San Jose State's George is football player and poet

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

San Jose State's Trestin George, like many college freshmen, is carrying a double load this semester.

But his added work is on the football field, where he is one of four Spartans used on both offense and defense. In a 38-35 upset at Illinois, George started at tailback and finished at cornerback.

"There's no standing around at all," said George, whose team plays Hawai'i Saturday at Aloha Stadium. "I'm always on my toes."

If there is a reason George races through life, it probably is traced to his hard-scrabble start.

His mother, Renee, is a single parent who worked as a librarian and a hair stylist to support George and his older sister. Money was tight and the bills were high. "There were times," George recalled, when "we didn't have a place to stay."

Still, Renee George scrimped and saved to make sure her two children attended private schools in Oakland, Calif. George often protested, offering to go to a public school, arguing the tuition money could be better spent on other things.

But Renee George insisted an education was one of life's staples.

"I couldn't change her mind," he said. "She made a lot of sacrifices for me."

On weekends, George earned extra money helping neighbors clean out garages or washing windows. He played football in the hope of receiving a scholarship.

Last November, Renee George suffered a stroke, which left her legally blind. But this season, through blurred vision, she has attended the Spartans' home games, straining to follow the shadowed images on the field.

"She knows the game," he said, adding that he learned the sport from her. "She was my first coach."

Often this year, after a full day of classes, practice and film sessions, George would collapse in exhaustion in his dormitory room. Then he would remind himself, "No matter what I'm going through, it's nothing compared to what she has gone through. Playing football is a privilege. It's fun. Playing both ways is double the fun. I have no complaints."

His sister earned her college degree and worked in Los Angeles before returning to Oakland to take care of their mother.

"I feel safe, knowing she's in good hands," George said. "I talk to her every night."

George often puts his thoughts into writing, a practice he developed in the sixth grade, when an English teacher encouraged him to write poetry. George found the words came easily.

"Poetry is writing what you imagine," he said. "There are no bounds."

George has written hundreds of poems, although many are kept private, secured away in spiral notebooks.

But he shared one poem, "Intro," with a friend. Earlier this year, "Intro" was published on www.poetry.com.

Soon after, George was invited to participate in the 2002 International Society of Poets contest in Orlando, Fla.

He said he is teaching himself to play the guitar so he can set some of his poems to music. He is not sure whether he will perform any of them in public.

"I'm interested in learning new things," he said. "That's the best thing about college. Being a freshman, down at the bottom, gives me incentive to work hard — in school and in football. Everybody on a college football team was 'the man' in high school. Once you come into a new environment, you're at the bottom of the barrel. You have to learn. I love to learn and work hard, because nothing has been easy for me in life."

George, it appears, is going in the right direction, finding peace in self-discovery. In the closing lines of "Intro," he wrote, "I recognize success, as I reveal my heart ... as you understand my heart, by reading the words, you'll find a faithful victory."