BRUSH PRAIRIE — Devante Clayton finds it odd people look up to him.
Not literally, of course. Clayton stands 5 feet 8, but does check in at 195 pounds. He’s a weight-room junky who puts so much weight on the bar, it bends, one teammate said.
But it’s true about Clayton: people do look up to Prairie High junior. Football head coach Mike Peck, the man who opened his home when the teen had nowhere to turn, looks up to the player he’s watched mold as a disciplined football player, and a model student.
So does assistant coach Ben Kapelka, who along with his family, welcomed Clayton into their home in September. They’re building Clayton a spacious bedroom, a luxury the teen didn’t experience much growing up in and around Brush Prairie.
And his Prairie Falcons football teammates also look up to him. They’re inspired by his drive in football and in life, and how the past shaped for a better path at 16.
“He pushes through everything,” junior Zeke Dixson said. “No matter what it is, he pushes through it.”
Clayton is a first-year Prairie football player whose played every defensive snap this season as one of the 3A Greater St. Helens League’s top pass rushers. He’s also split time on offense at tailback for the Falcons, who will play in Friday’s state preliminary round game at Lincoln of Tacoma.
But Clayton also is a kid wanting the best for the mom who struggles with drug abuse, and a father who chooses to be absent, he said. Clayton’s slept on more couches than beds, and bounced between friends, extended family and two states seeking a permanent roof over his head.
He’s found that now at Prairie. And with it comes love. The love he desperately craved growing up surrounds him in his second year at Prairie.
That, in part, is why life is good now.
“It’s way better than it has been,” Clayton said.
A hard life
It’s difficult for Clayton to pinpoint the lowest moment in a childhood filled with difficulties and uncertainty. Clarity, however, comes when tears fall.
A reserved, soft-spoken kid to those who don’t know him found comfort knowing few classmates dared to mess with him. Ones who did mocked the same clothes he wore all the time. Meals meant relying on food stamps.
“We waited until the first of the month to get food,” Clayton said, “and pretty much blow it on the first day.”
But imagine by at age 12 knowing your mother’s drug habits, and when at its worst, witnessing an uncontrollable, unrecognizable drug-induced state inside a locked room.
That’s the moment tears fell for Clayton during a sit-down interview this week, because he still loves his mom.
“You open the door,” he said, “and she’d be laying there pretty much lifeless.”
Clayton is Andre and Karen’s only child together. His mom and dad never married, and still live separately in Clark County. Between them and their significant others, Clayton has 11 half-siblings.
Attempts for stability came from older siblings — from sister Brittany to brother Drason plus other extended family. That includes grandmother, Noreen Volker, who felt it was best for her grandson to begin high school fresh in Arizona.
Clayton enrolled at Buckeye Union High School, an hour southwest of Phoenix. Over time he worked his way up to the roster spot and saw varsity minutes in football by sophomore year.
But thoughts wandered of home.
“I want to graduate here,” Clayton said, referring to Prairie, “at this school. … I just wanted to make it out of high school, through football.”
Twelve-hundred miles away in Brush Prairie, Tim Banaszek got a text message from Clayton.
And the lineman couldn’t wait to share the news.
“It was like getting a brother back,” said Banaszek, Prairie’s center.
Return to Prairie
Banaszek and Clayton got “super close” as teammates in eighth grade when Clayton was drawn to football by a teacher at Summit View, an alternative school in Battle Ground Public Schools.
He hasn’t looked back. What he loves most about football, he said, is sportsmanship.
“It’s the people,” Clayton said.
That’s parallel to how Peck wants people to view Prairie’s football program as a first-year head coach. He stresses relationships and a family-first culture in a program he’s leading into the postseason for only the second time in 20 years.
He also understands when a call comes, you answer it. Slowly, Peck caught onto Clayton’s home-life unstability weeks into the teenager’s return.
This is when Clayton joined Peck’s weight-training class, then attending after-school weight-room hours to reshape his body and draw awe by teammates.
Quarterback AJ Dixson paints the perfect picture.
“He lifts so much (weight),” AJ Dixson said, “the bar bends.”
Clayton lived with Peck for seven months, got his grades up and earned a starting spot on defense back in August.
And Peck said Clayton’s growth and maturation led to a big boost in self-confidence in more than just football.
“Who he is and as a person being able to carry himself with respect and integrity,” the coach said, “he’s flourishing in a lot of areas where before he was struggling.”
Eats, sleeps football
Clayton enjoys football to the point where he “eat, sleeps and breathes” it, according to Peck.
He also likes school and is well on his way to honor roll with four “A” grades at the mid-semester point. His favorite subject is math, which is perfect since Clayton loves challenges, problem solving and numbers.
On the football field, his numbers shine.
He’s a second-team all-3A Greater St. Helens League honoree at defensive end with 57 tackles, seven quarterback sacks, two fumble recoveries and a forced fumble. On offense, two of his four touchdowns came in last week’s 34-7 playoff-sealing win over Evergreen.
In September, Clayton’s living situation became a permanent arrangement and guardianship when Kapelka, in his second year on Prairie’s coaching staff, invited Clayton to be part of his family , joining wife, Amanda, and their middle-school children, Ben and Clara.
Kapelka is Peck’s swiss-army knife of assistant coaches, assisting with the offensive and defensive lines and other practice and game-day needs. He said he sees a lot of himself, formerly in the Marine Corps, in Clayton when it comes to leadership and mentorship of underclassmen.
The Kapelkas also have the space and a true family life for Clayton to call home. Their bonus room is under construction for Clayton’s new bedroom with a walk-in closet, and says he can’t wait to paint an accent wall a Chicago Bulls red.
Family dinners, family outings, and family love are a new adjustment for Clayton. A week after Clayton moved in, he spoke up questioning the reason behind the Kapelkas family hugs.
Simple, Ben Kapelka said: love.
“It’s part of our ritual every night,” Kapelka said. “My wife and I aren’t doing this for anything more than our love for Devante.”
It’s success stories like this make Prairie principal Travis Drake proud of the work he and his staff do at the school. Drake was Pleasant Valley Middle School’s principal when Clayton attended as a sixth grader, and remembers a kid whose behavior sometimes meant trips to the principal’s office.
Times have changed. The Prairie student body and staff know him for better reasons. What makes Clayton unique, Drake said, is like many students, he doesn’t let obstacles get in the way of success.
Just another reason why people look up to Clayton.
“It’s great to see he’s finally places enough value on himself,” the principal said, “He knows he’s worth it and knows he deserved to be successful.
“He has a huge heart, and your see the genuine compassion he shares for others. Seeing the type of student-athlete he is is really why we do this work.”
