my faith,” Deraney says. “Mainly, the Lord has helped me block a lot of things out. I put a lot of things in His hands. He has control over what happens with my dad. That helps put me at peace.”
So what Deraney has learned over the last five years is an admirable sense of perspective, on football and on life.
“It’s one of those things you realize as you get older and more mature – there are a lot more important things in life than football,” Deraney says. “I don’t want to come across that I don’t take it seriously. If I do miss a kick, I am going to be upset. But I am not going to let it take hold of my life.”
Over the summer, Rick Deraney had surgery to help relieve some pressure on his spine. It didn’t really work. The family was told he may have another six months. Hospice has begun coming to help five days a week.
“Doctors aren’t right 100 percent of the time,” Deraney says.
He does what he can to help his family. He spent the summer prior to his junior year at home, helping around the house and spending time with his dad. He spent the first summer school session back at home, returning for the second summer session to help break in a new holder for field goals and extra points.
Last spring break, he started finishing off the basement in his parents’ house. By the time he returned to Raleigh in early July, Deraney had completed a 1,500 square foot renovation that included a bedroom, a bathroom and plenty of living space for his older brother Chris, a recent college graduate who moved back home to help his parents as he tried to land a job in Atlanta as an opera singer.
It was good practice for Deraney, who hopes to follow in his uncle’s footsteps in the construction industry. And he did it all while working eight-hour shifts at a marble and tile company near his home, where he will also work as a management intern this coming spring to complete his degree in Technology Education.
But that is an entire football season away. Deraney is off to a good start as a senior. He has hit all three of his field goal attempts, including a career-best 54 yarder at Southern Miss. Ten of his 28 punts have landed inside the 20, putting opponents in poor field position and boosting the chances of the Wolfpack defense. And, as usual, he has made all of his extra-point attempts.
He came into the season hoping to improve on his hang-time, both on his punts and his kickoffs. He wants to be more accurate on field goals than the 75 percent he made last year. Mainly, he just wants to do everything a little better.
“I knew when I came here he was a very good kicker, in both phases of the game,” says new Wolfpack assistant coach Rick Kravitz, who now handles State’s special teams. “The other day against Akron, when he had to kick from the 20, he had probably his best kick in the season, and he has had some really good ones. He’s been a hard-worker and taken on some leadership responsibilities.
“That’s not typical for a punter.”
Much of his time has been spent training his replacements. The Wolfpack signed two kicking prospects in February, Nathan Franklin of Wilmington and Josh Czajkowski of Springfield, Va. But neither will take time away from Deraney, considered one of the best in the country, a
He’s the only kicker on the preseason watch lists for both the Lou Groza Award as the nation’s top placekicker and for the Ray Guy Award as the nation’s top punter.
And his future could be in professional football. ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. lists Deraney as the nation’s No. 4 senior punter. He’s not among the top 5 placekickers, but his versatility in playing both positions should give him an advantage with the scouts.
He’s been impressive in how he handles all of the challenges he faces.
“I didn’t realize how well he rises to the occasion when things get tough,” Kravitz says.
Deraney isn’t focused on what may happen in the near future. There will be plenty of time to be reflective, sad and happy in the days to come. Right now, he’s focused on being the best he can in his final season of college football.
“I am going out and trying to have fun,” Deraney says.
And, with everything else that is on his mind, if he pulls that off, it might be his biggest accomplishment of his productive, successful collegiate career.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu
