Column: ‘I just get it done’: Amare Rhodes’ journey from dropout to football star after brother’s death

The photo was taken in the fall of 2019 on a hot afternoon at Reseda High. Dranel Rhodes, a 16-year-old senior receiver, held up his smiling 12-year-old brother, Amare, on his shoulders. They were inseparable, little brother following big brother everywhere.

It was a story about brothers playing for Reseda’s football team. Dranel’s oldest brother, Lenard, had played for the Regents and Amare one day would make it three.

Except there was a family tragedy. On Jan. 7, 2022, Dranel was attending Ottawa University Arizona. Players were in a dorm room fooling around with a gun. It went off. The bullet killed Dranel. He was 19.

Back home, Amare was deeply affected. He was a freshman attending Reseda. He transfered to Birmingham in the fall of 2022, played in one game and dropped out of school.

“He disappeared,” Birmingham coach Jim Rose recalled.

Amare left with his grieving mother. He stopped going to school. He gave up football.

“I was definitely done with football and school,” Amare said sitting in a dark classroom this week. “I thought I’d never be back here ever.”

His father, Lenard Sr., reconnected with his son with the help of Amare’s mother. Amare started living with him, got grief counseling and his father made sure he was enrolled in an independent study program. The first priority was improving his grades and finding a way to move forward. He needed to make the decision to return.

“I do regret it,” Amare said of dropping out. “But it’s something that made me stronger and I can look back and be proud. Some take that fall and can’t get back up. I trusted God he’d get me back up.”

He had to learn how to study again. Dropping out left him far behind in the classroom. He fought his way to become academically eligible and enrolled at Granada Hills Kennedy this summer. His first football practices in two years left his body hurting. He was 5 feet 9, 140 pounds and out of shape.

“Coming to practice the next day, my muscles felt like they were going to bust,” he said.

Twelve weeks later, Amare is thriving. Last week in the City Section Division I quarterfinals, he caught five passes for 205 yards and one touchdown in a win over Westchester. He also had an interception. He made it through 10 weeks of report cards academically eligible. He has a long road ahead but says, “I just get it done.”

Amare Rhodes, who missed the 2022 and 2023 football seasons, has become a standout receiver/cornerback at Granada Hills Kennedy.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

His father watched the playoff game in the stands. He said he was proud of Amare but insisted the real victory came months ago on that first day back to a regular high school. His mother, Zeina, has been at every game in support of him.

“Amare won once he stepped back on the field and did everything he had to do emotionally and physically,” Lenard said. “He had to get his grades up. He fought hard. It’s still a work in progress. Football has been the best thing. He’s had a release.”

Kennedy coach Troy Cassidy said, “The guys love him. He’s very energetic.”

Lenard coached all three of his sons in youth football and knew they had talent. Amare just had to “get back on the bike and start riding,” he said.

Every time Amare is on a field or in places he once walked with Dranel, he becomes emotional. He never will forget those Reseda days being with Dranel in the locker room and on the field.

“It was something I can remember for the rest of my life,” Amare said. “The experiences were something that I will carry with me forever because it made me a strong human being mentally and physically. It prepared me for a lot of things outside of football.”

Lenard honors Dranel every year with a toy giveaway during Christmas and a combine for football players. His mother is equally moved to honor her late son, saying “I was everything to Dranel and he was everything to me.”

That photo I took in August 2019 brought back pleasant memories. Dranel was so happy that Amare was with him. The next year, the pandemic came, disrupting sports and lives everywhere. Dranel enrolled at Mount San Antonio College, then Ottawa, an NAIA school, before tragedy struck. Amare was left behind to deal with the absence of his brother.

“It was a long journey,” his father said. “He went through a lot.”

What turned Amare’s life around?

“My parents,” he said. “I just felt I was letting them down and myself down and letting my brother down, which is the worst of all. Something clicked and woke me up. It was me that had to get up, wake up to reality. And do the things that would make me succeed later in life.”

Amare is back smiling, making catches, having fun. On senior night, Kennedy happened to be playing Reseda.

“That was crazy,” Amare said.

Amare caught a 60-yard touchdown pass on the first play.

Somewhere, Dranel was proud and smiling.