Moving in with family credited

His life has turned for the better. It all started when his life turned.

'I could be like my brother'

"Who knows?

" Lopez says. "I could be just like my brother and be in jail right now or out on the streets. That's basically what I was doing before we moved: getting in trouble.

"

Moving was a big part of his youth. From his birthplace in Apple Valley, Calif., to different parts of southern California, the family was anything but stable.

Later, when his mother, Arlene, remarried, her husband took a job with a construction company and the family moved to Montana. It wasn't long before Arlene made the inevitable announcement: we're moving back to California.

Montana had taken some getting used to - "for the first time, I saw a dirt road," Lopez said, but returning to his old life was not an option.

"I had just settled down and made friends," he said, "so I didn't want to."

His best friend in Bozeman was Kellen Pierson, and Lopez began spending the night at his house. One night turned into two, then three, and soon, Lopez had at last found a secure environment.

The Pierson family already included five children. But the clan had room for one more, and the summer before seventh grade, he moved in.

A new world opened up.

"I was able to get away from all the craziness with my other family," Lopez said. "I was able to get introduced to some new things. Especially sports.

I never knew I was so athletic."

It did take some time to discover. He was lost when he went out for football that fall.

"It was kind of a joke; I'm not going to lie," he recalled. "I didn't know a thing. I just lined up where they told me to line up and when the ball was snapped, I was just in my own world.

"

Key player

Five years later, as a Bozeman High senior, Lopez became one of the team's most versatile players. He piled up 85 tackles from his safety spot and nearly led the Hawks - with Kellen Pierson at quarterback for the first time all season - to a first-round playoff upset of Billings West.

Lopez scored the game's first touchdown, then threw a touchdown pass for an early 13-0 lead before West came back to win 23-20.

Career over.

Not the desired ending, but imagine what might have been if Lopez zigged back to California.

"The move in with the Piersons was life-changing for me," he said.

Life-saving may be a more appropriate term.

Said BHS head football coach Troy Purcell: "That direction, from their family, has helped shape his future and will help shape him into the man that he is going to be."

But first it's off to Carroll to play cornerback, although the coaches who recruited him - head coach Mike Van Diest and assistant Jim Hogan - may be back in Bozeman.

Van Diest is a candidate for Montana State's vacant head coaching position.

"I read that this morning and its kind of devastating," Lopez said. "Because of coach Van Diest's and coach Hogan's recruiting, that was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, reason I chose Carroll.

"

Dream now a reality

No matter who is coaching the Saints, Lopez has worked hard to make the dream of going to college a reality.

He earned an athletic scholarship to Carroll, and for keeping at least a 3.0 grade point average, earned an All-Saints scholarship.

Last fall he won the Tom Antonsen Award as Bozeman High's football MVP, an honor which comes with 1,000 to be used for college.

Lopez has also received two smaller scholarships that will help lessen Eric and Lisa Pierson's financial burden.

"They have five kids, so I tried to do my best getting any kind of scholarships that I can," Lopez said.

"I consider that whole family my family because they've done so much for me. They feed me and treat me like I was one of their own."

What might have been?

Andrew Lopez could easily erase such thoughts. But if he doesn't look back, he'd forget how far he's come.

"I wasn't a bad kid, necessarily.

I was surrounded by the wrong people," he says. "I never got into a lot of trouble, but it was enough to where it would have gotten me into a lot of trouble if I would have stayed."

Last modified on 5/29/2007 at 12:20 am
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