Chaz Dykes' walk across the stage at today's graduation exercise at SFA represents something more than closing one chapter of his life before going on to another.
His graduation is about survival and perseverance.
The crutches on which he will lean for help represent the obstacles that the former Lumberjack basketball player has overcome to become the first member of his family to earn a college degree.
A few days after his arrival at SFA from Navarro College on a basketball scholarship, Hurricane Katrina flooded his family's New Orleans' inner-city home, leading to a few weeks of anxiety about the welfare of his mother and two brothers who lived there.
His mother had left for higher ground — Grambling, La. — to stay with a relative. His brothers rode out Katrina and eventually were fished off the top of their house by a helicopter. They ended up in North Carolina.
Nearly two years later and with his basketball playing career at SFA complete, a visit to New Orleans between summer school and fall classes offered more tragedy.
A late night playing basketball with two neighborhood friends at a local gym turned deadly, when two men got out of a car and headed their way with guns aimed to kill.
"Guns a blasting," Dykes said.
Dykes got out lucky — with three bullets in his lower right leg, his tibia shattered.
His buddies — Terry and Chancey — were dead.
Dykes said it was apparent that the killings were in retaliation for something.
"Only my friends knew what," he said. "And they're not here to answer that.
"They could have killed me, if they wanted to. I was just there, lying on the ground. They knew who they were looking for. That was my friends."
Dykes spent a month in the hospital, his injuries sidelining his final semester of college.
His mother, Alece Clay, had insisted that her son return to SFA in the hurricane's aftermath, and again, following the deadly shooting.
She called SFA head basketball coach Danny Kaspar asking him to emphasize to her son the message to stay at school, words he had heard many times.
Heeding that message will make today's graduation special for everyone — for Dykes, his mother and father, his brothers and sisters, his high school basketball coach and Kaspar and his SFA teammates.
"He's been through in three years what most people go through in a lifetime," Kaspar said. "For his family to go through Katrina and after he was nearly killed, getting his degree is a testament to his character."
It has never been easy.
Raised in a house only a mile or two from New Orleans' downtown district, Dykes made a name for himself on the basketball court.
He was Louisiana's Class 4A Player of the Year his senior season, when he led George Washington High School to the state championship.
More important than the state title and the trophies and ribbons that he was able to retrieve from his home, Dykes said he had "found a way out of there by getting scholarships."
He started two seasons at Navarro College before transferring to SFA for his final two years.
He averaged 14.1 minutes and 2.6 points while starting five games during his first season at SFA. He started 23 of 29 games his final season, when he averaged 5.7 points and finished third on the team in steals.
Ironically, one of his best games was his last — a team-high 17-point performance in a loss to Northwestern State in the Southland Tournament.
Kaspar had noticed Dykes' daily routine as a student/athlete was unlike most of his teammates, most who had their own transportation and extra money in their pockets.
"He got what he needed growing up," Kaspar said. "But he didn't have a car. His luxury was a cell phone.
"What some take for granted, he lives without. Here's someone who earned a college degree, without being given anything. He earned it the hard way. A lot of people would have given up."
Dykes said any thought he had of leaving school was headed off by either his mother or his head coach.
"Coach Kaspar — he demanded that I stay in school," Dykes said.
After today's ceremony, Dykes' future includes healing his leg and getting off the crutches. He said he hopes to recover fully from the injury and to play basketball overseas before he pursues a teaching job.
While some graduates' fondest memories of college may rest within possessing a high grade point average or developing friendships that last a lifetime, Dykes is just happy to have a degree.
He realizes he could have taken a different path, had it not been for his mother and coaches around him who encouraged him to stay in school and win life's challenges.
"It's a matter of sticking with it, believing in God and staying strong," he said. "... not letting anything stop me. That's it."
