Shrine player overcame abuse

By rbrown
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Updated: August 1, 2018

This story, written by Alex Abrami of the Burlington (Vt.) Free Press, is a must read. It tells the emotional story of a Vermont football player who will participate in Saturday’s 65th Annual Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl, but is about much more than football …

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Hunter Nunes-Wales only ventures into Swanton out of necessity.

But on this sunny July day, the soon-to-be Castleton University football player has to pick up an old friend. Peering over his left shoulder as the road funnels him into the center of town, Nunes-Wales spots an apartment building being demolished.

It was his childhood home.

Nunes-Wales returns later that evening, by which time the structure has been reduced to mangled steel, bricks and evidence of dust-covered books and toys.

Scouring the heap, Nunes-Wales plucks out a coloring book that belonged to him. He points to a movie poster, once slapped on his bedroom wall — it was too far out of reach to grab. A broken toy catches his eye.

“That was my sister’s,” he said, holding it up.

Crushed under the weight of a building left in ruin, those personal items were visible to anyone who strolled by. But 1 Canada St. has a secret history too, invisible to anyone unaware of the tumult it once housed.

Those who know, as Nunes-Wales does, could never forget.

FULL STORY: https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/sports/high-school/football/2018/07/30/domestic-violence-how-vermont-football-player-escaped-dads-child-abuse/810704002/