Epps Finds Home In North Texas Troubled Teen Now Model Player, Citizen

Corbin Epps still has the small suitcase, given to him by Child Protective Services.

He used it often as a youth in Texas, moving between 16 foster and group homes and two adoptive homes.

“It just brings back memories from the times I was up late at night, giving my case worker Mary Edmundson hell when she was trying to find me places to live,” said Epps, a sophomore defensive end at North Texas, which plays Idaho on Saturday in the Kibbie Dome.

Epps talks openly about his troubled adolescence, of his brother sexually abusing him at age 4, of being removed from his mother’s care when neighbors noticed numerous bruises on his body.

“I’m not looking for any sympathy,” Epps said. “I’ve been through it.

“It’s something I want people to know so they know they can make it, too, no matter what situation they’re in.”

Epps’ current situation hardly resembles his tormented past. He’s a biology student with hopes of becoming a veterinarian. In football, the 6-foot, 249-pound Epps has 6.5 sacks.

To get to where he is, though, Epps first went through hell.

The ceaseless relocations made Epps an angry youth. He often lashed out. When he was 12, Epps was placed in his 16th and final group home. One room was for kids who acted up.

Epps was a frequent visitor.

“They’d lock me up in a room with white walls and a little square on the door, assuming that’d calm me down,” he said. “I’d get even more frustrated and beat on the door.

“They’d get tired of hearing that and they’d come in four or five at a time and shoot me up with Thorazine. It’d put me to sleep and when I’d wake up I’d be throwing up and I couldn’t eat anything.”

He began turning around his life at a developmental center in Edinburg, Texas, near the Mexican border. Epps became friends with a junior-high teammate, Robert Ramon, who also had grown up without parents. Edinburg resident Mary Garza invited Epps and Ramon to become members of her family.

“He had been driven to his knees by life,” Don Herzing, one of Epps’ counselors in Edinburg, told a Fort Worth newspaper. “The majority of people don’t get up.”

Epps developed into an outstanding running back at Edinburg High. He was recruited to New Mexico by then-running backs coach Matt Simon, now the head coach at North Texas.

Epps left New Mexico because he couldn’t get along with coach Dennis Franchione.

At North Texas, Epps has been a model student, according to Simon.

“He’s the reason you get into coaching. It’s not about money. It’s about getting involved in lives,” Simon said. “He’s been good for me and my soul. I love him like a son.”

Epps recently met his biological mother, but it didn’t go smoothly. “I didn’t know how to react,” he said. “Here I’ve been by myself for 16, 17 years.”

He’s heard his biological father is dead. He keeps in contact with his sisters. His brothers are in prison.

But Epps is moving forward. His temper flares up, but he says no more than the average person.

“Everything’s going great. I have a beautiful girlfriend, I like my coaches and school,” Epps said. “Sometimes I sit back and say, ‘Gosh, I can’t believe I’m here.’ I’m at a point now where I don’t have to go through so much every day. It was chaos then.

“I’ve still got a lot of stuff to grow up on. I haven’t reached my peak.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo