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UNM football: Lobos receiver plays hard to honor his best friend, a slain Marine

By Iliana Limón
Saturday, August 11, 2007

Junior receiver Jermaine McQueen reviews plays on the steps of his hotel, where he's staying with other players during camp. The death of his best friend a year ago in Iraq affected McQueen tremendously, and the junior college transfer said Pfc. Enrique "Henry" Sanchez is never far from his thoughts. "I definitely dedicate everything I am doing this year to him," McQueen said. "I want to honor the sacrifices he made. I owe it him to play as hard as I can and never give up."

Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune

Tribune

Junior receiver Jermaine McQueen reviews plays on the steps of his hotel, where he's staying with other players during camp. The death of his best friend a year ago in Iraq affected McQueen tremendously, and the junior college transfer said Pfc. Enrique "Henry" Sanchez is never far from his thoughts. "I definitely dedicate everything I am doing this year to him," McQueen said. "I want to honor the sacrifices he made. I owe it him to play as hard as I can and never give up."

Wide receiver Jermaine McQueen takes off his helmet as he heads to the sidelines during and early-morning practice. A former North Carolina high school state champ in the 100 and 200 meters, McQueen has shown flashes of gamebreaking speed in fall camp.

Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune

Tribune

Wide receiver Jermaine McQueen takes off his helmet as he heads to the sidelines during and early-morning practice. A former North Carolina high school state champ in the 100 and 200 meters, McQueen has shown flashes of gamebreaking speed in fall camp.

"This time of year I have so much on my mind, trying to remember plays and other stuff," said Jermaine McQueen. "My mind is going a million miles an hour."

Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune

Tribune

"This time of year I have so much on my mind, trying to remember plays and other stuff," said Jermaine McQueen. "My mind is going a million miles an hour."

The McQueen file

Full name: Erwin Jermaine McQueen

Position: Wide receiver

Class: Junior

Age: 23

Size: 6-2, 180 pounds

Number: 3

High school: Cardinal Gibbons High (Raleigh, N.C.)

Junior college: Palomar College (San Marcos, Calif.)

Career highlights: Second team all-Mission Conference American Division honoree his sophomore year after he caught 28 passes for 535 yards and six touchdowns. . . . At Cardinal Gibbons High, McQueen was a three-year starter at wide receiver and defense end. He was all-state in the secondary as a sophomore and all-state at wide receiver as a senior. . . . North Carolina state champ in 100 and 200 meters his junior and senior years.

The pint-sized kids shared big dreams.

Jermaine McQueen couldn't stop talking about playing football.

His best friend, Henry Sanchez, couldn't stop talking about joining the military.

"I think that's how we ended up being so close back in middle school - we understood what it meant to be really passionate about something," said McQueen, a junior wide receiver on the University of New Mexico football team.

Both dreams nearly died a year ago in Iraq.

Sanchez's pulse stopped and McQueen's nearly went with him.

Somehow McQueen has learned how to live with a broken heart.

"For a long time, I was scared I wasn't going to make it through this," McQueen said. "It is the worst thing I've ever been through."

Life was much simpler in high school for McQueen and Sanchez.

They were untouchable.

McQueen was a speedy star defensive end and wide receiver on his high school football team.

Sanchez was a man on mission, eager to begin his life with the Marines as soon as he finished high school.

The first obstacles they hit were minor compared to roadblocks they would later face.

McQueen played in talent-rich North Carolina and couldn't land a Division I scholarship. He took a year off before heading across the country to Palomar College in San Marcos, Calif.

"There weren't any junior colleges in the south, so I decided to go to a school that usually sends a lot of their guys to Division I schools," McQueen said. "I knew once I had a chance to show coaches what I could do, I would earn a scholarship."

The Marines weren't interested in Sanchez, who was too overweight to enlist.

Like McQueen, Sanchez embraced the challenge. He wore an 80-pound backpack filled with bricks while jogging and dieted to lose 152 pounds.

The boys tenaciously chased their dreams.

McQueen overcame a bout with homesickness and became a strong junior college player recruited by several Division I teams, including the Lobos.

Sanchez endured his first tour in Iraq, admitting that his time in Fallujah was a horrific experience. Somehow he prepared for a second tour of duty, telling friends he was fighting so they would not have to go to war.

Last summer McQueen was conditioning at UNM while taking a correspondence course to complete his associate's degree. He was poised to be a major receiving threat for the Lobos when a phone call derailed his plans.

McQueen learned Pfc. Enrique Henry Sanchez died July 27, 2006, when his Humvee ran over an explosive device near Ramadi. Sanchez was 21.

"It was horrible," McQueen said. "I dropped everything and went back to North Carolina for the funeral. I thought I would come back here right afterward to finish my class, but I had to be there for his family. They were always there for me growing up, and I had to be with them when they were in so much pain."

Soon it was McQueen who was having a hard time finding the strength to get through each day.

He couldn't focus on school enough to finish his correspondence course and was academically ineligible to play for the Lobos in the 2006 season.

"All the New Mexico coaches were really supportive and didn't blame me for what happened," McQueen said. "They told be to be strong and finish up at Palomar so that I could come back the next season."

It was a brutal setback for McQueen.

He already burned up his junior college eligibility, so he could not play football last year. The red taped robbed him of the one thing that could soothe his pain and ease his grief.

"I got a lot of help from Henry's family, my family and my girlfriend's family in California," McQueen said. "It took all of their help to get me back on my feet."

McQueen finished his school work, but a new rule nearly short-circuited his UNM football career. The NCAA decided a player who went to a Division I school, left for a junior college and returned to the same Division I school should lose a year of eligibility.

UNM's compliance office filed an appeal for McQueen.

"I was really worried the NCAA was going to take another year away from me," McQueen said. "It took months for them to decide, but they finally told me I could have two years here. I was so happy everything worked out."

UNM head coach Rocky Long said he is just as happy to have McQueen on his team.

"That poor kid has been through so much just to get here, and we're really glad to have him here," Long said.

McQueen is poised to be a strong backup receiver for the Lobos this year, flashing more speed than even cat-quick Marcus Smith in fall camp.

"It has been tough learning a new offense and getting used to playing at this level, but this is what I've always wanted," McQueen said. "I'll do whatever it takes to learn it all."

McQueen always had that fire. Now it's even more intense, burning brightly to fuel the dreams of two men instead of just one.

Moments before McQueen steps onto the practice field, he thinks of his best friend.

"Henry inspires me to keep going," McQueen said. "I definitely dedicate everything I am doing this year to him. I want to honor the sacrifices he made. I owe it him to play as hard as I can and never give up."