FAMILY HOME: Beach Channel star Folorunso Fatukasi (55) poses with his family in front of their Rockaway home, which was damaged by Superstorm Sandy. (Paul J. Bereswill)
When the water came rushing down the street, rising up to their knees, and the Fatukasi family decided to evacuate their Far Rockaway home, many belongings were left behind.
Trophies, furniture, clothes, dishes and jewelry. But not a certain piece of paper. Folorunso Fatukasi made sure to take that with him that harrowing October morning, when his family’s home was ruined by Superstorm Sandy.
It is a special piece of paper — a symbol of his bright future and a source of pride and motivation for his family, even as moving back to the house on Beach 46th Street seems months away.
The paper was a congratulatory letter from the University of Connecticut, for his verbal commitment to its football program.
“That was the first thing I saved,” said the 6-foot-4, 280-pound defensive tackle who will sign his national letter of intent today. “It meant so much to me. I thought, ‘I’m not letting anything happen to this.’ ”
The last several months have been difficult for Fatukasi, 17, who had 38 tackles and five sacks this past season in leading Beach Channel to the PSAL City Championship division playoffs in the fall.
He, his Nigerian-born parents and two younger brothers are living like nomads, first in a Brooklyn motel, now a tiny two-bedroom home in Rosedale and with relatives and friends on occasion, shuffling frequently between the two boroughs. Finances are tight. They are awaiting financial support from their insurance company and additional help from FEMA.
The entire infrastructure of their home was destroyed by flooding, though electricity and heat have been restored.
Fatukasi’s accomplishment, landing a full football scholarship — the first player to do so in over a decade from the Rockaway school — has numbed the long road ahead.
“Despite everything we went through in this hurricane, it’s like an inspiration to us,” his mother, Ifedola, said. “He has a good opportunity, so what do we have to complain of?”
Beach Channel coach Victor Nazario said Fatukasi is his first player in his 12 seasons running the program to go directly to the Division I level.
Fatukasi persevered through two different knee surgeries and a severe high ankle sprain, injuries that cost him 12 games his sophomore and junior seasons.
“The odds were stacked against him from the beginning,” said Nazario, noting Beach Channel only recently moved up to the PSAL’s top division this season. While he rehabbed the knee last year, Fatukasi often grew depressed, his Division I football hopes seeming more like an unrealistic dream than a goal
Ifedola, an eternal optimist, wouldn’t let him lay around the house feeling sorry for himself. The hurricane damage never brought Ifedola down — the day she came back to see her ruined home, she smiled.
“In my dictionary, I don’t believe in being stressed or being depressed,” said Ifedola, a substance-abuse counselor. “I believe anything that happens to you, get up and face it.”
Today, Folorunso will sign his national letter of intent, surrounded by family, friends, teammates and teachers at Beach Channel.
“I feel accomplished,” he said. “I feel really special.”