07/02 at 10:29 PM

Kenny Gabriel didn’t even know there was a “Paris” in Texas.

He did know that Texas was “one of the biggest states” in the U.S., but that was about the extent of his knowledge on the place he’d be spending the next year of his life after he graduated from United Faith Christian Academy in Charlotte, N.C., in 2008.

He also knew that succeeding in Paris after hitting an academic roadblock on his way to Auburn was his only chance at playing Division-I basketball.

And he’d have to go about 1,000 miles from home to get it.

“I just felt like I was on an island by myself before I really got comfortable with my teammates,” Gabriel said. “Being that far away from home, you get homesick really easy. It was just really tough on me.”

The 6-foot-8 forward shone at Paris Junior College, qualified at Auburn and was the Tigers’ second-leading scorer and rebounder with 10.3 points and 5.8 rebounds a game last year.

Gabriel, like many other athletes in major college sports, hit a snag in his journey from high school star to Division-I player.

He also knew exactly what he was working for the whole time he navigated the junior-college transitional period necessary for a shot at the big time.

“It’s just staying on track, not getting sidetracked because you had to take a detour,” Gabriel said. “Just staying on track and keeping my goal in my mind every day.

“Knowing what I’m shooting for when it’s all said and done.”

‘Being a soldier ain’t for me’
Brandon Mosley never knew you could fit so much marching into a day.

The summer after his graduation from Jefferson (Ga.) High, the Tigers’ senior offensive tackle found himself at the Georgia Military College in Milledgeville, about two hours south of his hometown.

The wake-up call came at 5:30 a.m., and then it was time for some marching.

Then came class, with more marching after.

Football practice followed, with some more marching before bed.

“Our free time was marching, so we really didn’t have free time,” Mosley said. “It just wasn’t really a college life.

“Being a soldier ain’t for me. Not right now, anyway.”

Onterio McCalebb can relate.

The running back signed with Auburn out of Fort Meade (Fla.) High, but had to spend a year of prep school at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., before qualifying.

The school welcomed McCalebb by confiscating his cell phone for his first two weeks on campus, standard operating procedure for the cadets.

“I was hurting. I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t have my cell phone, and you’re up there in the middle of nowhere,” McCalebb said. “It was really hard for me, but I had to tough it out.”

Mosley took in a summer of military life and decided he’d had enough, transferring to Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College.

The tackle said he went through an adjustment period getting used to the new scenery 15 hours from home, but he soon settled into a niche at defensive end and tight end for Coffeyville.

And every day was a new chance to prove himself.

“They have that rule where you can only have 12 men out of state that can make the team,” Mosley said. “I knew if I didn’t make the team, I probably wouldn’t go on to make D-I.

“I knew I had to work hard, stand out, and that’s what I tried to do every day: stand out.”

McCalebb stuck it out at Hargrave and used football as an escape, a welcome change from all the formations and marching.

He, like Mosley and Gabriel, knew what awaited him if he could push through.

“A lot of people see it’s like that and end up quitting, going back home and not ending up accomplishing what they wanted to accomplish because they let stuff like that get to them,” McCalebb said. “That ends up bringing them down.

“I just had to grind it out, wait my time and get through.”

Mining for gold
Auburn’s football team has had a fair share of success scouring the junior-college ranks for talent, most notably with quarterback Cam Newton and defensive tackle Nick Fairley, two key cogs in the Tigers’ national championship run last year

Running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Curtis Luper said Auburn will always draw most of its talent from the high-school ranks, but if there’s a “definite, immediate need” at a position, they could stray to the junior colleges and prep schools.

And, with players like Fairley and McCalebb — who both signed with Auburn out of high school — the relationship’s in place already.

“We watch him closely, so far as the rules are concerned, so far as they let us, we keep in contact with them,” Luper said. “And in a lot of instances, like Demond Washington (who spent two years at Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College), he was at a point where he was really ready to do to something with his career after that junior-college experience, which can be a difficult one.

“That was a serious transition for him.”

McCalebb said his relationship with Auburn stuck with him while coaches from schools such as Miami, Alabama, West Virginia and Virginia Tech were courting him up at Hargrave.

He was loyal to the Tigers. And Auburn was happy to have him.

“Some are motivated and some are not,” Luper said. “Obviously, we want those that are motivated.”

A lasting experience
Gabriel is poised to be one of the most experienced and talented players on a rebuilding Tigers basketball team this year.

McCalebb has run for 1,375 yards and 13 touchdowns in two years at Auburn, including a healthy 8.5 yards per carry last year.

Mosley, the junior-college tight end, took over the starting right tackle spot four games into last season and will be the line’s senior member this year.

“It blows my mind,” Mosley said. “I would have never in a million years saw this, that I’d be starting on the No. 1 team in the nation playing tackle.”

All three agree the time they spent between high school and Division I served a huge formative purpose on their lives.

Gabriel met a softball player, Cristina Griffin, at Paris who would become the mother of his now 5-month-old son. Gabriel said he and Griffin are still together.

After getting over the initial shock of being there, Gabriel said, the relationships he formed were extremely valuable.

“I remember one time I gave the custodian’s son one of the shooting sleeves I wear,” Gabriel said. “He told me it made his day and he wanted me to sign it for him and everything.

“It’s just the impact I had on some people down there.”

Not every player can make the jump from high school to college uninterrupted.

Not every player can deal with the transition period it sometimes takes to live out the dream of playing major college sports.

But for those who do, the journey is just as important as the destination.

“It taught me to become a man,” McCalebb said. “It taught me that if I can make it through that, I can make it through anything in life.”