Dedication, Determination Define Styles Family
Columbus will host a showdown between No. 5 Notre Dame and No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday in primetime.
It’s a game that has been circled for months by college football fans and hasn’t lacked hype following the Fighting Irish naming Marcus Freeman head coach in December.
The clash has also been circled in the Styles household since November 13th, 2021 when Sonny Styles gave his verbal pledge to Ryan Day and the Buckeyes as he’ll get to face his older brother, Lorenzo, a sophomore receiver at Notre Dame.
If you would have asked Laverna Styles four years ago if she could envision her sons facing off against each other in Ohio Stadium, she probably would have said no.
"I don't think I would have seen it,” Mrs. Styles told ISD. “At one point, I thought they were going to go to the same school when they were younger, just knowing how excited they were to play with each other once they got to high school.”
Lorenzo is two years older than Sonny, but they were only able to play one year of high school football together. The younger Styles broke his leg before his freshman year at Pickerington Central (Ohio) and wasn’t able to step on the field until his sophomore year, which was Lorenzo’s senior year.
“I would have assumed they would have gone to the same school,” said Mrs. Styles. “I'm excited about it regardless because they both made their own journey."
The game also has another tie as Lorenzo Styles played for the Buckeyes in the early 90s before being drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in the 1995 NFL Draft. Styles also teamed with Notre Dame great Todd Lyght in St. Louis and reconnected the day Notre Dame offered his speedy son back in 2018.
Saturday night will be a special one as a father for Styles as he’ll get to see both his sons square off in the same stadium he played in.
"It's an unbelievable experience and feeling to see the boys play where I played,” explained Mr. Styles. “They took it day by day as they were coming up. They worked hard for it, and now they get to see their hard work pay off."
HARD WORK
The Styles brothers weren’t forced into playing football, but both started playing at a young age. Lorenzo was the speedster running by his peers, while Sonny was the athletic big kid and that included playing up two years with his older brother.
"A lot of times you see that in kids when they are younger,” Mrs. Styles said of her sons' athletic ability as youngsters. “Once they got to junior high, I could see them start to separate themselves from other kids. I remember asking Lorenzo if they could actually go to college and get a scholarship to play college football. I was thinking of it from a perspective to use it as a way to get an education."
They might have been the best athletes, but the Styles brothers still needed to prove to their father they were up for the challenge.
"I saw they had the ability,” Mr. Styles stated. “As a dad, I always questioned if they had the heart and will to play at that level. They proved to me that they did have it.”
How did the Styles brother prove it? It starts with dedication.
"We started off doing what I call commitment hours of 6:00 a.m. workouts and managing to stick to the schedule,” explained Mr. Styles, who also saw teammates of his sons show up. “When you feel like you're tired, you have to keep going. That's how they're carrying on right now."
The workouts weren’t easy, but they shaped the brothers into two of the most mature players in their respective classes, while becoming two of the best players in the country.
"I had some different individuals around me to explain some of the techniques of body movements and stuff like that,” Mr. Styles said of the workouts. “They each had their own different workouts.
"It goes back to what my college strength coach taught us. I saw it work well for guys like Joey Galloway, Terry Glenn and Eddie George."
BIGGER PICTURE
Athletic careers are great, but Laverna Styles has always made sure all her kids saw the importance of education and the value of hard work.
“From the time all my kids were young, including my girls, we told them education is important and to use sports as an ability to get an education,” explained Mrs. Styles. “We taught them to appreciate what you have.
"We taught them just don't do something, but be the best in what they're doing. It could be playing an instrument or anything you want to do in life. Life is short and it's not guaranteed. You have to make the best of it. It's only going to give you what you give back to it. Just don't do enough to get by, whether it's school, cleaning the house or anything you do.”
Styles’ children have listened.
The oldest, Tonia, graduated from the University of Dayton with a degree in Criminal Justice and now works for the state of Ohio. Sydney is currently a junior at Dayton and she is majoring in Medicinal Pharmaceutical Chemistry.
"They've been doing that from the time they were little,” said Mrs. Styles. “It was important to me to stress that."
Lorenzo has also embraced the big brother role from an early age as his father made it clear he needed to be a good example for Sonny.
"Everything has been as a big brother,” Mr. Styles said. “I explained to him at eight years old that everything he did, his little brother was watching him, so he had to be a good example. To this point, he's always done a great job of that as far as I'm concerned."
SATURDAY NIGHT
Ohio Stadium will be filled with a wide variety of emotions on Sept. 3rd. The emotions will be different for the Styles family as it will be the first time Sonny will run out of the tunnel and Lorenzo returns home as an underdog.
It will be a moment of hard work coming to fruition, but also a realization that dreams come true.
"It's an absolute blessing,” Mrs. Styles stated. “It's a blessing in the sense that they're living their dreams out and having the opportunity to play football at its highest level. This is a huge game between two great programs.
"For me, it's also a blessing they have an opportunity to use football as a way to get a great education. It's a true blessing. That doesn't happen a lot. To see two kids from the same family make it to big-time programs, it just doesn't happen often.”
The seating arrangement has been well thought out by Mrs. Styles as there has been some strategy involved.
“We're making sure we support both boys,” Mrs. Styles explained. “We'll put some of the family on Ohio State's side and some on Notre Dame's. My husband, my oldest daughter, my father-in-law and we have a cousin sitting on the Ohio State side. On Notre Dame's side, we will have myself, my mother, my mother-in-law, the other daughter, my brother and his wife."
Mrs. Styles also plans to take in the moment at some point and simply enjoy the moment, but she admits she’ll be in a glass case of emotions and no one will be prouder in the state of Ohio on Saturday night.
“Mom will be nervous,” Mrs. Styles laughed. “I'm always nervous because you don't want anyone to get hurt. I'm always cheering for their team. This situation, I'm not really cheering for a team, but I'm cheering for my sons. That's my approach. I will be a nervous wreck regardless.
“They're living their dreams, but also getting a great education and the connections and friendships they will make from this - we always stress football doesn't last long. Use these experiences to grow. You're not going to be a football player and retire at 50. There's going to be another career after football."
Notre Dame Fighting Irish 1/2-Zip Jacket
