No matter where Dillon Gordon goes, he’s never far from home.
The junior tight end from Edgard, Louisiana has always been athletic, and he has been fueled and coached by his biggest motivator — his mother, Rita Jarrow.
Dillon played sports from a young age, showcasing his natural abilities by outplaying 5-and-6-year-olds at the park despite being two or three years younger than them.
But Jarrow’s sacrifices got Gordon to where he is today. His mother was always his biggest supporter and motivator, pushing for him to be involved in sports.
“I always needed to keep [him and his older brother] into something,” Jarrow said. “An idle mind is a wasted mind, so I always tried to keep them into something.”
Sports was that something in Gordon’s life. He played virtually everything throughout his childhood, succeeding at each sport he played. And while his sport of choice fluctuated throughout the years, his mother was the one constant in his life.
She was by his side through it all, taking him to and from practices and even sitting through them because she firmly believed he was her responsibility and no one else’s.
Gordon was always one of the biggest kids in his classes, and his size and ability enabled him to progress much faster than most of his teammates and competitors.
Once he was ready to start playing high school ball, he reached an obstacle that almost deterred him from continuing his career if it wasn’t for his mother.
In Edgard, Gordon played travel baseball and youth football, but his teams weren’t winning. He was so visibly upset by the little amount of success his teams were having that Jarrow decided she had to do something about it.
“He always wanted to be a winner,” Jarrow said. “One day he complained so much that I said ‘You know what? I’m going to put you in a school where I know they win.’”
She called John Curtis High School football coach J.T. Curtis, Jr. and asked if Gordon could be allowed to play for the team. He eventually was.
It was a big leap of faith for both Gordon and his mom. He left his friends behind while his mom drove 45 minutes each day to drop him off at school.
But it’s a leap Gordon is grateful for.
“It meant the world to me,” Gordon said. “We weren’t as fortunate as everybody, but my mom did some sacrificing for me to have a better life than when my brother and her when they were in school. I just took advantage of all the opportunities that were placed in front of me and I did something with it.”
Jarrow said Gordon was happy to be accepted by the school and the team, and he began to enjoy playing much more than in the past.
At John Curtis, he became one of the most successful high school tight ends in Louisiana in the class of 2012. He was key in John Curtis’ run-heavy attack while also producing seven catches for 122 yards and two touchdowns en route to winning the 2A State Championship in 2011.
The move to John Curtis, on top of everything else in his childhood, proved to Gordon that his mother would do anything for him, and that she would be there for him no matter the circumstance.
“My mom is a big key in my life,” Gordon said. “She tries to lead me in the right direction … and she has been that way my whole life.”
Now even in college, he’s never too far away from his mother’s guidance. She attends every single game and critiques every play to help him become a better football player. They talk after each game, and she gives Gordon pointers on things he does right and things he needs to fix.
Gordon said she is like a coach on and off the field, and he can hear and see her wherever she goes.
“My mom has not missed an event in my life,” Gordon said. “She has been to everything. She has been to every game. In Tiger Stadium I can pick her out in the crowd, tell you what she has on and everything. I don’t know what it is. I just walk out there and I look, and I see her.”
You can reach Jack Chascin on Twitter @Chascin_TDR.