Out of Control
...The most important recruit in UAB history was a freckle-faced, carrot-topped 14-year-old named Brittany, who finished high school in under a year. UAB pursued the 5’1”, 120-pound bookworm like it would a quarterback who could rope the deep out. Brittany, who looks like a cross between Little Orphan Annie and Molly Ringwald, grew up an hour down Route 280 in tiny Childersburg (pop. 4900). Frank and Jackie Benefield, as country as cornbread, had been trying for a child for 20 years before Brittany was born. They called her the miracle baby. When other children were stuck on c-a-t, Brittany could rattle off b-l-u-e-b-e-r-r-y. Her second grade teacher suggested Brittany jump through to third grade. Jackie Benefield wasn’t sure, but figured the teacher knew best.
The Benefields were protective of their only child, who had her dad’s wide smile and her mom’s soft eyes. Brittany’s social life revolved around a church youth group, its skate parties and Bible classes. Her folks were strict about what she could do. While other sixth-graders rehashed Home Improvement, Brittany kept quiet about her favorites—Bugs, Daffy and Mister Ed. When Brittany was in seventh grade, Jackie bought her a new dress for the spring dance. But when a student threatened to bring a gun, the school cancelled the event. That’s when the Benefields decided to home-school Brittany. The child prodigy earned her degree at 13. Still, Frank, now 60, and Jackie, 54, worried about Brittany’s future. “I always thought, if we just lived to see her educated and able to take care of herself, she’d be okay,” says Jackie.
In March 1999, 14-year-old Brittany was accepted at Auburn, making headlines in The Birmingham News. When her scholarship money got lost in a bureaucratic maze, Auburn told the family not to worry, they’d hold her place for the next class. A few weeks later, though, Jackie got a call from UAB. They wanted Brittany too, and they were offering full tuition. Jackie was thrilled—and ner-vous; Birmingham, after all, was the big city.
Brittany, having spent day after monotonous day at home, couldn’t stop smiling. Her plan was to finish law school before she turned 21. As it turns out, Brittany Benefield’s day in court arrived three years ahead of schedule—not as a lawyer, but as a plaintiff accusing 26 UAB (Black) athletes of sexual abuse and a university for its culpability in the matter. Acting through her mother, Brittany Benefield has filed lawsuits under Title IX in state and federal courts. The Benefields are suing UAB trustees, administrators, coaches, athletes, resident assistants, police and others. At the time of publication, the Benefields were seeking $80 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
This is the story of what happens when a naïve 15-year-old prodigy collides with an upward-reaching football program, some of whose players feel like they own the campus…
The rest of the article:
http://espn.go.com/magazine/vol5no12uab.html
