By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Todd Graham was in full briefing mode at Wednesday's spring football mini-media day at the Carson Student-Athlete Center.
He expects the philosophy of the Sun Devils' run, play-action pass offense to remain. He expects to hand over the play-calling reins to new defensive coordinator Phil Bennett. He believes college-coaching turnover has reached unprecedented levels and he expects competition at every position on his roster, including his six-deep quarterback position.
Graham's answers came with conviction, they came with obvious contemplation, they came with detail, and he emphasized an occasional response by rapping his fist on the table.
When talk turned to junior college transfer Dougladson Subtyl, however, Graham's mood lightened, his tone softened and a smile creased his face.
"He's awesome," Graham said, his voice almost cracking. "He's a guy that just has a spirit about him; an incredible heart. He has overcome a lot; worked his tail off to get here and I'm just very, very proud of him."
Two tables over, Subtyl sat alone, taking in his new surroundings with a mixture of awe, excitement and anxiety as he waited for the next reporter to trace the timeline of his incredible and improbable journey.
"It's been a long, wild dream for me to get here," Subtyl said. "There was a time when I thought it was never going to happen but I finally made it here, and now it's time to start working on my legacy."
Subtyl's implausible voyage began on the beaches of Haiti where he was born into a family with nine other siblings in a makeshift home that had no electricity or reliable water source. Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere with an estimated 75 percent of the 10.6 million people living below the poverty line and 59% of the population living on less than US$2 per day, according to haitipartners.org.
"We didn't have washing machines or ovens and you were always fighting to survive," Subtyl said. "If you cooked food today, you had to eat the whole meal today. You couldn't save it because we didn't have refrigerators.
"I barely saw my mom because she was working two jobs a day. She put clothes on us, fed us and took us to school and we'd see her again at 9 or 10 PM. Every day was the same thing. It was pretty rough."
Subtyl's most lasting memory from his early childhood is the hunger he felt on many occasions when he went without food for an entire day, but at least, he said, it was "quiet and beautiful" on the beach.
"We went swimming a lot and we fished even though I don't eat fish --I'm the only Haitian who doesn't eat fish," said Subtyl, who preferred the Haitian diet of rice, beans, plantains and goat, but sold some of his fishing catch to help support his mom.
The challenges increased when the family moved to Léogâne, a city of 180,000 people, about 20 miles west of the capital of Port-au-Prince.
"When we moved to the city they had lots of crime. People were shooting each other for food," he said. "I remember before the elections for the president you'd see little kids, like 12 and 13, and they've got guns with them and they're shooting.
"My mom never let me go out. If I wanted to play soccer outside, it had to be behind the house. She let me go to my grandmother's house to stay out of trouble. It was crazy, people burning tires, people killing each other…"
While Subtyl's mom toiled away, his dad was in the United States working as a plumber and hoping to one day bring his wife and kids to the States for a better education and a better life. He eventually met another woman so he never married Dougladson's mom, but he did bring Subtyl to the U.S. where he enrolled at Flagler-Palm Coast High School in Florida. That's where he got his first look at the curious game of American football; a game that others tried convincing him to play.
"I told them 'I'm not playing this sport,'" Subtyl said, laughing. "It didn't make any sense. People were just hitting each other and all I saw was a pile of people."
Subtyl was on the jayvee roster his freshman year but he never played, "they just wanted a bigger team." He didn't even try out his sophomore year but coaches convinced him to come out again his junior season and in about his fifth game, he registered a big hit on the quarterback.
"That's when I started to love it," Subtyl said with a smile. "My senior year, I got into the newspaper and stuff like that and I decided I liked football."
While his football career was taking off, Subtyl's education lagged behind. While past accounts have listed Subtyl's native tongue as French, he corrects that.
"It was Creole, so English was pretty hard because we don't have future or past tense in Creole," he said. "Everything is plain and the reading and writing is easy and shorthand. You don't go to school to learn Creole, you learn to speak it at home."
The challenge of learning in an unfamiliar language in Florida forced Subtyl to take the junior college route at Victor Valley College in California. Victor Valley coach Dave Hoover credits then-defensive line coach Herman Smith with discovering Subtyl and then coaching him up. Smith played eight games over two seasons with Tampa Bay.
"He had played the game and understood it so it wasn't like he had no clue, but Herm was so good that Doug made a lot of progress, fast," Hoover said. "Our defensive ends pretty much react to the run and rush the passer and we basically told Doug to just go."
