Quadir Ladson was beginning to think that if it weren’t for bad luck, then he’d have no luck at all.
There was a time that Ladson was considered the best all-around performer in the Hoboken football program. Sure, teammate Ira Guilford got the accolades, the All-State recognition, the memorable nickname (“I-Train)”.
But if you asked anyone involved with the Hoboken program, they would have told you that Ladson was the team’s Most Valuable Player.
Ladson did a little bit of everything. He played running back, he blocked, he caught passes – all with seeming ease. On defense, he played a ferocious linebacker, making tackle after tackle. Ladson also played on every single special team. If he came off the field, it wasn’t for long.
But in each of the last two seasons, Ladson didn’t have the chance to take off the uniform and walk away like every other player. In the last game of his junior year, Ladson suffered a broken fibula and was out of commission for 10 weeks, not to mention grueling rehabilitation.
When it came time to start the 2002 high school football season, Ladson’s ankle was not even a question. He was 100 percent healthy and ready to show the world – and college football recruiters as well – that he was definitely a top-flight major college prospect, much like his high school teammate Guilford.
While Guilford was weeding through hundreds of college offers, eventually settling on accepting the one from defending national champion Ohio State, Ladson had to settle for offers from smaller NCAA Division I-AA schools like Hofstra and Kent State.
But they were still solid offers from good football schools. Hudson County had sent many products to Long Island and Hofstra, a place coached by a Hudson County guy named Joe Gardi, a place whose punter is Joe Nolan, the former St. Peter’s Prep standout.
If Kent State was the place for Ladson, then he would be reunited with his former teammate Anthony Henriquez, an All-State linebacker with the Red Wings’ last state championship team in 1999.
So Ladson had a bright future, one that was going to enable him to get away from the Mile-Square City and play major college football.
Or so it seemed.
Ladson injured his knee in the beginning of the season, but managed to make his way back into the Red Wings’ lineup. However, his season came to a sudden end when he suffered a partially torn anterior cruciate ligament and a torn meniscus in his knee, requiring surgery.
“I really felt like someone was out to get me,” Ladson said. “By getting hurt, people really couldn’t get a chance to see what I really could do.”
Ladson had to then commit to a rigorous rehabilitation process once again, this time to fully repair the injured knee.
A month after undergoing the surgery, Ladson began to rehab the injury at the Kennedy Medical Clinic in Union City, riding the stationary bike, lifting weights, doing whatever was necessary to strengthen the knee once again.
“It was about March or April when I started to feel like I was 100 percent again,” Ladson said. “I knew I had to get a chance to prove myself.”
However, there was bad news for Ladson along the way. While he was rehabbing his injured knee, the offers from both Hofstra and Kent State were no longer on the table.
“I think maybe some of it was grades,” Ladson said. “But I had a decent GPA (grade point average of nearly 3.0) and a 930 on the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test), so that was close enough. But I think it was mostly because of the knee that those schools stopped calling me. It happened right around the time I was having the surgery. It was really frustrating. I was hurt by it. After I rehabbed the knee, I really thought I could play.”
But the offers were no longer there.
“I always wanted to go to a Division I school and knew I could play there,” Ladson said. “When those schools lost interest, it just made me strive harder. My knee is 100 percent now and I feel better than I even did before. I knew that if I didn’t get hurt like that, I would have had the chance. Now, since no one wanted me, it made me work harder, made me want success more.”
Ladson got his chance at redemption at the New Jersey Scholastic Football Coaches Association North-South All-Star Classic, held last Saturday at Rutgers University. Ladson was one of three local products (Pat O’Keefe of St. Peter’s Prep and Manauris Arias of Emerson being the others) to play in the game.
While Arias has a scholarship to the University of Maine lined up and O’Keefe is going to St. Joseph’s University, but will not play football, Ladson was the only local product whose future was still undecided, meaning that his appearance at the North-South game was more important that it was for others.
“That’s the real reason why I wanted to go to the game, to prove that I still could play,” Ladson said. “Part of my thought process to go to that game was perhaps there would be someone there who could see me and might offer me something.”
Ladson did a little bit of everything – once again – for the North squad, in a 3-0 loss. Ladson played in the secondary and made eight tackles, four of which were solo hits. He also played special teams.
While some people believed Ladson had a fine game, he felt a little disappointed in his performance.
“I didn’t think I played like I know I could,” Ladson said. “I know I could do better. I do feel like I proved a little something by being out there and making plays, but it wasn’t one of my better games.”
Still, it was good for Ladson to be out and playing football again.
“It’s exactly what I said to myself,” Ladson said. “I said to myself that I never got a chance to play out the last two years the way I wanted to, that this was my opportunity. If I did something special in this game, then I could make up for the time I lost in the last two years.”
While Ladson performed admirably, no college coach approached him after the game. The offer well has apparently run dry – for now.
So Ladson will head next month to Milford Academy in Pennsylvania, a prep school that once housed Henriquez and fellow teammate Robert Braxton, a post-graduate go-between that helps players get to the next level.
“I think it will be pretty good there,” Ladson said. “I’ll make the most of it there. Robert Braxton told me that they have a pretty good football team there and I should do well there. After the game Saturday, [St. Peter’s Prep] coach [Rich] Hansen and [Emerson] coach [Eddie] Marinez (both of whom served as assistants for the North squad) told me that I played well and that I had to stay strong. That was a good feeling.”
Added Ladson, “I know I can make it. I just need a chance.”
Somehow, someway, Quadir Ladson is going to get that chance. He deserves a better fate than the one he’s already endured. – Jim Hague