From the time he was 8 years old, Alterraun Verner was destined
to be a Bruin.
At a UCLA youth football camp nine years ago, Verner wowed the
coaches and administrators with his athleticism, work ethic and
talent. An 8-year-old at the time, Verner was also a year under the
minimum age for the camp.
“I took him when he was 8, and he got an award for being
the most outstanding player (playing against a lot of older
kids),” his father, Robert Verner, said.
“(Former UCLA coach) Bob Toledo came up to me after camp
and said “˜I’m not at every practice, but the coaches
are ranting and raving about how good your kid
is.'”
Later, in ninth grade, Verner was given a UCLA football jersey
with a “1” emblazoned on the front.
So when Verner suited up in his true No. 1 UCLA jersey for the
first game of his freshman season against Utah, it was essentially
the end of a lifelong journey to UCLA.
“Ever since I was younger I liked UCLA for football
reasons,” Verner said. “When I got older, I started to
look into the academic side of things. I thought this was the best
place to get the best of both worlds. You get a fine education
here, so you can’t go wrong.”
Discussing just Verner the football player would be doing him a
disservice. The math and applied science student carried a GPA
above 4.0 throughout high school and said if he does not end up
continuing with football after college, he might end up going to
medical school to become a pediatrician.
Bear in mind that most athletes for the moneymaking football and
basketball programs take on less academically demanding majors. Not
Verner. For him, the sheer challenge of being a math student along
with playing football is enough to essentially force him to do it,
as though it were a dare.
“I would probably say that I’m a really competitive
person,” Verner said. “If I see something I like to do,
I try to be the best at it. (The major) might be something I have
to change in the future. I’d like to see if I can do it
first.”
While the priority for many athletes with professional prospects
is their sport, education comes first and foremost for Verner.
With parents who graduated from Cal State Long Beach and sisters
who both graduated from college, the pressure is on Verner to earn
his degree before he goes on to do anything else.
“My family members are all doing well in the world,”
Verner said. “They’ve all stayed on me about pursuing
academics, and so have many of my teachers. They always planted in
my brain that football is good, but school is always concrete.
It’s one thing that will always be here.”
But even if neither college nor football ends up working out,
Verner has some backup plans.
He lists acting, dancing, and computer graphics among his
interests ““ eclecticism borne of his competitive nature. When
he was 10 years old, he went to one of his sister’s
auditions. When the producers saw him, they asked why he
wasn’t acting as well.
“I just started smiling,” Verner said. “I
wasn’t even thinking about it. I was like, “˜OK.’
I got into a couple of commercials, (one of which) never aired. But
it was OK, because I still got paid.
“It was a fun experience. I got to meet a lot of people,
so maybe it’s something I’ll look into in the
future.”
The main challenge for the cornerback has been time management.
With so many interests, it has been a struggle for him to juggle
everything he enjoys.
“Balancing academics and athletics has been tough,”
Verner said. “Just getting to school, getting to practice,
doing my homework, even eating ““ it’s been tough. And I
had to still find time to be a kid.”
The struggle to balance will grow even harder now that
he’s at UCLA. After his first game against the Utes, in which
Verner starred with an interception and a defensive touchdown, he
was inundated with reporters and did not get out of the stadium
until hours after the game had ended.
Still, the excitement of being at UCLA may be enough to make the
work easier to bear.
“My heart was just racing (during the game),” Verner
said. “(The interception) felt good. I really couldn’t
think at the time. After the game, standing there talking to the
reporters, I started to realize what an amazing experience it
was.
“It was weird. There was maybe one reporter at four of my
high school games. After (the Utah game), I was looking this way
and that while people were asking me questions.”
His parents want him to get a degree; he wants to get a degree.
There is no disputing that. But afterwards, Verner has one ultimate
goal: the NFL.
“If the NFL comes by in any way, shape or form, I’m
going to jump on that,” Verner said. “That’s been
my goal since I was younger.”
And if he keeps playing with what defensive coordinator DeWayne
Walker called “the halo effect” after the Utah game, he
might just get there.