Article Written in 2004 about Pendland

[jdawg03]

Sad story but what a happy ending.........

She said RUN

By: JEFF WICK, The Beaumont Enterprise 12/09/2004

Tom Eckert/The Enterprise

Newton junior Toddrick Pendland, right, and his sophmore brother Broddrick have had to overcome a lot in their young lives as their mom was shot to death by their stepdad when they were little boys.

NEWTON-His mother told him to run.

Toddrick Pendland's stepdad had come home drunk and mad - again.

So Tonya Ray (Taylor) Myers made her eight-year-old son take his little brother and leave.

Pendland, with his younger brother Broddrick in tow, ran to a neighbor's house. That's where they heard the two gunshots that killed their mother.

"They told me she was alright until I got to my aunt's house," said Pendland.

It was only then that he was told the truth.

That August day in 1996, his mother had told him to run.

Nearly a decade later, Pendland is still listening.

Saturday, the Newton Eagle High School football team will play for the Class 2A Division I state title. It's a team loaded with superstars, but maybe none better than Pendland, the tailback.

This year alone he's rushed for 2,160 yards and 26 touchdowns.

"He's a great player," said Newton head coach Curtis Barbay.

In two days, thousands of people will fill Waco ISD Stadium to watch just how great.

Of all the fans cheering for him, however, one person will be missing.

"I think she would have enjoyed herself watching us play," said Pendland.

He hardly ever goes to his mother's gravesite anymore, but before he goes out on the field, Pendland always makes sure to say hi.

"Before every game, I get on my knees and pray to God to tell my mom I love her," he said. "And that this is another game for her."

His mother told him to run.

But it was Pendland's uncle Tye Taylor who gave him something to run with - a football.

Tye started Toddrick playing pee-wee football soon after the tragedy.

"It kept me excited to do something," said Pendland.

There was only one problem.

At the time, Pendland wasn't big or fast.

He was kind of brittle, too.

"I broke my arm (playing football) when I was in the fourth grade," Pendland said, explaining why he much preferred basketball early on. "Stiffon Ethridge (who now shares the backfield with Pendland on the Eagle varsity) was bigger than everybody back then.

"Coach said he'd give us a dollar if somebody would tackle him. I was the only one who tried. I hopped on his back, then somebody jumped on my back."

Etheridge went down - right on Pendland's arm.

In time, the broken arm healed, but Pendland stayed small.

Even now, he's only 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds.

Somewhere along the line, however, he got really fast.

"Sixth or seventh grade I started running around everywhere I went," said Pendland. "I don't know why. I just started running."

He ran his way onto the varsity as a sophomore.

He ran his way into the end zone on one of his first carries with the team.

That speed will insure his pick of several college scholarships when he graduates from Newton.

His mother told him to run.

But he never had to run alone.

Broddrick was always there with his older brother - whether Toddrick liked it or not.

"We had it out when we were little; we fought every day," Toddrick said. "We're cool now."

This season Broddrick, a sophomore, was the starting cornerback on the junior varsity football team.

When the playoffs started, he got called up to the varsity. The brothers share the same sideline now.

"Watching him makes me want to get better," said Broddrick. "To try to be better than him."

His mother told him to run.

But it was his grandma who gave him somewhere to run to.

After their mother's death, Mary Taylor gave her grandsons a home.

She took Toddrick and Broddrick out of Bleakwood Elementary and moved them to Newton Elementary where she worked.

She wanted them close.

"My grandmother is a very strong person," Pendland said. "She guided me through elementary, middle school, high school. She still gets on me now."

And not just about keeping up with his schoolwork.

Taylor is an avid Newton football fan. She makes it to most of the games.

When everyone else is patting her grandson on the back for another good game, the former star basketball player herself is a little harder on him.

"She criticizes me all of the time if I fumble," laughed Pendland. "Or if I make a bad move, I get it."

His mother told him to run.

But Pendland held his ground that day in court when he had to testify in the trial that put his stepdad away.

"They wouldn't let me see any of the pictures (of his mom) or anything like that," said Pendland. "I only went in (to the courtroom) for a second. They kept me in the back, and then I came in and talked, and I came back out."

The judge asked Pendland if he knew right from wrong.

He did.

He was also asked what he remembered from that day.

He remembered it all.

"I remember all the sounds and everything and where I was at," he said. "He was drunk...he didn't want us to go nowhere...I heard a lamp break. I heard two gunshots when we were already at the house behind us."

He didn't talk about his mother's death much after the trial.

"I didn't want people to see me crying," he said. "I held my feelings inside."

Pendland said time has made things easier.

His mother told him to run.

So, when he gets home from Saturday's game, Pendland just might sprint to the cemetery.

"I think I might go out there if we do win," said Pendland. "I might go out there, put a little '04 (championship) sign out there by her grave. Something like that."

________________________________________________________________

He finally got his state championship in 05....

[BUCman]

I have had the "unlucky" privilege of getting to see this gifted young man play for the last 2 years and he will make a college coach very happy wherever he goes on to play.

[jdawg03]

lets just hope a good college program can overlook his size and give him a shot

[duckbutter]

Pendland is an amazing kid on and off of the field.

[jdawg03]

Pendland is an amazing kid on and off of the field.

Duckbutter-

any word on where he may be going to college?

[duckbutter]

Duckbutter-

any word on where he may be going to college?

Tulane (sp) and Memphis are wanting him and a host of AA schools.