Subtyl led the team with 52 tackles, 22.5 tackles for loss and a CCCAA leading 18 sacks in just 11 games during his sophomore season in 2015. He had 45 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss and nine sacks in nine games during his freshman season in 2014.
"It's hard for kids in juco, particularly out-of-state kids," Hoover said. "If they qualify for a Pell Grant, it gets gobbled up by out-of-state tuition so they're living in a bare bones apartment, eating Ramen and hoping they can fight through it to land the promise of a four-year scholarship.
"I've met Doug's family and they're wonderful people but I'm not sure they were able to help him financially. Even with that, he never complained about anything. He always seems to find the positive in everything."
By his second season at Victory Valley, Subtyl had a host of major programs pursuing him, including Florida State and Auburn, but Subtyl took an early visit to ASU and committed shortly thereafter.
"After he came back from his visit and committed to ASU, I told him, 'you can't visit other schools now, are you sure about this?' And he said, 'coach, I made a commitment and I'm done,'" Hoover said.
"That didn't stop the other schools from relentlessly pounding this kid. They didn't accept that he had committed and they were not going to leave him alone. I can think of so many kids who have reversed their commitment when something that looked shinier came along, but one thing coach Graham said really mattered. He told him, 'l'm going to see to it that you graduate from college.' Coach was so sincere and so convincing that Doug said, 'coach, I'm going to have a college degree!"
The Sun Devils recruited Subtyl to man their Devilbacker position, a pass rushing position, but the 6-foot-4, 245-pound redshirt junior will determine his position with his play this spring, and in fall camp.
"When you look at his life, you can't help but think it's a blessing to me to get to coach a guy that has overcome and worked and sacrificed and done what's he's done to be there," Graham said. "The education part of it, that's a life changing opportunity for him but he's also going to do some great things as a football player."
Hoover is convinced Subtyl has the ability to play in the NFL, but that's a long way off in Subtyl's way of thinking. He's still trying to adapt to life at a major Division I program, and life in a major American city.
He has taken a liking to spaghetti, he is overwhelmed and grateful for the academic support he is receiving and he quiets the noise around him by engaging in one of his favorite hobbies, drawing. All the while, he is planning for something bigger.
"It's been a long journey and even though it took me a while to get here, I never gave up," he said. "But when I left Haiti, I promised my mom I was going to get her here since my dad didn't do it. That is my whole goal now, with everything I do."
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Todd Graham was in full briefing mode at Wednesday's spring football mini-media day at the Carson Student-Athlete Center.
He expects the philosophy of the Sun Devils' run, play-action pass offense to remain. He expects to hand over the play-calling reins to new defensive coordinator Phil Bennett. He believes college-coaching turnover has reached unprecedented levels and he expects competition at every position on his roster, including his six-deep quarterback position.
Graham's answers came with conviction, they came with obvious contemplation, they came with detail, and he emphasized an occasional response by rapping his fist on the table.
When talk turned to junior college transfer Dougladson Subtyl, however, Graham's mood lightened, his tone softened and a smile creased his face.
"He's awesome," Graham said, his voice almost cracking. "He's a guy that just has a spirit about him; an incredible heart. He has overcome a lot; worked his tail off to get here and I'm just very, very proud of him."
Two tables over, Subtyl sat alone, taking in his new surroundings with a mixture of awe, excitement and anxiety as he waited for the next reporter to trace the timeline of his incredible and improbable journey.
"It's been a long, wild dream for me to get here," Subtyl said. "There was a time when I thought it was never going to happen but I finally made it here, and now it's time to start working on my legacy."
Subtyl's implausible voyage began on the beaches of Haiti where he was born into a family with nine other siblings in a makeshift home that had no electricity or reliable water source. Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere with an estimated 75 percent of the 10.6 million people living below the poverty line and 59% of the population living on less than US$2 per day, according to haitipartners.org.
"We didn't have washing machines or ovens and you were always fighting to survive," Subtyl said. "If you cooked food today, you had to eat the whole meal today. You couldn't save it because we didn't have refrigerators.
"I barely saw my mom because she was working two jobs a day. She put clothes on us, fed us and took us to school and we'd see her again at 9 or 10 PM. Every day was the same thing. It was pretty rough."
Subtyl's most lasting memory from his early childhood is the hunger he felt on many occasions when he went without food for an entire day, but at least, he said, it was "quiet and beautiful" on the beach.
"We went swimming a lot and we fished even though I don't eat fish --I'm the only Haitian who doesn't eat fish," said Subtyl, who preferred the Haitian diet of rice, beans, plantains and goat, but sold some of his fishing catch to help support his mom.
