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He’s at peace where he’s landed, a junior at Winona State University and a member of the Warriors football team.
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Winona State wide receiver Tyrre Burks looks to be a deep threat for the Warriors after transferring there to play football last spring. (Photo by Andrew Link/Winona Daily News) |
It’s different than any situation he’s been in before. He can think. He can focus. On school. On football. On his future.
“My dream is to play in the NFL,” Burks said. “I’m going to almost kill myself to get there.”
In a way, Burks figures he’s already living on borrowed time. It’s part of what drives him, part of what makes him want to be the best and make the most of his life.
He grew up in a tough neighborhood in Chicago. He’s had friends killed and others get hooked on drugs and involved in gangs.
Burks believes that was the road he was headed down ... until he found football.
A sport he didn’t start playing until his sophomore year in high school has become his ticket. Burks is hoping to punch it all the way to the highest level.
For now, it’s taken him to Winona, a place he said feels like home. Just a few hundred miles from his real home, it feels like a different world.
“I like it here,” Burks said. “It’s a lot different than Chicago. I can think here and focus on what I need to focus on. I don’t have to worry about walking down the street.
“If I hadn’t started playing in high school, I probably wouldn’t be alive to see 20 right now.”
Burks admits he made mistakes. He didn’t take much seriously until he started playing football.
That included school and perhaps cost him a shot at playing Division I football. He had interest from programs like Michigan State, Northern Illinois and Toledo, but didn’t have the grades and test scores to qualify. He ended up going the junior college route.
Burks played two seasons at Harper College in Palatine, Ill., before transferring to WSU between semesters last year.
“I was disappointed in myself most of all,” said Burks, a pre-physical therapy major at WSU. “In high school, it’s not that hard to do well. I felt I could have done better and should have.
“I waited until the last minute to realize I could go somewhere.
It was almost too late. So when I got to Harper, I made myself the promise that I was going to make the best of it.”
Burks is the first in his family to go to college and he said his family is depending on him.
He grew up without a father and said his mother, Gwen, has been a huge influence on his life.
“She’s a big part in my success and why I try so hard,” said Burks, who also has a younger brother, Marcus, 9. “My mom brought me up right, to be a leader and not a follower.”
A lunch room manager with Chicago Public Schools, Burks’ mother paid for him to attend Harper.
“He’s a mama’s boy,” said teammate Amir Ross, one of Burks’ closest friends at WSU. “You can tell that being around him.”
Burks and Ross, the Warriors’ backup quarterback, hit it off right away on Burks’ campus visit. Ross said he grew up about five minutes from Burks, so they had plenty in common.
“I can relate to him, so he talks to me about things he doesn’t talk to other people about,” Ross said. “We pretty much come from the same place.”
That place was rough, Burks said. He attended Carver Military Academy and said his freshman class started with 430 kids. Only 99 graduated.
“It’s why I like it so much here (in Winona),” Burks said. “Everybody here is doing what I’m doing, trying to make something of themselves. I go back home and people are doing the wrong things. I’m not into that.”
It was Burks’ size — a 6-foot-5, 215 pound wide receiver — that caught the eye of the Warriors. It was Burks himself, however, who made the impression on WSU coach Tom Sawyer.
“He was one of the most polite kids I’ve ever had on a visit,” Sawyer said. “You could tell this was a pretty special kid.”
Burks figures to do special things on the field this season. He’s become a starter for the Warriors and showed his value during spring practice.
He caught two touchdowns passes in the spring game and spent the offseason getting bigger, faster and stronger. He gained 20 pounds and turned in times of 4.29 and 4.36 seconds in the 40-yard dash.
Those numbers and a few solid seasons with the Warriors could draw interest from the NFL.
“We’re glad to have him,” fellow receiver Scott Peters said. “He showed in the spring his ability to go up and get the ball and what kind of weapon he can be. We’ve seen it. It’s only a matter of time before everyone else gets to see it.”
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