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Football player slain in tragedy
OAKLAND — Greg Ballard Jr.'s San Leandro High School classmates and football teammates were waiting and waiting for him to show up at Boomers in Livermore on Saturday night.
That's where they were celebrating a school spirit night for the senior class. Earlier in the day, San Leandro's football team had won 26-21 over Bishop O'Dowd.
Ballard never made it to Boomers.
And his classmates soon learned that Ballard, 17, was shot shortly after 8 p.m. in East Oakland.
He died within a half-hour.
Oakland homicide Sgt. TonyJones said Sunday police have "absolutely no idea" why Ballard was shot.
No witnesses have stepped forward, and no one has been arrested, Jones said Sunday. The death was a tragic blow to those close to Ballard, who said that after running into some trouble, he had began to turn himself around. He was on track to graduate and doing well in school. He joined the football squad for his senior year.
"He finally saw which direction in life he wanted to go in, and he saw the door," said older brother Don Taylor, 29, of San Leandro. "But the door was locked, and the room went dark. I just wish he had a little more time to do some of the things he wanted to do."
San Leandro's head football coach, Brad Bowers, said, "It's a devastating blow to us to say the least ... he had actually turned into a fantastic student — a great kid and a great student."
Ballard had been through some rough patches in previous years.
He even spent some time in juvenile hall, Bowers said.
But, to many people, he seemed to have moved past all that. Jerome Manos, athletic director at San Leandro and defensive coordinator for the football team, worked as a counselor at the school during the 2006-07 school year.
He said he met with Ballard his junior year and recommended he play football, thinking it would bring something positive to his life.
"He was one of my guys," Manos said about Ballard, who played safety and on special teams. "It was a very unfortunate thing that happened. He was a good kid. He was working hard. He was trying to get his life turned around and make better decisions ... unfortunately he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, I guess."
It is a rarity in prep football for someone to join the team his senior year after forgoing the sport for his first three years in school. In fact, Bowers said he does not typically take players on the varsity squad who haven't played in previous years. But Bowers said he talked to Ballard before the season and became convinced Greg was serious about changing directions.
"I couldn't help but support what he was doing," Bowers said.
At a two-a-day drills retreat the team took to Jackson before the season, Manos said Ballard told his coaches and teammates how important it was to him and his family that he graduate high school.
He seemed ready to achieve that goal. His senior portrait was already snapped. As Bowers and Manos tell it, Greg was a regular at practice, working hard, never late.
He faced a tough challenge playing with people who'd played in previous seasons, but, Bowers said, "He had a good attitude. He was at practice everyday. With our program it takes a humongous commitment."
The coach said Ballard had bought into the structure and discipline associated with being part of a team. It began to show in a changed attitude, not only on the field, but also in the classroom and on campus, Bowers said.
He had recently received a student-of-the-month award in his social justice class, Bowers said. Ballard did not see playing time against Bishop O'Dowd, though he had in previous games. After the game, his brother said, he went straight home to get ready for spirit night at Boomers.
But he didn't have a car. And couldn't catch a ride. So he changed his plans, Taylor said.
Ballard was in the 9200 block of Sunnyside Street when he was shot about 8:10 p.m.
Wounded, he was able to make it to the rear of a house on Sunnyside. That's where he was found. He was taken to Highland Hospital and died at 8:49 p.m., police said.
"It's terrible that just a few hours earlier he was celebrating victory with his teammates, and then he had his life taken," Jones, the homicide sergeant, said. "It's a real tragedy."
It was Oakland's 107th homicide of the year. There were 122 homicides this time last year.
Word spread quickly Saturday night that something had gone wrong. Bowers had his cell phone turned off, but turned it back on about 11:30 p.m. He had 25 missed calls, mostly from his players — and one from Ballard's mother. Manos got the news late Saturday.
"That was a big win for us," he said. "I didn't find out about this thing until late last night, and it just puts everything in perspective. It's tragic."
San Leandro Principal Amy Furtado got a call at about midnight. The news left her "devastated and troubled," she said.
"We all felt that he had turned a corner and absolutely had regained his focus," she said. "He had a bright future ahead of him."
The school will have extra counselors on hand today to help students dealing with grief over the loss. Furtado and Bowers also both said the school would, in the coming days, set up an account to help Ballard's family cover memorial service expenses.
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