Making a recovery

Gerald Terry wears number 42 for the Southern football team. It’s his way of paying tribute to his mom. Robin Terry was just 42 when she was stabbed to death a year ago at the hands of her own brother.

Her son likes to keep her close in his thoughts. He can no longer talk to her about football, no longer confide his dreams of going pro, but he can put on that jersey and get a sense of comfort.

"I feel like she is still with me," Terry said.

She may have been watching over him two weeks after her death, when Terry got involved in a fight. Another teen pulled a gun and shot the athlete in the left shoulder and hand. He was fortunate enough to fully recover from the injuries.

All in all, though, "it was a tough year," Terry acknowledged.

His football team also struggled in 2001. Southern continued a losing streak from the previous year, and was forced to cancel the last three games of the season due to an insufficient number of players.

Now, as Terry is pulling his world back together, the Rams are trying to climb their way back, too.

Two weeks ago, the team defeated Edison 6-0, snapping a string of 14 losses.

Terry, a junior linebacker-fullback, and teammate Mark Lee sacked Edison quarterback Keenan Nelson.

"I’ll remember that because I got the quarterback," said Terry, 17.

For the first time since his freshman year, when Southern beat Overbrook 7-6, Terry and his teammates could call themselves winners.

"I looked back and saw 0:00 on the clock and everybody was on the field celebrating," he said. "We were playing as a team that day."

Coach Bill Edger noticed Terry’s talent two years ago when he started him at linebacker. At the time, the Rams were having trouble getting athletes out for the team, which gave rookies a chance to get substantial playing time.

Edger noted that Terry has improved every year.

"This year he is doing a great job on defense," the coach said. "He is emotional and sometimes really gets into practices and games."

Last season, Terry’s emotions were committed to dealing with personal tragedy.

He was asleep during the early-morning hours of Oct. 31, 2001, when his mother was stabbed to death inside the family’s home on the 1900 block of South Norwood Street.

Gerald’s uncle Harry Terry, who reportedly suffered from serious mental illness, was charged in the incident and later convicted of third-degree murder in a non-jury trial. He will be sentenced Dec. 4, and faces 20-40 years in prison.

Gerald Terry still has difficulty talking about his mom’s death, and keeps his words about it few and stoic.

"It hurt," he said.

That hurt was still raw when Terry got into an altercation Nov. 11 following a late-night party on the 2300 block of Snyder Avenue. The athlete said somebody he didn’t know was pushing everybody around, which led to a fistfight. Terry said he was getting the best of his opponent when the other teen pulled a black handgun and shot him in the left shoulder and hand.

Suddenly, football — a sport Terry started playing when he was 9 — was no longer as important.

"I didn’t want to do anything," he recalled. "I wanted to stay by myself."

The teen no longer had a parent to look to for support. Terry said he doesn’t remember his father, who was incarcerated when he was very young. His grandmother Geraldine Terry started taking care of the teen and his two brothers and sister following his mother’s death.

Meanwhile, the Southern football squad called it quits for the year, so the athlete wouldn’t have had a team to play on if he wanted to.

"I didn’t know about it until I came back in December," he said of the shortened season. "I wasn’t upset because I knew I wasn’t going to play."

As a youngster, Terry began playing football in neighborhood pick-up games, and soon joined the Sigma Sharks. He got even more serious about the sport when he signed up to play with the Southern Rams.

The athlete said he used to tell his mother about his dreams of playing professional football. Eventually, that was what brought him back to the game.

"She always liked me to believe and keep trying for it," Terry said.

So last month, he suited up and even helped his coach recruit additional players for the squad.

"I told them to come out and try their best because we needed them on the team," Terry said.

The season began in an all-too-familiar fashion. Southern lost its first three games by a combined score of 83-8. The Oct. 10 win over Edison has given the Rams some new motivation.

But whether his team is winning or losing, Terry admits he still has some days when he isn’t mentally into football. Edger said he tries talking to him to make sure everything is OK.

Today the coach will count on Terry and the rest of the team when Southern hosts winless University City at 3 p.m. The South Philly squad lost last year’s meeting against the opponent 26-8, in what turned out to be the final game of the season.

Southern is coming off a 19-0 loss to Bartram last Thursday. The Rams’ defensive play, which included seven tackles by Terry, held Bartram scoreless for the entire second half. The two teams combined for 22 penalties totaling 235 yards. Sophomore defensive end Maurice Carter still managed to impress his coach with seven tackles, a fumble recovery and an interception.

Terry hopes to continue making big contributions for his team and, with luck and hard work, earn a college scholarship.

He said he’ll keep believing, just like his mom would want him to.

"I am going to play my heart out and play every game like it’s my last game," Terry said.