McCallie School senior lineman Cyrus Salazar is photographed on the field on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn.Sometimes when he's alone and making his way to his dorm room across the pristine McCallie School campus, where the closest thing to litter are fall leaves fluttering onto the grass, Cyrus Salazar will stop and take in the moment. And he will marvel at how he wound up here.
Having a nomadic childhood that took him from California to Las Vegas and New Mexico and eventually Chattanooga - and watching two older brothers choose paths in life that brought heartache to the family - Cyrus doesn't want to take his current opportunities for granted.
"More times than I can count, I've just sort of stopped to look around," said Cyrus, a 6-foot-1, 282-pound senior offensive guard for the Blue Tornado. "Everything about this place is different than anything I've known, from the teachers and the education, to the facilities and coaches we have. I've made it a mission to appreciate what I've already gotten from this school.
"When you've come from where I did, experienced some of the things I have, this really means everything."
Money and the material things that come with it were scarce for the Salazar family, which included Cyrus' mom, Kuuipo, two brothers and three sisters. It was shortly after the family settled in just outside of Roswell, N.M., that the brothers began hanging out with the type of friends that helped them find trouble all too easily.
Three years ago Cyrus' oldest brother Brian was murdered, and the case has not been solved. As his other brother, Orion, continued along a similar frightening path, Cyrus' mother found a job in a city that seemed to offer a safer and brighter future, and the two of them moved to Chattanooga.
Months after the move, and less than a year after Brian's death, Orion was shot, the bullet entering and exiting through his left arm and stomach before piercing the T7 vertebra in his spine, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
Cyrus and Kuuipo flew back to New Mexico, and that's where he came to understand why his mother had taken him far away from their desert home and the trappings of those surroundings. It was also there, listening anxiously as doctors explained the details of his brother's injury and how he may never walk again, that Cyrus began to feel a sense of purpose for his future.
"There's a reason I wound up where I am now, with the educational opportunity I have. I believe that," said Cyrus, who with a 3.87 grade point average quickly has adjusted to the academic standards at McCallie after growing up in school settings that weren't nearly as demanding. "This place could open the door for me to really do something special with my life."
Once he came to grips with the physical and emotional difficulties his brother faced, Cyrus began to map out a plan that includes studying biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, where he'll focus on spinal cord injuries.
"I decided that if I could do anything at all to ever help my brother walk again, or people who are battling like him, I would dedicate my life to that," Cyrus said. "I've always tried to be a good person and help others, and that would be something that I believe would be a great purpose in life."
That inner drive to help others includes more than his career plan. Shortly after arriving in Chattanooga, he began working with UnifiEd, a local nonprofit group that focuses on improving public education.
He's also had to ask occasionally to be excused from football practice to help his mother or Orion, who moved to the area after his injury. The brothers recently stayed up until the early-morning hours, just laughing and telling stories. Orion used the time to also share some perspective with his baby brother and to tell him how proud he is of the choices he's made.
"Me and my older brother went down some rough roads, and it cost us," Orion said. "My family doesn't come from the strongest background, but Cyrus has always been an old soul and he was never led astray from wanting to do something big with his life. He's really the glue for our whole family.
"I just try to encourage him to continue to better himself. He's already achieved so much, and he'll be the first one from our family to walk a stage and earn his diploma. After that, I know he can accomplish anything he sets as a goal."
Cyrus admitted there were times, shortly after enrolling at McCallie, that he recognized how different his background was from most of his classmates, who came from more privileged backgrounds. Football, he says, was his way of fitting in quicker.
In return, Blue Tornado coach Ralph Potter admitted that the team has benefited just as much.
"Once our guys got to know him and learned about everything he does for his family and just how he handles himself, Cyrus has become an inspiration for a lot of people," Potter said. "He is, to me, what McCallie is all about."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis