A life worth sharing
| Friday, Nov 28 2008 01:23 AM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 01:59 PM
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North's Julian Dean-Johnson runs in the open field against Stockdale's defense Friday at North High.
North High football standout Julian Dean-Johnson has the potential to be a Division I player but first he had to leave behind his past.
After football practice, Julian Dean-Johnson takes a 45-minute GET bus ride to the east side of Bakersfield to visit his girlfriend, Lorraine Vasquez, and their 19-month-old daughter, Nicole.
There are times when Julian Dean-Johnson goes the entire school day without eating.
“Sometimes I go to practice hungry, tired, with an empty stomach,” Julian said. “What I do sometimes is I drink a lot of water to fill my stomach up so I don’t feel hungry, and I go to practice like that.”
Practice comes to a close and North High’s senior star running back — who’s rushed for 1,430 yards and 14 touchdowns this season — is dog tired. But even though he’s drained his priorities never waiver.
Julian finds a teammate or assistant coach to give him a ride from Oildale to the downtown terminal so he can hop on the GET bus for a 45-minute trip to his girlfriend’s house in east Bakersfield.
Once he arrives, he’s finally where he wants to be, with his 19-month-old daughter, Nicole, and his girlfriend, Lorraine Vasquez.
Yes, Julian Dean-Johnson is a statistic, but he’s not just another teenage father with an unwanted child. Lorraine and Nicole have given him a purpose to leave the troubled life he once embraced.
“They motivate me to stay straight,” Julian said, “because that’s who I stay straight for.”
Said Lorraine: “It’s crazy. I never thought Julian would be who he is now.”
•••
Julian, who’s bounced around three high schools, has never had it easy. He and his four brothers — Chris, 18; Kyle, 14; Andrew, 11; and Brian, 6 — have always gotten by on welfare and food stamps. Before Julian started spending so much of his spare time at Lorraine’s, regularly coming by a hot meal was a challenge. Some days, it still is.
While Julian may not have to endure as frequently, his brothers do. They survive sometimes with a bare refrigerator and cupboards in their run-down, two-bedroom apartment in Oildale.
“To this day,” Julian said, “sometimes we go for like two weeks without food in the house.”
Julian said his black father, Chris Johnson, who now lives in Arizona, was a drug user who was “never really around.” His white mother, Julie Dean, who’s deaf, has never held down a regular job and battled drug addiction, though she tells the boys she’s been clean for five years.
Not having parents to look up to had a serious impact on Julian and the choices he made. With no sense of direction, Julian grew up in a rough central Bakersfield neighborhood and leaned on all the wrong people for guidance.
“Ain’t nobody else I could talk to if I needed help,” Julian said. “Like if I needed advice with anything, I didn’t have nobody to talk to but the homies.”
•••
The “homies” were members — or would-be members — of the West Side Crips gang, which Julian said he started running with when he was 12 after his older brother, Chris, got jumped in.
“I wanted to be what he was,” Julian said, “so I started bangin’ with him.”
Gang banging became an everyday way of life for Julian. He looked for a fight wherever he could, especially with rival gang members. And he dabbled in drug dealing, earning about $200 a week selling weed.
“I wasn’t doing it to support the family,” Julian said, “just for my own needs — shoes, clothes, whatever I needed.”
As if Julian hadn’t caused enough trouble already, things took a turn for the worst during the summer of 2006 when Julian spent 30 days in juvenile hall for fighting at a local restaurant with a Latino gang member in his 30s.
Growing up in a bad neighborhood, living in poverty, wreaking so much havoc in just a few short years, it seemed like Julian might never unshackle himself from gang life.
•••
Everything began to change, though, when Julian was released from juvenile hall. After spending three years in alternative school, he was cleared to leave and attend Bakersfield High that fall, where he played junior varsity football.
The life-changing news came just a few games into the season: Lorraine was pregnant with his baby.
