Whitehall senior Corde Anderson rises from modest beginnings
BY SCOTT DECAMP
Whitehall District Schools
WHITEHALL – Following a basketball game in December at neighboring rival Montague, Whitehall senior Corde Anderson took his place near the front of the handshake line.
Moments later, he was leading a group prayer at midcourt. Players and coaches representing Whitehall’s red, white, and black and Montague’s blue and white draped their arms around each other in a powerful sign of solidarity.
Anderson was the center of attention for all the right reasons.
“I was just saying, ‘We’re not playing for ourselves.’ I couldn’t care less about this,” he said, gesturing to “The Bridge” traveling trophy that he was holding following Whitehall’s victory over Montague. “We’re all playing for (God) and I just think that’s greater than any trophy.”
In his younger years, Corde Anderson was the center of attention for the wrong reasons.
“I was kind of, like, the class clown. I was trying to make a laugh, get a laugh out of somebody. I think I turned myself around my middle-school years,” he said. “It really hit me when I realized that I can’t do this; like, this isn’t going to make anything better. It’s not going to be good for me.
“I didn’t want to be that person who always got in trouble and just was, like, the laughing stock, you know.”
These days, Anderson, 18, is not only a leader in school and on his athletic teams, but also spiritually. He’s a friend to those who might need one. The athletically gifted and imposing 6-foot-3 ½, 230-pounder is headed to Division II national power Ferris State University to play football and study education. He strives to become a teacher because he connects with others.
He’s doing all of these things, plus working a job to help as much as he can as the man of the house now in a single-parent family. His mother, Holly Jenkins, is suffering from debilitating health issues.
Anderson has come so far already. In reality, though, he’s only scratching the surface of what he could become. He still possesses the jokester element, but he’s matured a great deal – because he’s had to do that.
“Corde has grown exponentially over his four years. He has developed into the unquestioned leader of not only his sports teams but our school,” said Christian Subdon, Whitehall athletic director and boys basketball coach.
“Corde lights up any room he walks into and I love him to death. Corde wants the individual success, but I think he wants the success of our teams more than his own. That’s hard to find.”
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO ON CORDE ANDERSON: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZL5S8iUNNg
IT TAKES A VILLAGE
Intellectual immaturity was not the only thing that Anderson had to grow past as a youngster. Jenkins said that her son was allergic to a lot of things growing up. She said he could not be outdoors for more than 20 minutes without having an allergic attack.
Consequently, playing sports was not in the cards. In fact, he did not really begin playing sports until high school.
Anderson was still adventurous, just being a boy: Searching for salamanders, jumping into piles of leaves, even if he were allergic to them.
Corde and Ramon Anderson, his older brother by nearly two years, were inseparable. After all, it was just the two boys and their mother. In Corde’s and Holly’s words, Ramon was Corde’s “first friend.” They did everything together and had each other’s backs.
Make no mistake, however: Corde Anderson never had trouble making friends. One of those friends from nearly the beginning was Ayden Mendoza. He and Anderson are still very close.
“(The summer before freshman year) I wanted Corde to play football with us, so we sat there and talked to his mom for probably around, like, two weeks, trying to convince her,” Mendoza remembered. “It got to the point where we were going to pay for him to play. He had never experienced something like (sports) and we’d always seen something in him that he was going to be great at it.”
Jenkins said that her son finally grew out of his problems with allergies and asthma. At the same time, Mendoza and another buddy, Cole Essebaggers, did enough convincing. Anderson got his first athletic physical and he was cleared to play sports. Before long, he was on the football field with his boys.
“Ayden and Cole really wanted him to play with them, so they also helped him get what he needed: Paid fees, got him back and forth to practice,” Jenkins recalled. “He has been extremely fortunate to have a community of mamas and daddies and friends ever since.
“(The doctor) gave him the OK, signed that physical form, and he has been one happy camper ever since.”
SOARING ATHLETICALLY
In the beginning, Anderson looked like a “baby deer” on the football field, according to Mendoza. But, in part to Subdon’s point, Anderson grew a lot in a short amount of time.
