Why would an older couple drive three hours south to spend a long Saturday afternoon under the sweltering sun to watch a blow-out college football game (final score: 56-7) when they knew only one player in the game and that player wasn’t even their grandchild? Here’s a hint: they’d seen the same player, a superb wide receiver, score three touchdowns in his first college game on the same field three years earlier. And they knew he had already been approached by a dozen NFL teams, even though he played for a NCAA Division II team: the Assumption College Greyhounds.

Here’s the story: They had known that player (Ashton Grant) since he was a toddler who could barely walk, let alone elude defenders and leap high into the air to catch a football. And they had known his mother Jessie since she was an unruly teenager at odds with the world and herself.

Jessie, you see, is the adopted daughter of our dear friends Hugh and Surrey. They had adopted Jessie when she was a baby. The fact that she is bi-racial didn’t thrill some of the grandparents, although everyone came to love her as the years passed. We spent many hours during Jessie’s hardest years, serving as Hugh and Surrey’s sounding boards as they wrestled with how best to parent their daughter.

Fast forward to the present: Jessie had her 40th birthday on the day of the aforementioned game. Ashton rewarded her by catching two touchdown passes (one for 55 yards). She has a fine job at a major insurance company in Hartford. She has brought up two superb sons, Ashton and his younger brother Shawn, a top student at Westfield State University. She, herself, is a talented triathlete. And she has great relationships with her family and friends — and even with friends of her parents, like Tina and me.

This story intrigues me on several levels.

There’s the football angle to be sure. I’ve never known a potential NFL player, up close and personal. And Ashton, it must be said, is very personable, a charming young man. Not only is he good with adults, he’s amazing with kids, a pied paper of sorts; they love him. Two years ago, while on the boat from New Harbor to Monhegan Island, we struck up a conversation with a man who worked as a senior administrator at Assumption College. We asked him if he knew Ashton Grant. “Ashton?” he said, “Everyone on campus knows Ashton! Great kid, great student. He’s now a tour guide in the Admissions Office.” As you can imagine, I immediately called Hugh and Surrey who, in turn, alerted the delighted Jessie.

I don’t know how the football part of this story will play out. Ashton is no shoo-in to make an NFL team, although his chances look good. He’ll have to showcase his talents while being compared with other stellar wide receivers, almost all of whom played in NCAA Division I.

I do know that, whatever the outcome, Ashton Grant will emerge as a terrific young man, supported by a devoted family and prepared for a bright future. He could definitely go into coaching at some point after (or instead of) a professional football career. I’m reminded of the wisdom of the old adage: never give up. Here’s a tip of the hat and the heart to Ashton and his mother Jessie and his brother Shawn and our friends Hugh and Surrey and everyone else who’s played a role in writing this story.

David Treadwell, a Brunswick writer, welcomes commentary or suggestions for future “Just a Little

Old” columns at [email protected].