Von Steuben player finds motivation from tragedy

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Karl Bullock

Special Contributor to CSNChicago.com

After failing to muster the required layups in a practice drill, Von Steuben players head to the sideline to face the consequences: sideline sprints.

"Were you hustling?" Donovan Maxey asks freshman guard Chijioke Nwosu. With a look of frustration on his face, they begin to run back and forth. Before Nwosu can answer, Maxey cuts him off.

"No, you weren't," he said. "I was watching you," he said.

For the past four years at Von Steuben Metropolitan, Maxey has seen his share of ups and downs while playing basketball. Two fractures to his right ankle cut short Maxey's sophomore season. When the injury carried over into his junior year, the 6-foot-1 senior forward was forced to sit out the entire season.

Rather than let his injury situation emotionally deter him from playing again, Maxey found extra motivation through the memory of his father, Duane Berry II, who he lost to gun violence when he was 7. Despite the loss of his father, Maxey is driven by his unattainable wish to have his father in the stands to witness his son following his passion.

Maxey spent his childhood in Chicago playing football under the watchful eye of his father. He didn't take basketball seriously until he was 13.

"He would always be with me at every practice," Maxey said about his father. "He was the one that wanted me to do well."

Read the full story at Medill Reports Chicago.

CSN Chicago, in partnership with Northwestern University,  features journalism by students in the graduate program at Medill School of Journalism. The students are reporters for Medill News Service. Medill faculty members edit the student work. Click here for more information about Medill.

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