“Everything I was doing bad, I was realizing it,” Julian said. “What really kept me from trying to stay from getting locked up is when I knew I had a daughter on the way and just seeing how my brother (Chris) was getting in and out of juvenile hall. I just didn’t want to do that, because I had seen how unhappy he was.”
By this time, the words of Julian’s uncle, Carl Dean, began to register.
“He told me my little brothers were going to follow my footsteps,” Julian said, “and if I want them to do right I have to do right first. I can’t just be a hypocrite and demand them to do right when I’ve done wrong.”
Julian began taking steps toward change, first and foremost by cutting ties with some of the wrong people. There was a setback, though, when his mother decided to move to South Carolina, forcing Julian and his brothers to live with their grandmother.
What that meant for Julian was he had to transfer to Ridgeview, which he knew was bad news because “east siders” there knew who he was. He wanted out of the thug lifestyle, but he felt trapped.
“What I was trying to do was avoid the gangs,” Julian said, “but it kept coming to me. The more I tried to avoid it, the more it came to me. And the more it came, I wanted to defend myself instead of telling everybody I don’t bang no more.”
•••
Luckily for Julian, his mom returned from South Carolina after just a few months. When she did, Carl took a vested interest in the lives of his sister and five nephews and helped them settle into low-income housing in Oildale, where they live today.
Julian left Ridgeview and transferred to North, which was his escape from gang life. But Julian had a concern heading into North: How would he fit in at a predominantly white school?
To his surprise, very well.
“When I got there I was welcomed,” Julian said. “The Oildale community has really been having my back.”
It didn’t take long for Julian to realize North was better than any situation he’d been in before.
“I think he said to himself, ‘Hey, I’ve got a chance to do something good,’” Stars coach Mark Camps said. “He’s realized that, and it’s been pretty neat, especially at a school like this where we don’t necessarily have a lot of black kids. … I’ve got to imagine at first it was just a new environment for him.”
No question it took a little getting used to, but it didn’t take long to acclimate. There have been only a few minor incidents during Julian’s two years at North, including this year when he was suspended for the first two games of the season for leaving campus during lunch.
But for the most part it’s been smooth sailing. Julian hasn’t been in any fights, and his grades are the best they’ve ever been. He no longer desires to be a menace to society.
“Since I have known Julian, he has always been respectful and very interested in what goes on around him,” said Carrie Gamboa, Julian’s former guidance counselor at North. “Overall, he is a nice young man. He’s never showed me any disrespect.”
Said Carl: “Julian has seen a lot, been through a lot, and it means the world to me that he’s able to play football and stay in school. Coach Camps has done a great job trying to keep him involved and in school. He’s had a few bumps in the road, but it’s been a good fit and I’m real proud of him.”
Why Julian has changed so much over the years is obvious.
“It’s because of Nicole,” Lorraine said. “He did all of it because of her. He just straightened up.”
To the point that he says he now thinks about his future and how he can provide for his daughter the way his dad never could him and his brothers.
He plans to attend Bakersfield College next year and has thought of becoming an interpreter in American Sign Language, which Julian — who’s deaf in his right ear — has gradually learned through communicating with his mom.
•••
Then, of course, there’s football. Kern County’s most prolific runner — who had 380 yards rushing and four touchdowns in the win over Centennial that clinched North’s first Southwestern Yosemite League title in 10 years — hopes to play for his uncle Carl, the Renegades’ offensive coordinator. Transferring to a Football Bowl Subdivision program is still a goal Julian believes he can attain.
“I want to play running back at a D-I — any D-I, it don’t matter,” Julian said. “As long as I can move my daughter and my girlfriend with me wherever I go, that’s where I’ll go.”
Is he capable of staying on track academically to give himself a chance at reaching his goals?
“Julian, he’s a very smart guy,” Lorraine said. “He can do good. I know he can do well. I just believe in him. He’s made it this far. … From where he was to where he’s gotten, it’s a long way. And I believe he can go farther.”
So does Julian — for himself, for his brothers and, most importantly, for Nicole.
