Clearin' the court

Lino Lovotti, Reporter 2/3/2012

Derek Raridon plays basketball at his Division III college, North Central College. More interestingly, he is also the janitor at the school: he not only plays on the floors, and shoots off the backboards, he has to clean them. He has been doing the job since he was 16. Now, at 21, he has been doing this job for 5 years as a dedicated and loyal student to the college. “That’s a greatly humbling thing to do, he isn’t cocky from what the media has shown either, a humbling job for a smart, athletic student,” comments Owen Bankson (10).

Once Raridon finishes out his schooling and basketball careers, the finances major plans to find a job in the big city of Chicago. He hopeful to work normal hours, and hopefully will not have to worry about cleaning up and vacuuming everything after work.

Since this young man’s story has gone viral, he brought a lot of fame to the small school, which would normally be well away from the boundaries of a headline, except locally.

“I think it’s great, he’s a hard worker, and a basketball player,” Mateo Seal (9) says with satisfaction, as he sees that hard work and athletics can have a great affect on a person, and their view and work ethics.

Raridon’s family has a history at the school: his father is still a very well known player within the campus as a star on the court. Derek Raridon’s father led the college’s team to its first national Division III title when he was at the school.

Brian Cardinal, an ex-basketball star, who was called the ‘clean-up man’ because of his great basketball skills, he would “mop-up” the court with his greatly demonstrated moves, has lost his title to this young, new student. Derek Raridon has assumed the title because he literally cleans, unlike Brian Cardinal. “The most outstanding thing about this guy is that he is actually a good player. He’s not just some bench-warmer getting publicized for working while being on the team,” remarked Elijah Koslowski (11).

The star-junior is currently mastering in finances, and has no further expectations in basketball after college. As mentioned earlier, he plans to work in Chicago once he graduates and work decent hours, without just cleaning up after everybody. After working as a janitor for so many years, that doesn’t sound like so bad of a request, does it?