How fatherhood helped Penn State football’s Lamont Wade find his focus on and off the field
Days after being named a captain for Penn State, Lamont Wade paused to collect his thoughts on a Zoom call with reporters on Tuesday.
The senior safety reflected on how his life changed two years ago, when his son, Roman Wade, was born in March 2018. At the time, Lamont was months removed from his freshman season and was admittedly “in the midst of some troubling times” mentally. Being a former five-star recruit and not seeing the field as often as he’d envisioned was difficult for him.
“I doubted myself, not knowing what I wanted to do, sometimes had a negative attitude,” Lamont said Tuesday. “But with him coming around, I can’t doubt myself, because I got someone depending on me. I can’t have a negative attitude, because my negative attitude will go on him.”
Now headed into his second year as a starter and first as a captain for the Nittany Lions, Lamont’s motivation is Roman. He wants to succeed for both him and his son.
Growing up outside of Pittsburgh in Clairton — which he described as a “dark hole” because of the town’s issues with crime — Lamont experienced things many children never do. It took the support of his parents, Joy and Carlton, and other family members for him to not end up dead or in jail like some of his friends.
“A lot of kids don’t make it,” Carlton said. “Very few make it. Very few become successful.”
But Lamont was different. As the 43rd-best recruit in the Class of 2017, according to 247Sports, he had several offers from Power 5 schools. Ultimately, he chose Penn State to be close enough to family but far enough from the distractions in his community back home.
Things didn’t pan out right away, though.
Lamont saw the field in 12 games for the Nittany Lions as a freshman but didn’t have close to the immediate impact he thought he would. The internal pressure mounted. He didn’t know when things would change.
With the birth of his son, though, he found a new purpose — a new driving force that wouldn’t let him give up. Lamont wanted to ensure Roman would have a better life than he did growing up. And he saw an opportunity to provide that for him.
“It was kind of like a focus thing, a ‘get back on track’ thing, a ‘put your head in the right place where it’s supposed to be’ type thing,” Lamont said. “... I guess he just sped that process up. Because stuff got real a lot faster for me. And I had to realize that there wasn’t no other option.”
Heading into his junior season last year, Lamont made his biggest strides. He increased his total tackles from 18 to 67 and doubled his sack total to two, all while adding five passes defended and three forced fumbles to his 2019 stat sheet.
Head coach James Franklin noticed the difference in the way Lamont carried himself, too.
“Just the attention to detail is on a completely different level,” Franklin said earlier this month. “His alignment with the coaches and reinforcing messages and being a leader for the young guys — I think that’s Lamont just naturally growing up in our program as a senior. But I think that’s also based on his personal background, as well.”
Since players returned to campus June 8, Lamont hasn’t been able to spend very much time with Roman.
Carlton and Joy brought him to State College a couple weeks ago so Lamont could spend a few hours with his son. But, other than that, the time they’ve shared together recently has been limited.
Lamont said being away from Roman has been “rough.” Still, he understands the bigger picture. And he knows that — as he starts his final season at Penn State with a trip to Indiana Saturday — he has a chance to change his son’s life by taking care of business on the field this fall.
“I don’t think nothing can stop Lamont now,” Carlton said. “I really don’t.”
So, as Lamont gathered his emotions and tried to find the words before answering a reporter’s question on Tuesday, he looked down and cracked a smile. It isn’t always easy, but Lamont can never lose sight of who he plays for.
“That boy,” Lamont paused, “he made everything real.”
This story was originally published October 23, 2020 at 8:00 AM.
