Nearly a decade after his senior football season at Taft High School, Ephraim Banda had no illusions when he returned to the field last year as a walk-on at the University of the Incarnate Word.
With UIW still a year away from its inaugural season, Banda figured the Cardinals' program offered him the best, and final, chance to realize his goal of playing college football. After all, it wasn't like Banda would have to be ready to play immediately.
Still, he knew there would be a price to pay and years of rust to shake off before earning a spot on the Cards' roster. Banda had played six-man football, in full pads, in a recreational league since 2002, but nobody had to tell him the odds were against him.
"I knew I had a huge hill to climb," Banda said Tuesday. "But I was determined to make it. I always wanted to play college football, and I regretted that I didn't take advantage of some opportunities right after high school. It ate at me and kept me awake many nights."
I'm happy to report that Banda is back in football and having the time of his life, even if he still doesn't get much sleep. More on that later.
The fledgling UIW program has been strengthened by Banda's leadership and dedication, if not by his physical skills. Don't get me wrong. Banda is no "Rudy." He can play football and is a leader on special teams, but it's doubtful whether he'll ever crack the starting lineup.
"He's doing it out of pure love for the game," Cards head coach Mike Santiago said. "He's a team guy."
A 5-foot-9, 190-pound junior safety, Banda practiced with the Cards throughout the 2007-08 school year and was captain of the special teams when UIW beat Monterrey Tech 42-39 in its first game ever Aug. 29.
That's not bad for a guy who played his last high school football game in 1999, and has made his living as a bartender the past seven years.
"I'm a better bartender than I am a football player," he said, smiling.
At 27 -- and he turns 28 on Nov. 1 -- Banda has to be one of the oldest college football players in the country. He's even older than UIW secondary coach Nick Debose, 26.
"The guys used to tease me by calling me Grandpa," Banda said. "Now they just call me Coach."
A sports management major, Banda would like to work on Santiago's staff as a graduate assistant for two years after he gets his degree. His plan is to get his master's degree at UIW and then go into coaching.
"I'd really like to coach at the college level, but I'll coach wherever I get the opportunity," Banda said. "I know coaching can be brutal, but it's something I really would like to do."
Santiago said he would hire Banda as a graduate assistant -- on one condition.
"He's going to have to quit bartending because of the time commitment being a graduate assistant is going to take," Santiago said.
Banda, who made the dean's list in the spring, is carrying a 15-hour course load this semester. His schoolwork, football and his job -- he works practically every day at a hotel bar downtown -- leave time for little else. But Banda, who pays for all of his tuition, manages.
"I had never applied myself in school like I do now," he said. "Time management is crucial. I'm always telling the guys not to waste time, and that football is not forever. Most of them will not have a chance to come back and play like I did.
"It's not easy. When we had two-a-days last month, I worked in between practices. There were times last year when I worked until 3 or 4 in the morning, and had to be at a workout, lifting weights or running, at 6. There were times I slept in my car in the parking garage at school."
To his credit, Banda stayed the course. He said the memory of his late maternal grandfather, Jesse Mireles, who died in August 2008, has inspired him to persevere.
"He wanted me to do my best and have a good relationship with God," Banda said.
A 2000 Taft graduate, Banda was a senior cornerback on the 1999 Raiders team that lost to Edinburg in the Class 5A Division I state quarterfinals. Banda got feelers from a few small colleges when he was a senior, but he never followed up.
"That was a mistake," he said. "I was a dumb high school kid who thought he knew it all. I made some bad decisions. I knew I wasn't going to get any scholarship offer from a big school, but I didn't have direction. My Dad is great. He's a former Marine and a motivator. I just didn't do what I had to do."
Banda is the son of Daniel Banda and Gracie Mireles, who divorced when Ephraim was 4.
Banda enrolled at Northwest Vista College in the fall of 2000, and attended classes there for two semesters before transferring to Tarrant County College in Fort Worth. His goal was to walk on at TCU, where former Taft teammate Marvin Godbolt was playing for the Horned Frogs, but he quit school before the end of the 2001 fall semester.
"I got distracted," Banda said. " I came back home and was at a crossroads in my life."
He enrolled at San Antonio College for the 2002 spring semester, but dropped out of school again after the term ended. His dream of playing college football deferred, Banda was encouraged by his girlfriend, Tiffany Kuwamura, to stay focused on his goal.
Kuwamura graduated from Taft with Banda, and earned a business degree at the University of Texas in 2004. She is now a teacher's assistant in the Northside Independent School District.
"Tiffany is the person who motivated me," Banda said. "I was making money as a bartender, but you get to the point where you hit the ceiling. I wanted more out of life."
Banda saw his break in the spring of 2007 when UIW announced it was starting a football program.
"I was so excited," he said.
Even if he plays only on special teams for the rest of his career, Banda already has left his mark at UIW.
"I wish the other guys on the team were as good at managing their time as Ephraim is," Santiago said. "He is so dedicated to our team and he doesn't get a dime for it. There are times I go in our locker room, and he's in there taking a nap.
"He's a great guy for the younger kids to see. He's a good example for walk-ons and the players on scholarship, too. When they're going around feeling sorry for themselves and wondering what the world is going to do for them, they can look to Ephraim and see he doesn't have it easy."
Banda will be in action when UIW (1-2) plays Langston State (3-1) at 5 p.m. Saturday in Langston, Okla.
Photo by Antonio Morano / Courtesy SASports.com
