Part III: From the Rockies to the Valley — JMU basketball player deals with mother’s death
Posted on December 6, 2007
JMU basketball coach Dean Keener was coming off his second losing season in as many years at the helm and needed a true point guard to help lead the Dukes in a winning direction.
With the help of assistant coach Michael Kelly, Keener convinced Pierre Curtis to make an official visit to the school.
Convincing the young and eager-to-play Curtis was only half of the project. Keener would have to impress upon Pierre’s mother, Carolyn Curtis Rice that traveling over 1,595 miles to rural Virginia was the best thing for her son.
“She was so happy for him that we were recruiting him,” Kelly said. “And then when he actually picked JMU, I think she was relieved because she knew Pierre was happy.
“It was almost like an insurance policy for Pierre to bounce it off his mom that JMU was okay and once she said go ahead, I think he felt relieved that he could just go ahead and focus on school.”
Not one to miss Pierre play basketball, Carolyn made it to Harrisonburg as soon as she could. The week of Pierre’s birthday — Jan. 29, 1987 — she flew to JMU and saw him play against Towson and George Mason.
Pierre played an average of 36 minutes in the two games and averaged 8.5 points when the Dukes lost to Mason but beat Towson.
Upon further contact with Carolyn during her trip, Keener grew even fonder of the woman who helped groom his star guard.
“[She was] a wonderful lady,” Keener said. “One of those people that you would say, ‘If you had a problem with her, then you had a problem.’ She always had a smile on her face. You would never know when you met her that she was on dialysis.”
Carolyn was resilient through her illness and lived six years longer than the five predicted by doctors when Pierre was only nine.
But Pierre knew she wasn’t well and knew he had to be prepared for the worst. He had no idea the worst would be multiplied by three.
Life through Loss
In April, Curtis lost his grandfather to natural causes. Jimmy Bailey died at the age of 77, leaving Pierre without the strongest tie on his father’s side of the family.
Despite having virtually no relationship with his father, Pierre was “real, real close” with his paternal grandfather and would make it a point to see him whenever he visited Chicago.
“He would never miss a birthday,” Pierre said. “Even if my dad didn’t call, my grandfather always called. He always sent something no matter where he was.”
It was painful for the loving grandson to have to bury one of his mentors, but he continued to let his grandfather motivate him.
“I knew I had to make him proud,” Pierre said. “ I was one of the only grandkids that wasn’t in trouble. I was actually doing something, with my life.”
He had no idea he would have to do it all again early in the fall semester.
He spent the summer with his mom in Denver and visited family in Chicago. Although he knew his mother’s condition wasn’t going to improve, her overall attitude was always comforting. Pierre was always aware that she would tell him what she wanted him to hear.
“I would ask her if she’s okay and she’d tell me she just had a cold when she had pneumonia,” Pierre said. “So it was kind of hard, ’cause I had to weed out the truth.”
He later found out that Carolyn told her sister during a summer vacation in Chicago that she wouldn’t be coming back.
As proudly as she went through life raising Pierre, she really just wanted to go out peacefully, knowing that her only son was now a man and could be on his own.
On Sept. 7, Carolyn passed away when complications with her dialysis led to heart
failure.
The hospital initially called Pierre — who had just finished a preseason practice — and told him they were trying to save his mother’s life and that they had stabilized her in the Intensive Care Unit.
Pierre remembered frantically calling his sisters to inform them of the hospital call, although his voice was barely comprehensible through his fear.
“The hospital calls my sister and says my mom is fine,” Pierre said. “My sister calls me and tells me mom is fine, so I eased [up] a little bit.”
Pierre was in his Chandler Hall dorm room and had called his girlfriend, JMU junior Rashonda Roberson, to come over when the hospital called back.
“They said we’re sorry, your mom is gone,” Pierre retold in heavy breaths. “I said what the hell do you mean, ‘my mom is gone?’
“From then on I was kind of out of it, I didn’t know what to do or what to expect. It was always me and my mom.”
Pierre’s roommate, JMU junior Juwann James was one of the first people to have contact with Pierre that night. James, a starting forward on the basketball team, quickly took on a more brotherly relationship with his teammate.
“I was one of the only people he was talking to besides his girl,” James said. “So every day I talked to him and let him know I was there. You know, I can’t feel his pain and know exactly what he’s going through, but I know how it is to lose someone. I was just making sure I was that person that was gonna comfort him if he needed that.”
James and Roberson didn’t support Pierre alone. Within minutes of receiving the news the basketball program responded and made its point guard the number one priority.
“When I received the call that Friday night it took me about 10 minutes to get from my home to Chandler,” Keener said. “And every team member was standing out in that bus stop area. There was a moment where I kind of knew we had a team that cared about each other.”
A day later the team was shocked and heart-broken again to hear that yet another family member of Pierre’s had passed.
Pierre’s cousin and Godbrother Donnell Easterling, 27, had been in a fatal car accident as he rushed home to be with his family following his Aunt Caroline’s death.
“I lived with him for a long time,” Pierre said. “He even moved out to Denver to live with us. We were closer than cousins. He was really my brother.”
Pierre returned to Chicago, leaving basketball and school behind to tend to his family — a challenge that forced the 20-year-old to transform and mature.
“At that point he wasn’t the man I know he is,” Pierre’s sister Ryan Rice said. “He was just my little brother.”
Pierre’s sisters had little doubt that Pierre would recover and return to basketball and school.
He returned to JMU in late September and began practicing and attending classes again. Pierre had fallen considerably behind before mid-terms but carried on with a smile just like his mother always had.
“She died with a smirk on her face knowing that her son was okay and that I could take care of myself,” Pierre said with a vintage smile of his own. “That was probably the thing that helped me the most through this whole process.”
Ryan keeps in touch with Keener and is expecting her younger brother to finish the semester with a Grade Point Average above 3.0.
On the court, Curtis is averaging 11 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists through six games and is ninth in the conference in field goal percentage at 53.8 percent.
Keener attributes Pierre’s ability to bounce back to the characteristics he picked up from Carolyn.
“She was always very appreciative to us as a staff for what we were doing, but we were more appreciative for what she had done,” Keener said.
At 5-1, JMU’s best start since the 1986-87 season, CAA opponents may want to take a close look at the lanky guard wearing the No. 51 because he’s playing for more than just himself and his team.
“I have no worries,” Ryan said. “He knows she’s watching and he can’t mess up.”
10 interviews were conducted over two weeks for this series either in person or over the phone. Parts 1 and 2 can be viewed at thebreeze.org.
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