MIAMI ― John Allen watched the college football national championship game intently, seeing a lot of himself in Indiana University’s star quarterback.
Not so much what Fernando Mendoza is able to do with the football, though Allen, a high school punter and kicker, sees some of that, too. But for nearly everything else.
Allen, 17, is a senior at Christopher Columbus High School, where Mendoza and his brother, Alberto, graduated from. Like Fernando Mendoza, he joined the Mas Family Program, Columbus’ honors track, and is a Miami Herald Silver Knight candidate. Mendoza graduated Columbus with a 5.2 grade point average, something Allen aspires to.
“It’s huge,” said Allen, who, a minority in this city, was rooting for the Hoosiers. “It makes younger kids want to work harder because they see it's possible. It's not just dreaming big: It's like you're literally watching it happen.”
The highly-anticipated showdown between Heisman-Trophy-winner Mendoza, and the squad’s no-nonsense coach Curt Cignetti on one side, and the once-dynastic University of Miami Hurricanes on the other, led by head coach Mario Cristobal and quarterback Carson Beck, delivered in a game that stayed close all the way to the final seconds.
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