Raw potatoes hidden in the neck of a pulled-tight hoodie because they were the easiest food to shoplift from an unsuspecting grocer.
A College Hill Courts apartment left too often without electricity needed for cooking and heating because Mom had blown the utilities money on crack cocaine. So much anger and hurt and instability throughout his childhood that Roger Hilley wound up attending five elementary schools in six years.
“It was like a scene out of the ‘Walking Dead,'” the 20-year-old explained Tuesday of those potato heists. “My brothers and I would go out and get supplies, then bring them back to this cold, dark apartment.”
This was Hilley’s life before Joe Smith placed the struggling youngster in Y-CAP’s home for boys nearly a decade ago, then watched him become a boxer good enough to compete for a spot on the national team when USA Boxing holds its trials competition next week at the Chattanooga Convention Center.
“Whatever happens in those trials, Roger’s come about as far as any young man we’ve ever had in the Y-CAP program,” Smith said Wednesday. “And he won’t back down from anyone or anything. He’s got a huge heart. He’s a fighter. And I mean that as a compliment.”