By Pat Welter

“Let’s go boys,” Kindra Ritzie cheers as her son Jahvaree makes his way down the steps outside Kenan Memorial Stadium.

“Love you, you’ve got this,” Kindra said as Jahvaree spotted her and gave her a hug.

The bell tower walk is a game day ritual at UNC and the Ritzie’s have a few of their own.

“Every game I try to give him something that will make him smile,” Kindra said. “Because it’s a lot of work to do this.”

That smile usually comes in the form of something sweet. Skittles are a go to, this season there’s been some peach rings and gummy bears too.

“That’s just my gameday ritual,” Jahvaree said. “Last game I had some gummy worms before the game because I didn’t have Skittles.”

Don’t let the sweet tooth fool you, gameday is the only day the UNC senior defensive lineman will have candy.

“It’s just something I’ve always done since I was a kid,” Jahvaree laughed.

Kindra attends every game, Jahvaree’s younger brother Jahnaul makes it when he isn’t competing for the Charlotte 49ers track team.

“[Jahvaree] is a big example,” Jahnaul said. “Guides me on the right path everyday, even now.”

The family has come along way since home made shoulder pads.

“When I was four years old I built my shoulder pads out of two water bottles,” Jahvaree laughed. “I was playing flag football at the time and I was super excited to play tackle football the following year.”

Kindra takes great pride in how far her boys have come, especially raising them as a single parent.

“If it weren’t for our friends, their Godmother, their Godfather, my best friend Tiffany,” Kindra said. “If it wasn’t for that unit, I don’t know where my kids and I would be.”

That feeling of gratefulness is why every gameday begins with a text.

“It says good morning wonderful, beautiful, virtuous man of God. You have endured a multitude and grown in so many ways,” Kindra read from her phone.

The game can’t start without a prayer.

“Prayer is the most important thing,” Kindra said. “I believe that God will continue to keep his hedge of protection around him, because you just never know what can transpire out on that field.”

“We always pray before each game,” Jahvaree said. “You don’t want no hurt or harm to come towards you in anything.”

“Dear heavenly father we thank you for this union Lord,” Kindra leads a prayer circle with her family as well as Jahvaree’s teammate Kaimon Rucker and his.

“In Jesus name we pray, amen,” Kindra finished.

The ones Jahvaree couldn’t protect he wears on his sleeve.

“I’ve always got to show love for the people that aren’t here for me right now, but they are watching over me,” Jahvaree said.

On Jahvaree’s gameday arm sleeves you’ll find a cross written with black Sharpie on his right forearm. On his left are the letters LLJM for his friend Justin Miles, LLB for his Aunt Brook and LLS for his childhood friend.

“I’ll always look at him as my little brother whether he’s watching over me now and even when he was here,” Jahvaree said. “That’s why I wear him on my sleeve, LLS means long live Sterling.”

Long Live Sterling

Before Jahvaree was an ACC defensive lineman he ran track with his brother and his friend Sterling Fair. They met when he was ten years old running for the Winston-Salem Road Runners.

“We’ve always had a relationship him being my little bro ever since then,” Jahvaree said.

Sterling was a year behind Jahvaree at Glenn High School in Kernersville, NC. Jahvaree remembers Sterling joining him on his recruiting visit to UNC.

“He started getting some looks after that,” Jahvaree said. “He was a dominant safety. He’d come down and hit, he wasn’t afraid to hit anything.”

The visit is memorialized by a photo featuring Jahvaree, Sterling and Jahvaree’s brother Jahnaul.

“My brother took a picture,” Jahvaree said. “I always think about that picture since then, because that was so unexpected to happen.”

Jahvaree early enrolled to play football at UNC in January of 2021. Sterling took his own life that same month.

“It’s just hard, you wouldn’t expect someone to do that,” Jahvaree said. “Regardless of that he’s still my little bro, I’m going to always show love to him and he’s still watching over me and I believe that.”

“I’ve never seen my son break down like that,” Kindra said. “That was really tough just to see him feel like he felt like he messed up. Like there was something he could have done. He felt as though a part of him was taken.”

A brother and a son

“Let’s go run it, run it,” Reginald Fair said as the sun started to set in Kernersville.

“3-2-1,” Reginald signaled in the play to his quarterback. Reginald is coaching the Kernersville Raiders, a youth football team featuring his youngest son Soren.

“I’m a coach, I’ve been coaching for a longtime whether it’s football or track,” Reginald said.

Reginald used to coach his son Sterling and Jahvaree too. They met on the track and the families became fast friends.

“It was a natural feel good, they were good people we were good people,” Reginald said. “Just over time the relationship grew.”

Reginald joined Sterling and Jahvaree on the recruiting visit to UNC.

“He got a chance to meet the defensive coaches, coach Mack Brown, we went to his office,” Reginald said. “He got to experience the same thing Jahvaree got to experience, he hadn’t earned it yet.”

Sterling was a skinny freshman at the time, but as he grew so did his own recruiting attention.

“Everything in North Carolina, South Carolina it was getting rolling,” Reginald said. “Basically if it had been another two weeks the offers would have started coming in, because that would have been the cut off.”

The day of Sterling’s death isn’t easy for Reginald to recount, but he shares the details so that it might help someone else.

“He was doing well in sports and he had kind of a hiccup in school,” Reginald said. “He didn’t do somethings academically, as a dad you get on their case take somethings away.”

“That next afternoon is when we lost him,” Reginald said. “Just never got a chance to talk through it. You get on your kids case, they go to their room you walk away and that was it.”

The sleeve

Reginald and his family moved to a new house in Kernersville after Sterling’s death. The memories were too painful, but he keeps one of Jahvaree’s game worn sleeves in a cabinet full of Sterling’s awards.

“I can get access to it if I need to,” Reginald said as he pulled out the Carolina blue sleeve. “I don’t look at it a lot, but one of those days I’m having a rough day I’ll pull it out, look at it, and put it back.”

On the day of the game or the night before, Jahvaree will put on his sleeves and write the letters on in Sharpie, tracing over them to make sure they are clearly marked. The sleeve has become a symbol and a signal, a way to bring awareness to suicide every time Jahvaree suits up to play.

“With that happening I didn’t allow it to shut me down,” Jahvaree said. “It motivated me because I don’t want to see that happen to anybody else.”

“To even consider representing him like that every single game, every single time,” Reginald said. “People will see that and go what does that mean which is what’s been happening. It brings awareness to suicide as well. So he’s doing a lot, by doing a little.”

“What I do now regardless of who I meet or who I talk to,” Jahvaree said. “I make sure they are good because you never know what someone is dealing with that day.”

Source: wralsportsfan.com