The challenges increased when the family moved to Léogâne, a city of 180,000 people, about 20 miles west of the capital of Port-au-Prince.
"When we moved to the city they had lots of crime. People were shooting each other for food," he said. "I remember before the elections for the president you'd see little kids, like 12 and 13, and they've got guns with them and they're shooting.
"My mom never let me go out. If I wanted to play soccer outside, it had to be behind the house. She let me go to my grandmother's house to stay out of trouble. It was crazy, people burning tires, people killing each other…"
While Subtyl's mom toiled away, his dad was in the United States working as a plumber and hoping to one day bring his wife and kids to the States for a better education and a better life. He eventually met another woman so he never married Dougladson's mom, but he did bring Subtyl to the U.S. where he enrolled at Flagler-Palm Coast High School in Florida. That's where he got his first look at the curious game of American football; a game that others tried convincing him to play.
"I told them 'I'm not playing this sport,'" Subtyl said, laughing. "It didn't make any sense. People were just hitting each other and all I saw was a pile of people."
Subtyl was on the jayvee roster his freshman year but he never played, "they just wanted a bigger team." He didn't even try out his sophomore year but coaches convinced him to come out again his junior season and in about his fifth game, he registered a big hit on the quarterback.
"That's when I started to love it," Subtyl said with a smile. "My senior year, I got into the newspaper and stuff like that and I decided I liked football."
While his football career was taking off, Subtyl's education lagged behind. While past accounts have listed Subtyl's native tongue as French, he corrects that.
"It was Creole, so English was pretty hard because we don't have future or past tense in Creole," he said. "Everything is plain and the reading and writing is easy and shorthand. You don't go to school to learn Creole, you learn to speak it at home."
The challenge of learning in an unfamiliar language in Florida forced Subtyl to take the junior college route at Victor Valley College in California. Victor Valley coach Dave Hoover credits then-defensive line coach Herman Smith with discovering Subtyl and then coaching him up. Smith played eight games over two seasons with Tampa Bay.
"He had played the game and understood it so it wasn't like he had no clue, but Herm was so good that Doug made a lot of progress, fast," Hoover said. "Our defensive ends pretty much react to the run and rush the passer and we basically told Doug to just go."
Subtyl led the team with 52 tackles, 22.5 tackles for loss and a CCCAA leading 18 sacks in just 11 games during his sophomore season in 2015. He had 45 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss and nine sacks in nine games during his freshman season in 2014.
"It's hard for kids in juco, particularly out-of-state kids," Hoover said. "If they qualify for a Pell Grant, it gets gobbled up by out-of-state tuition so they're living in a bare bones apartment, eating Ramen and hoping they can fight through it to land the promise of a four-year scholarship.
"I've met Doug's family and they're wonderful people but I'm not sure they were able to help him financially. Even with that, he never complained about anything. He always seems to find the positive in everything."
By his second season at Victory Valley, Subtyl had a host of major programs pursuing him, including Florida State and Auburn, but Subtyl took an early visit to ASU and committed shortly thereafter.
"After he came back from his visit and committed to ASU, I told him, 'you can't visit other schools now, are you sure about this?' And he said, 'coach, I made a commitment and I'm done,'" Hoover said.
"That didn't stop the other schools from relentlessly pounding this kid. They didn't accept that he had committed and they were not going to leave him alone. I can think of so many kids who have reversed their commitment when something that looked shinier came along, but one thing coach Graham said really mattered. He told him, 'l'm going to see to it that you graduate from college.' Coach was so sincere and so convincing that Doug said, 'coach, I'm going to have a college degree!"
The Sun Devils recruited Subtyl to man their Devilbacker position, a pass rushing position, but the 6-foot-4, 245-pound redshirt junior will determine his position with his play this spring, and in fall camp.
"When you look at his life, you can't help but think it's a blessing to me to get to coach a guy that has overcome and worked and sacrificed and done what's he's done to be there," Graham said. "The education part of it, that's a life changing opportunity for him but he's also going to do some great things as a football player."
Hoover is convinced Subtyl has the ability to play in the NFL, but that's a long way off in Subtyl's way of thinking. He's still trying to adapt to life at a major Division I program, and life in a major American city.
He has taken a liking to spaghetti, he is overwhelmed and grateful for the academic support he is receiving and he quiets the noise around him by engaging in one of his favorite hobbies, drawing. All the while, he is planning for something bigger.
"It's been a long journey and even though it took me a while to get here, I never gave up," he said. "But when I left Haiti, I promised my mom I was going to get her here since my dad didn't do it. That is my whole goal now, with everything I do."