WitP: Bess Goes Back Home

Miami plays at Oakland tomorrow, and there are a lot of articles about Davone Bess going back to his hometown:

Receiver Davone Bess returns to Oakland as a record holder for Miami Dolphins, by Steve Corkran of the Oakland Tribune

"Oh, yeah, always was a dream," Bess said of the prospect of playing at the Coliseum. "I grew up playing basketball and baseball. They were my two sports, so I always thought I was going to be a Warrior or an Oakland A. That's the thing. I just stopped growing and then I met football, and football kind of just took over and led the way for me."

The Black Hole Awaits Oakland Native Bess And Dolphins, by Andy Kent of MiamiDolphins.com

“It’s going to be exciting man,” said Bess, who is second on the team behind Brandon Marshall with 49 receptions for 489 yards and three touchdowns. “I got a lot of people coming to the game. I literally grew up five minutes from the stadium and you could see the stadium from my neighborhood where I grew up. So just to have the opportunity to go there and go back and play in front of all my family and friends is going to be exciting.”

Miami Dolphins' Davone Bess gets first shot to play in hometown, by David J. Neal of the Miami Herald

Bess last played in Oakland Coliseum his senior year of high school, as Oakland Skyline High's quarterback in the 2002 city championship game against McClymonds High. He doesn't remember his statistics for the game, but he does remember ``we won 47-0. I had the first touchdown.''
``It means everything to go back and play in front of my home city,'' Bess said.

Bess comes home with Dolphins to face Raiders, from the AP

"It's definitely going to be an honor, after all the adversity that I've been through, to be able to play in front of my home city,'' he said in a conference call with Bay Area reporters. "Just reaching out to others, letting people know that there's a thing called hope and I'm a living example of it. If you stick to your morals, stick to your goals, and just continue to work hard and not let all the little things distract you, or even the big things, you can do whatever you want to as long as you put your mind to it and you believe.''

There's also a nice quote about UH from Miami coach Tony Sparano:

"He doesn't have the top-end speed that maybe some of the real fast receivers have, but he runs well enough and he's very quick. I think a tremendous compliment to the Hawaii program and what they did is just that this kid came out of college and he was so far ahead of the curve from a receiving skills standpoint.''