Amara Darboh a true survivor, and a can't-miss recruit
Families along the West African coast cringed when strangers knocked on doors.
"You just never knew when it was going to be the rebels," Amara Darboh said. "When the rebels came to your door, it wasn't good."
It happened one day when Darboh was a 2-year-old living in Freetown, Sierra Leone. War raged, creating stomach-churning anxiety about Darboh's father, a member of the military.
What happened next put his young life in chaos.
Though Darboh was too young to remember details, his father, Solimon, and mother, Kadita, were slain during Sierra Leone's civil war that started in 1991. Darboh and other family members were left without any recourse but to flee.
He first went to Gambia, then to Senegal, before eventually ending up in the United States -- and finally in the Des Moines home of Dan and Mary Schaefer.
Darboh has grown into a young man, a senior at Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines. He has become such a good football player that big-time coaches throughout the country, including those from the two major programs in Iowa, have offered scholarships.
From his initial Who's Who list, Darboh narrowed down finalists to Iowa, Florida, Michigan, Notre Dame and Wisconsin.
Life-and-death decisions now seem the world away for Darboh, one of the nation's most cherished recruits.
"There are a lot of options," Darboh said. "I'm going to take my time and make sure I get it right."
The opportunity to consider a free education at some of the nation's top universities borders on miraculous for Darboh.
"Where would I be if I was back in Africa?" he asked, repeating a reporter's question. "I believe if I was still in Freetown, there would be a good chance that I wouldn't be alive today.
"Even if I was alive, my life would be nothing like it is now."
He lived in a crowded apartment complex with others who someday would be headed to the United States.
"The apartments weren't very big," Darboh said. "It wasn't horrible, though.
"Some people were living in poverty, but we weren't. We were better off than most people."
A snapshot moment -- beyond recollections he had from the dirt-and-rocks soccer field on which he was a regular -- was about rain.
"Where I lived had a metal roof," Darboh said, "and it was deafening when it rained.
"The first time it rained when I got to the United States, I could barely hear it."
Darboh, 17, came to the United States when he was 7. He came with others seeking a haven from Freetown, an Africa city with a population of 1.2 million.
"It was a refugee program," Darboh said. "We randomly got picked to come to Des Moines."
He first lived with others in a Des Moines apartment. He later ended up at the Schaefers, thanks to a friendship made on a Beaverdale Little League baseball diamond.
"I got to be close friends with Max," Darboh said of the Schaefers' son. "Whatever Max did, I did. We built a relationship; we became almost like brothers."
Max invited his new African friend to the house, where he met the parents.
"We hit it off right from the beginning," Dan Schaefer said.
Special treatment?
No way.
"We're really proud how humble he is," Mary Schaefer said. "He never misses church -- either Holy Trinity or St. Augustin. He never misses a workout."
The Schaefers have been Darboh's legal guardians ever since that "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" moment.
"Here's what kind of an engaging person Amara is," Dowling football coach Tom Wilson said. "My daughter had a school project to do when she was in third grade. It dealt with a country, and she picked Sierra Leone. That's a 10-year-old girl who looks up to Amara so much that she did a project on where he came from."
Darboh came to the United States better versed on soccer than the sport that will become his athletic future -- his ticket to higher education. He was so good back in Africa that he played with the older guys.
"We played in sandals; we didn't have cleats," Darboh said.
He didn't even see football until arriving in the United States -- and he saw it on television.
"I thought it was crazy," he said. "I didn't get it -- people were running around and hitting each other.
"No way was I ever going to play this sport. People get hurt. My friends called it an animal sport."
But Max played, so Amara played, too.
"Sixth grade," Darboh said. "I probably caught my first pass when I was in sixth grade -- playing for the Colts."
He liked it, but he liked basketball, too.
"I wasn't even going to play football when I got to Dowling," Darboh said, "but a couple of my buddies -- Ben Goaley and Dan Hartlieb -- took me to a scrimmage. I kind of liked it."
He played on the freshman team, but he liked basketball more.
"In his mind and in a lot of people's mind, he was going to be a basketball player -- and with good reason," Wilson said. "He had, and still has, great basketball talent."
So Darboh attended summer camps in both sports, but eventually it became apparent football would dominate.
"After going to camps, that was when I started to realize that I was competing right along on the football field with guys who had been playing football their entire lives," Darboh said. "That's when I realized that if I kept working hard, good things could happen."
The signature moment came when Darboh attended Notre Dame's camp during the summer after his sophomore year.
"He was still on the (Notre Dame) practice field at the camp . . . and I'm on the phone with Chuck Martin," Wilson said of the Irish recruiting coordinator. "He wanted to know about Amara's character at the same time Amara was out there on their practice field.
"That's when I knew Amara's recruiting was going to blow up. That's when everybody in the country started getting involved."
Everyone wanted to lure an athlete -- whose story started in a county more than 5,000 miles away from where he lives now.
"It's even hard to imagine where I'd be if I was still in Africa," Darboh said. "Maybe I wouldn't even be at all."
