Despite 5-star status, Darnell Wright doesn't seek spotlight

HUNTINGTON, W. Va. — Five-star offensive tackle Darnell Wright sits at the 50-yard line on the team bench, his 84-inch wingspan stretching from nearly one end to the other.

The 17-year old is in his comfort zone relaxing on a cool, gray day in Huntingdon, West Virginia, a town nestled just east of the Kentucky state line and just south of the Ohio River.

For Wright, the football field is his playground. Donning full gear and a helmet on Friday nights, he's one of 11, but at 6-foot-6 and weighing 315 pounds and holding offers from every big school in the country, Wright is hardly anonymous as the star attraction for Huntington High School.

Wright is an attraction that has college head coaches, offensive coordinators, and offensive line coaches drooling. He’s an attraction that has fanbases trying to read into his every move.

It's a concept the Rivals.com’s No. 4 overall national player doesn't understand at all. He does not fully grasp his talent and doesn't understand all the fuss. In fact, relaxing on the metal bench, Wright shook his head at the idea that two reporters would drive several hours to see him.

“I feel people care about it too much. Like doing this interview. I don't know what anyone would care about what I'm saying. I don't know why I'm not interviewing you right now,” Wright said, flashing a quick smile.

“I don't know why someone would type in ‘Darnell Wright’ on the computer because they are worried about what I'm doing.”

In this day and age of posting your every move on social media outlets to boost your personal brand, Wright doesn't detail recruiting trips. He doesn't detail his day. He's an unknown in a world where everyone wants to be known.

Everyone except Darnell Wright, of course.

Wright, who won't turn 18 until next August, likes to play football. He likes to be coached. He likes to learn and likes to compete. Wright rarely watches college football or the NFL, but he logs as much, if not more, time on Hudl watching game film of his opponents and of his teammates. But don't confuse Wright for a guy strictly obsessed with football. He loves music. He plays non-sports, video games. And he really loves to read. .

“I like science. I just like it. I like space and astrology. I just read a bunch of books. I read about all kinds of stuff that interest me,” Wright said.

Wright's passion for books stems from elementary school … and jumpstarted his competitiveness and desire to win.

“I had a friend in elementary school and we did this ‘Star Reader’ thing,” Wright explained. “You go from like ‘High School’, ‘College’, ‘Professional’ and ‘All-Star’ or something like that. He was always reading at the All-Star level, so I just tried to read more. So I just started reading a lot and I liked it. I have just kept reading.

“I like to compete. I want to win in everything I do. I wanted to be the best reader in elementary school. I want to be the best on the football field. I just like to compete.”

The truth is the biggest man on the Huntington High campus has always competed and has always eventually succeeded. Being bigger than everyone else made it easier as a youth football linebacker and tight end. But, for Wright, it was competing against his older brother, Jeffrey, that drove him.

“Having an older brother and being around him and his friends, they were more physically mature, so if you are playing tag with them, you gotta keep up. So you gotta work and compete,” Wright offered.

“I always wanted to tag along. He had his friends. So if you tag along with them to play basketball, they are older and are going to be better. But I'm like 'I'm not a little kid.' So, it makes you a better competitor because you want to show them you can play.”

As Wright grew and matured, he had become the “no longer in the way little brother." The two would have played varsity football together in the fall of 2015, Darnell's freshman year, but in late July of that year, Jeffrey Wright was shot and killed.

“I was on the couch at my friend’s (home) when I found out. I just went numb. I have just tried to forget it in some ways and put it behind me,” Wright said as his eyes drifted towards the mountains in the distance while speaking of his brother.

“We had become friends. I wasn't the tag-along any more. I understood him and he didn't see me as the little brother. We were close. His passing made me want to go harder. I play in honor of him.”

Part of that honor includes what Wright calls “weird” stuff, like a final stop before leaving the locker room for the field.

“Like he wore No. 4, so before every game, right before we go out, I take four drinks of water. Just little weird stuff like that. I don't know why, but it's what I do.”

For Wright, it's part of the coping with the loss, a loss that obviously keeps football and life in perspective.

“I just take it as simple of I don't have it the worst of anyone in the world,” Wright stated. “It's going to be hard. It's either you are going to do it or you're not. If you don't do it, then no one is going to care.”

Wright credits family and friends for helping him through Jeffrey's passing. Football helped,too, as did his head football coach, Billy Seals.

Seals is more than Wright's coach on the practice field; he is a mentor who just simply cares.

“He's more than a coach,” Wright with eyes fixed back on the moment stated. “He's more than just a guy coaching you up when you are here and waiting to coach you the next day. He's with you all the time. He's worrying about you all the time.”

Over the coming weeks and months, college football fans will ponder Wright's every move. Seals will worry about helping Wright be the best player he can be and helping him navigate the close to his recruiting process.

All the while, Wright will be doing his best to remain anonymous. His phone is on 'Do Not Disturb' more than it isn't. His short-term focus is on winning a state championship. In the long term, he considers a lot more than football.

“I want to be in the league (the NFL), but that's not my ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is just helping people. I feel like that should be everyone's goal,” Wright said.

“I try to do what I can. I'm not Superman or anything. I just try to do what I can. Like in football, a lot of guys on my team haven't gotten the attention like I have, so I didn't want to commit early and have the attention go away from my team.”

As the interview concludes, Wright reaches for his ear buds to return to his music, the return into his own world before practice begins in 20 minutes. As he does, I asked one last question: How would Darnell Wright describe Darnell Wright?

“He's just like you. Just a normal guy. Just whatever, whatever,” said Wright, as he strolled away to the locker room where life is most normal for the guy everyone wants to know.