West thrives despite an emotional day

By Mark Rudi
Sports Editor

(Chyn Wey Lee/Western Herald) WMU senior running back Brandon West (2) broke the NCAA record for all-purpose on Saturday’s 35 ‑14 win over Eastern Michigan University.

YPSILANTI – Losing a family member is something nobody wants to experience.

For senior running back Brandon West, that sadly became a reality when his half-brother was murdered last Sunday. Despite his loss and his brother’s funeral Saturday, West elected to play in Saturday’s game against Eastern Michigan University.

“I came back for a reason,” West said. “This is my team. I came back for them.”

West rushed for 140 yards on 25 carries with a touchdown in WMU’s 35-14 over Eastern Michigan.

He also broke the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision record for career all-purpose yards in the win. West recorded 183 all-purpose yards Saturday and now has 7,626 for his career.

The record was previously held by current Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelio Williams, who played his college ball at the University of Memphis. West became the third running back to rush for 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons in WMU history on Saturday.

“It shows his [West] commitment and dedication,” senior quarterback Tim Hiller said. “This has been an unbelievably hard week for him. I think none of us can understand what he went through, but he’s part of our family. We’re a family as a team.

“To have the courage to go down there and come back and play as well as he did today speaks volumes about his character and his team-first attitude.”

The team kept in touch with West all week by calling or texting, which he said meant a lot to him.

“Everybody was texting me, calling me, to make sure I was alright,” West said. “That’s big. That means more than anything.”

West spent the later part of the week with his family in Georgia and flew up to Detroit Metro Airport early Saturday morning in time for the Broncos’ game against EMU.

Cubit described the airport meeting as very emotional.

“I love you. You okay?” Cubit said about what he told West. “You just let me know during the game or before the game what you want me to do.”

Cubit said it was West’s choice whether or not he wanted to play against Eastern Michigan on Saturday.

“It hurts. That was my brother, but I got brothers here too,” said an emotional West. “I got people that care about me.”

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Posted by heraldstaff on Nov 15 2009. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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