DOWNTOWN - Teachers and classmates look up to Jeremy Black.
At 6-foot-7, the Blake High School graduating senior towers over most folks.
He also deserves respect.
In the past few years, Black has rebounded from failing grades, an arrest record and rocky home life to earn a basketball scholarship to the University of Tampa. He helped Blake's Yellow Jackets become No. 2 in the district this year.
Black stands even taller since earning a Turnaround Achievement Award from the school district. He credits Blake's teachers and coaches for giving him the confidence boost he never got at home.
"No one made me go to school," said Black, 18, who was arrested a few years ago for fighting with one of his sisters. "I basically raised myself."
The youngest of seven children, Black is the only one of three sons who graduated from high school, he said. One brother works odd jobs and lives with an uncle; another is in prison.
When he signed with UT last week, his coaches stood beside him.
"It was one of the happiest days of my life," said basketball coach Calvin Barrs. "I'm just thrilled. He's Blake's son. The entire Blake family is so proud."
Throughout high school, his coaches gave him lunch money, took him for haircuts and drove him home from track meets at midnight. They made him study to improve his grades so he could keep playing sports.
For a while, he lived with Barrs' family. School is where he felt loved and wanted.
"I felt like an achiever," he said. "I'd come here at 7 in the morning and stay till 7 or 8 or later."
K.L. Muldrow, who helps at-risk students and coaches track, remembers spotting him as a ninth-grader.
"He was hard to miss since he was probably the tallest kid on the campus," he said.
Back then he had no ambition, no goals. "He just seemed to drift," said Muldrow, who took him to local mentoring programs.
By his sophomore year, Black's grades were good enough to play basketball. Then he made the track and field and cross country teams. By his senior year, he was captain of all three.
He joined Blake's Ladies & Gents club and the gospel choir, served as vice president of the student advisory committee and represented Blake on the Tampa-Hillsborough Youth Council.
Muldrow nominated him for a Turnaround award. Blake's entire staff agreed.
Black, whose favorite subject is math, plans to major in business administration at UT. He works at McDonald's, where he just entered a management trainee program.
"Great things lie ahead for Jeremy," said Gwen Williams, his leadership class teacher, who accompanied him to the Turnaround Award banquet last month. "If he stays focused, the sky's the limit."
