For Stills, WVU choice simply came down to family
When Fairmont (W.Va.) Fairmont Senior defensive lineman Dante Stills pulled some orange and white tissue paper from the bag that contained the hat of his eventual college selection Thursday there was an audible gasp in the crowd inside the school auditorium for a moment.
Could Stills leave his home state and attend Florida? What was happening?
Turns out it was all for nothing as Stills would draw the gold and blue West Virginia cap and don it upon his head to the cheers of the student body. The brainchild of the great paper caper, was none other than the person that had been there for every step of the way for the Rivals.com four-star prospect.
His mother, Janeen Floyd.
“She told me about the different color schemes to fool everybody,” he said.
To know anything about Stills you’d have to understand how important family is to him. Before he was the nation’s No. 148th rated prospect in the 2018 class and offers from over 30 schools, he’s always had his family in his corner. And right at the center has always been his mother.
“She’s meant everything. She’s been there through the ups and the downs and I am truly thankful to have such a great woman in my life,” Stills said.
Floyd has invested not only a lot of time, but effort in order to open up opportunities for her children. The mother of three, was first active in getting her older son Darius, who signed with West Virginia last year, and then Dante out to camps in order for coaches to eyeball them.
“I know if you want to get your kids seen you have to go to the coaches. You have to go to the camps and that’s what I did,” she said.
When asked how many miles she put on her car in the process, Floyd didn’t hesitate.
“A lot,” she said with a smile.
All of this while she battled breast cancer and she postponed her radiation treatments until she was able to get both sons through the various camp stops. She hid it from them at first but after revealing it, the younger Stills took over a role at helping watching her youngest son DaeShaun.
“He was a mess and I wish I wouldn’t have told them. I knew I was going to be fine,” she said.
She has since had ever treatments and surgery but it’s her kids that kept her busy through it all.
A testament to her devotion to her children, Floyd has been there from the start and watched as her son battled with his college decision.
There were highs, lows and everything in between but it wasn’t until this past Friday that Floyd and her mother received the news that her, and the rest of the state for that matter, had been eagerly awaiting. But that actually almost didn’t happen.
“He forgot about the day and I said don’t you have something to tell me. He told us and of course we were happy and he said calm down,” she said. “Then I had to keep it quiet.”
Stills’ father Gary actually wasn’t aware of the decision until it was announced Thursday because he chose not to try to find out where his son would play.
Floyd never pushed either of her kids in any direction when it came to a college choice, but admittedly she was thrilled that both of her children would be playing for the same team, their father’s team West Virginia. Just a 20-minute drive up I-79 from Fairmont, it was a choice that made sense.
“There it so much more that goes into deciding. You have to think about your family. If he was going to Florida we never would have been able to see him. He’s a family kid,” Floyd said. “He’s all about family.”
While she wanted to scream the decision from a roof top, Floyd kept it calm even with hundreds upon hundreds of messages trying to get a sneak peek into her son’s college choice.
But the suspense finally ended Thursday when Stills announced his choice on the stage, while pulling a little paper trick of his own, engineered by his mother in large part because of the buzz that had been centered around Florida in his recruitment and to end the stress of the process.
A light-hearted moment, in a process full of the opposite.
Floyd shed tears during an embrace upon the stage with her son, who also was emotional. The two had come a long way, but did it together. And family was always at the heart of it all.
“I always had it in my heart he would go to WVU but you just never know. I’m happy he’s going to be with his brother, it’s going to be exciting,” she said. “That’s a mother’s dream to be able to watch your kids play at the same school.”
And while West Virginia offered him opportunities on the football field to come in early and play alongside his brother, in the end it was about what it’s always been for Stills; family.
“I could never leave my family,” he said.
“He’s my protector, he’s all about family,” Floyd added.
