When Hao-Kai Wu watched Troy Peterson go down, with what at the time looked like a season-ending ankle injury, in the third game of the season, Newton North’s senior backup running back couldn’t help but be conflicted. Since Peterson arrived in Newton in the eighth grade, after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina, Wu watched the first-string running back’s attitude grow by leaps and bounds.
Prone to outbursts that landed him in an anger management, Peterson once had to be corralled by Wu after spiking his helmet and walking away from a ninth-grade football game.
"I had to get him back, he was just storming off the field and I had to get him back," Wu recalled a week before this year’s annual Thanksgiving rivalry with Brookline High - the last Turkey Day showdown of both Peterson and Wu’s Tiger tenure. "This year he actually listens to coaches. When they yell at him he doesn’t flip out, he takes it in a mature way. Seeing him go down after seeing how far he’s come really made me feel bad for him but I had to push it in the back of my mind.
"On one hand he’s my good friend, I’ve been playing with him since middle school and I felt really bad for him. On the other hand I felt it was an opportunity, since I’ve been practicing so hard, to take what I’ve learned and apply it. It was both exciting at the same time it made me feel bad."
Wu rushed for about 70 or 80 yards in each of the five games before Peterson returned earlier this month, taking limited carries in a 42-14 victory against Dedham on Nov. 7.
The comeback even surprised Peterson, who rushed for about 80 yards in an 18-0 victory against Norwood that evened North’s record at 5-5 after a 1-5 start. Thursday’s 10 a.m. game against Brookline at Parson’s Field was the carrot at the end of his stick during twice-weekly rehab sessions on his severely sprained ankle that also had a bone chip.
"That was the only game I really wanted to play," Peterson said. "I was thinking ‘This is my last Thanksgiving game, my senior year.’"
Five years ago, when Peterson first arrived in Newton as a 13-year-old who helped his middle school football team go from winless in seventh grade to undefeated in eighth, Peterson didn’t even know about Massachusetts’ rich Thanksgiving football tradition. He didn’t attend the varsity game against Brookline.
Now he is completely immersed in the New England culture. This year will be his fourth straight year in which he flies home to New Orleans after North’s Thanksgiving Day game. Going home four years ago was his the first time Peterson visited since Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast in 2005, destroying his home, and forcing his family to flee to Houston.
Soon Peterson left to live with his grandmother, Irene Peterson, a live-in nanny for Newton doctor, Mark Vrahas, who formally worked as chief of the orthopedic trauma unit at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. His mother Rene Peterson, who had Troy when she was 16, returned to work at a hospital in her hometown.
"It was pretty hard," he said of his first time returning home, where he once saw someone shot to death as an 11-year-old. "I didn’t get to see all my friends. I got to see all the bad stuff down there. So it was pretty hard on me.
"When I go back home I can’t believe the city flooded and I came this far and I really made it."
Arriving in Newton, however, wasn’t easy either, North coach Peter Capodilupo said.
"Being dislocated from home and thrust into a culture he’s not part of up North, all those things would be difficult for anybody, they would be difficult for an adult and were equally difficult for him," Capodilupo said.
At first Peterson was a closed book, reluctant to talk about his experiences because it was "depressing", only dolling out one word or one sentence responses to his inquiring classmates who praised his athleticisms . Wu said all the admiration went to Peterson’s head and he developed a swagger that often clashed with coaches. He also struggled in the classroom. One class that did help him, however, was anger management provided by the school, where he learned to take deep breaths whenever he felt heated.
"He’s been a pleasure to have around," said Dr. Vrahas’ wife Cindy, who carted Peterson to rehab appointments. "To see him grown is very exciting for us."
Rushed for five TDs and about 2,750 yards last season, Peterson’s promise was unlimited going into this year, until the third game of the season when he tried to cut back on an outside toss to the right in the second quarter with Walpole leading 14-0.
"I was hit from the top and I felt somebody twist my left ankle," Peterson recalled. "It didn’t look normal. I thought I’d be out for the whole season. I couldn’t do anything to help them because I was injured."
When it was clear he’d be sidelined indefinitely, Capodilupo sat Peterson down to make sure the depression caused by the lack of football in his life didn’t trickle into other parts of his life.
"I’m very glad he’s back," Capodilupo said. "Part of his identity is as an athlete and as a running back. Whenever that is taken away certainly it can be trying. I’m sure it has been for him."
Peterson is still playing tentatively on his ankle as he tries to regain his rhythm.
Luckily Peterson has Wu by his side to help carry the load on Thursday as the Tigers hope to finish above .500, a proposition that at one time seemed as unlikely as Peterson’s own return.
"I was like ‘Shucks, less playing for me,’" Wu said of his conflicted feelings about Peterson coming back. "But seeing him back at the same time was good since I’ve known him for so long. It feels good to see him back. I’ve been his teammate for so long it was weird to see him on the sideline with crutches or a cast.
"It feels more comfortable playing beside him or seeing him run plays."
