Roughriders’ Derrick Moncrief made a non-football All-Star team — the Dean’s List

 Derrick Moncrief customarily receives high grades from the coaches for his performance on the football field. 

But were it not for his exemplary marks in an academic setting, dating back to his post-secondary years, the recognition and rewards that accompany life as a professional football player likely would not have ensued. 

Ultimately, it was the hard work off the field — a commitment that allowed adversity to be overcome and resilience to be on display — that paved a path to the pros and prosperity. 

“Growing up, I was diagnosed with ADHD early on in my adolescent years,” the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ All-Star cover linebacker recalled Wednesday at Mosaic Stadium. “I had to take medicine and everything to try to pay attention in class. 

“Going through school, I never was good with grades and things like that, so when I got to college, I kind of took off there. I developed some great study habits and I eventually made the Dean’s List. 

“I didn’t even graduate from high school. I had to graduate online. My journey in academics is greater than the football accomplishments to me.” 

Consider where he was — and what he has become. 

While starring Prattville High School in Alabama, Moncrief — who was then a safety — had been courted by an assortment of major NCAA teams. 

“I remember sitting down with Nick Saban — the great Nick Saban,” Moncrief said, referencing the University of Alabama Crimson Tide’s head football coach. 

“He told me that he wanted to evaluate me football-wise and he wanted to see how my grades were. They wanted to offer me (a scholarship), but they couldn’t at the time because of my grades … so imagine that. 

“I could have gone to Alabama coming out of high school, but I just couldn’t qualify.” 

The story was told more than a decade ago by his hometown newspaper, the Prattville Progress. 

A story by Cortez Strickland flashed back to Feb. 1, 2012 — National Signing Day. The Progress writer noted that 28 of Moncrief’s high school teammates with the Prattville Lions had signed or committed to play college football at schools large and small. 

In the case of Moncrief, however, “the four-star prospect had to begin his journey in relative obscurity at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College,” Strickland wrote. 

So what did Moncrief do?  

It is important to accentuate what he didn’t do. 

He didn’t pout, bemoan his fate, or resent the teammates — many of whom were less-accomplished at the high school level — who proceeded to join NCAA programs. 

Instead, he resolved to improve academically … and, oh, did he ever. 

“I went to junior college and I graduated early — in a year and a half,” Moncrief said. “I had every school in America beating my door down. I was the Number 1-rated safety in America.” 

As a member of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Bulldogs in Perkinston, Miss., Moncrief was a teammate of a future Roughriders cohort — receiver Duke Williams — for two years (2012 and 2013). 

Both players proceeded to the University of Auburn, at which Moncrief — who was switched from safety to strong-side linebacker in 2014 — spent one season before transferring to Oklahoma State University for his senior year. 

One problem: In adherence to the transfer rules of the day, Moncrief had to sit out one full season before returning to the football field and to the safety position. 

As a result, 2015 was a void in his football career — but a year that was nonetheless a landmark due to his excellence in the classroom. 

Most notably, he achieved a sparkling grade-point average: 4.0. 

That accomplishment was celebrated in the Tulsa World in August of 2016, when writer Mark Cooper interviewed Erica Moncrief-Taylor. 

“It is unexplainable, the feeling that I had when I got the letter that he had a 4.0 grade-point average,” Moncrief’s mother told the Tulsa newspaper. “He told me that he had and, of course, I believed that he had, but to see it in writing was like, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God!’ 

“I’m so, so proud of him.” 

And there’s more: The World also reported that Moncrief paid his own way for his first semester at Oklahoma State, simply because the football program did not have a scholarship readily available when he switched schools. 

As a result, Moncrief took out a student loan and received a hand from his parents. 

“I worked two jobs,” Moncrief-Taylor told the World. “His dad (Derrick Sr.) and his family just pitched in. 

“We just make it work. Just pitch in and everybody made it work. Whatever he needed, we’d get together and just make it happen.” 

Look at him now. 

Moncrief, who turns 30 on June 25, is a well-established CFL player — a league All-Star with the Roughriders in 2019 who also made the West Division’s dream team last year. 

A year-round resident of the Queen City with his Regina-born wife, Kasia, Moncrief is also conspicuous in the community while making appearances on behalf of the team.  

Following the Wednesday interview, for example, he headed to Vibank to amicably interact with people in that Saskatchewan community. 

People always want to talk about myriad matters relating to the Roughriders, of course, but there is an engrossing, inspiring non-football element to Moncrief’s story that he outlines to youngsters at every opportunity. 

“Where I come from — Prattville, Alabama — it’s hard to make it out,” he said. “You’ve got adverse situations … poverty and everything like that. There’s everything under the sun that deals with being in a Black community. 

“So, for me, I always want to be a beacon of light and show them that you can achieve anything — not even just with sports. You can be a scholar. You can be the best banker.  

“You can go the distance. That’s what I live by.” 

TOMORROW: From Prattville to Riderville — how Saskatchewan became home for Derrick Moncrief