In his senior season with Whitehall, he was voted first-team all-state after being a force from the edge of the defensive line. Anderson tallied 58 tackles, 12 ½ tackles for loss, three sacks, six pass breakups, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery. He also was a big-play threat on offense from the tight end and wideout positions, hauling in 25 passes for 428 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Last summer at Victors Veer Camp, held at Montrose High School and hosted by highly successful Ferris State football coach Tony Annese, Anderson received an offer from Annese to play at Ferris. He could hardly wait to tell his mother.
“He was like, ‘Wow, guess what!’ He was just so, like, ecstatic. I mean, the smile on his face that he was just so humbled,” Jenkins said. “He was just, like, ‘Mom, he wants me!’ He was just so happy.”
Said Mendoza recently: “We all saw it in him. We just needed him to push it and, you know, his mom to let him be able to (play football). We all saw something in him and just to see him go this far, I’m just so proud of him as a friend. He’s like family to me.”
Like many up-and-coming football players, Anderson has NFL dreams. He believes Ferris State will develop him to be the best player that he can be – with four national titles in five years, Annese and the Bulldogs have a sterling track record of doing that.
More importantly, Anderson believes that Ferris State will mold him into the best person that he can be.
“I wanted to play football my entire life and I only started my freshman year, so it’s crazy where I am right now,” Anderson said.
Football is certainly a big part of the equation for Anderson, but it does not define who he’s become.
“He’s an excellent football player and he made us better in a lot of different places,” Whitehall football coach Tony Sigmon said. “I was talking to coach (Matt) DeRose one day as we were getting ready to start our practice and coach DeRose made a comment, he goes, ‘(Anderson) might be one of the best captains we’ve ever had … as far as the way that kids respond to him, react to him, the way that he conducts himself.’”
Anderson also is a leader on the basketball court with his presence and play, averaging 14.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. In the spring, he’s a key member of Whitehall’s track and field team.
Ludington senior Cameron Gunsell stars for his school, similarly to the way that Anderson shines for Whitehall. They’ll be teammates on Ferris State’s football team, which is just fine by Gunsell, who as a quarterback has had his fill of being chased and hit by Anderson.
“Corde’s a dog – Corde’s just a dog. I mean, you saw him. He took the ball right from me,” Gunsell said following a football game against Whitehall in the fall. “Corde’s different. I’m excited he’s going to be on my team, so it’s great.”
Essebaggers, the senior quarterback for Whitehall, said that Anderson had the work ethic in sports from day one.
Essebaggers and Mendoza knew that Anderson did not have the same opportunities as many of their peers. They made it a point to ensure that Anderson was able to play high school sports because they knew the type of athlete he could be and saw great potential in him.
“It was crazy just to watch him skyrocket past everybody,” Essebaggers said.
Jenkins is not able to watch her son play sports in person much these days, but she still beams with pride.
She said it gave her chills, just listening to the crowd and hearing his name called over the public-address system.
“I have so many videos of myself, me recording and just hoping that something magical was going to happen, and you hear nothing but me screaming and cheering,” Jenkins said. “I mean, it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s my kid out there. Like, he wasn’t able to do this five years ago.’”
CONNECTING WITH OTHERS
While Anderson was becoming well-known as a standout athlete, he also was making a big impact in the classroom as part of Teacher Academy through the Career Tech Center in Muskegon.
In Anderson’s words, Teacher Academy affords students who want to be teachers the opportunity to be in actual classroom environments and learn first-hand how teachers in their own district carry themselves.
Anderson was inspired by his Teacher Academy experience during his junior year. At Whitehall Middle School, Anderson helped students who had questions or didn’t understand the material. He said he learned from the students in return.
“I’ve seen the goods and the bads. I’ve seen how kids act, how good kids are, and I’ve seen when you get put in that position, you see the connection that teachers really have for kids. And that’s what I want, you know,” Anderson said. “I mean, Mr. (Aaron) Boyd, that was my best class I was in. I’ve seen how he connected with students.
“(Teacher Academy) was just awesome. The kids always put a smile on my face.”
