Chasing a Storybook Ending

NORMAN, Okla. -- Music is many things to many people. It provides a distraction from their day-to-day hectic lives and gives them a chance to relax and clear their minds.

Music can be a distraction to people living hard lives. Defensive tackle Steven Coleman is all too familiar with hard lives.

Things are great now. He is on a football team pursuing championships and he's already got a couple of rings to show for it. He has a supportive girlfriend, Natasha, and a family in Louisiana that loves and supports him.

Back in high school, things weren't always so easy. Music for him became an integral part of his life.

"All the way up until the ninth grade, I lived in the same house," Steven said. "My mom lost her job so we moved down the street and lived there for six or seven months."

It wasn't long until Steven had to move a third time. The moves were hard on him, taking him farther and farther away from his childhood streets and friends. His mother, Shirley, knew it.

"We had to move from a house he had lived in since he was very little and that was kind of hard on him to move away from the neighborhood he grew up in," she said. "It was a real hardship on him."
Coleman said the living conditions were rough on him, too.

"Sometimes, we didn't even have running water," Coleman said. "We had to boil water just to take a bath."

He endured it and said he never complained or griped about it. He continued to stay focused on school and football at Oak Cliff.

Tragedy struck again when his cousin was killed in a car crash and his aunt died of a stroke. But still, Coleman remained strong and turned to his music for comfort.

"I have always loved it because I can forget about my problems and clear my head," Coleman said. "Music always helped me get through those tough times."

His junior year he took music to another level and began to write his own rap music. He said he got the idea from a teammate, and loved doing it.

"It just relaxed me," he said. "I can still sit down and write for two hours. It just keeps my mind off of other things."

Not only can Coleman write the music, he can rap it, too.

"I write anything that comes to mind, mainly about my life," he said. "I started rapping and my friends told me I was pretty good."

He and two of his friends even started a group called "Brick House" and wrote music for fun.

Aside from music, school and football were still a major priority for Coleman. He wanted to receive a scholarship to play football in college. The dream would allow him to continue playing a sport he loved and have the opportunity to be the first in his family to get a degree.

Oklahoma came calling and Steven felt right at home in Oklahoma on his recruiting visit.

"He loved Oklahoma," his mother said. "The first thing he said was how it felt like home to him and how he didn't even want to take any other visits."

Coleman brought his love for music and rapping to Norman and quickly caught teammates' attention in the locker room before games by being able to free style.

"If you give him a beat, he'll go," teammate Alonzo Dotson said. "He is, hands down, the best rapper on the team."

When the 2003 Sooner team made it to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Coleman took the opportunity to get up on stage at a banquet during the week and rap.

"My teammates liked it, and still, Coach (Cale) Gundy sees me and asks me to rap," Coleman said.

Coleman said he still loves to rap, but has handed the reins off to teammate Malcolm Kelly, who now serves as the team's free styler.

"Steven is really good," Dotson said. "I don't know why he retired from doing it. No one could ever touch his music abilities."

One big reason to step aside is that Coleman has become serious about a goal that has always meant so much to him and his family -- and that goal is graduation.

"My major is sociology and I am planning on graduating next May," he said. "My hope is to graduate and make it to the NFL and make a lot of money so I can help my mom and family have a great life."

Being able to give back to his family that loved him through the tough trials of his childhood is something that is dear to him.

"All I care about is my family," Coleman said. "Everyone is encouraging me to graduate and be the first one in my family to do that. It is just a true blessing for me to have them."

All of his family lives in Louisiana, but his mom said that doesn't stop them from seeing Coleman continue to live out his dream.

"His dad, Joseph, and I come to Oklahoma to watch him play, and we have only missed two games since he has been in college," Shirley said. "Even my mom, who is 76, sits and watches him play on cable television. Our whole family is rallying behind him for his football career and to see him graduate."

Louisiana just happens to be the site of the 2007 National Championship game and Steven is aware of the possibility of going to the state where his family lives and what it could mean to play in front of his number one fans.

"It would be a true blessing to end my college career there and for them to get to see me play my last game at Oklahoma," he said. "If we make it to the title game, maybe my rapping will make a comeback."

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Story by Mitch Heckart | OU Athletics Media Relations

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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