Boyd said he had Anderson in his middle-school math class for six weeks, but Anderson spent time in other classrooms as well.
Like many others, Boyd has seen first-hand the transformation that Anderson has made in terms of maturity and purpose.
“I’ve known for a long time that Corde wants to be a teacher and he’s a perfect fit,” Boyd said. “Very rarely can you say at a young age of 16- and 17-year-olds, ‘Yeah, this kid should be a teacher,’ and he just has a way of connecting.
“My daughter was subbing in my classroom and Corde was in eighth grade. She remembers Corde and Jacobe (Monroe) and how well they connected and worked with others. So often, teaching is about that relationship-building stuff.”
Anderson also officiates youth sports for White Lake Youth Sports Club. Boyd, lead official and former board member for WLYSC, said that Anderson is always asking for officiating opportunities.
Anderson is a natural at officiating and he’s very good at it, according to Boyd.
““He’s a really good ref to the point where he could go on and have a side job in college – reffing basketball particularly,” Boyd said. “But he’s also really good at connecting with kids.”
‘HE TREATS EVERYBODY THE SAME WAY’
Sigmon said he’s seen Anderson come a long way but could tell that he always had a strong foundation.
Sigmon said that Anderson has always been a young man who walks into a room and lights it up, making the place better, especially with the way he interacts with younger students in the school district.
“I don’t really see a difference between this person and that person,” Anderson said. “Like, if you’re cool, you’re a good person, I’m hanging out with you.”
According to Essebaggers, Anderson is one of the most outgoing guys he’s met and that he’ll do anything to make sure others are doing well. Essebaggers noted that he and Anderson have discussed coaching at the same high school one day – maybe even in Whitehall.
Mendoza described Anderson as “kind-hearted” and understanding of people very well, showing others empathy.
“He just always has had this thing where he can just get to that certain level with somebody,” Mendoza said. “Like my brother, he has autism and (Anderson) gets along with my brother perfectly fine – just like anybody else, and doesn’t treat him as special or anything like that. Just like a normal person. He treats everybody the same way.”
Jenkins said people gravitate to her son because of how he carries himself and how he’s always willing to help out.
Corde is extremely proud of brother Ramon Anderson, who is currently deployed with the U.S. Army, and how “he’s making something of himself.”
It’s just Corde and his mom in their modest home. Amid her health issues, the onus is on him to step up. He’s done just that, remaining very attentive and concerned about her well-being and frequently checking in on her even during his busy days.
“He’s at school, he’s at sports, he’s at work, and he’s doing all the activities outside of that …,” Jenkins said. “He’s always checking on me throughout the day, always texting me or whatever, ‘Mom, what do you need? Are you doing OK? Are you off your feet?’”
Said Anderson: “I’m trying not to be upset about it, but it hurts, you know, because my mom doesn’t deserve this.. She’s a great person. … I try to keep the good things in front of me. I try to continue keeping myself busy, hanging out with people that are going to keep me up.”
Anderson and Jenkins both expressed heartfelt appreciation for the Whitehall community and all of the loving, supportive people in it.
Jenkins believes her son is bound for greatness in life. He has become more spiritual, saying that his “No. 1 role model is definitely God, Jesus,” and how he wants to model his life in that manner.
“We always joke around about how silly he can be and how he laughs and jokes and stuff like that around the guys. But there’s a level of sincerity and there’s a level of maturity there,” Sigmon said about Anderson.
“I think he probably does as good as anybody of really being able (to be serious) when it’s time to be serious, to be in that lane; when it’s time to joke around, have fun, be in that lane; and when it’s time to be really focused because there’s adversity going on, he knows he needs to be his personal best. … I don’t know if I could do it any better than he’s done it.”
Jenkins may be a bit biased, but there does seem to be a lot of truth to this statement regarding her son: “To know him is to love him.”
“He doesn’t like to see anybody down,” she said. “He’s very, very humble. He is appreciative. He’s not spoiled. He’s had to earn pretty much (anything) he wants. He’s had to work extra hard during (recent months), but he’s doing it and he’s rocking it out.”