Originally published in the Aurora Beacon-News, April 21, 2014

By Stephanie Lulay

AURORA— Bringing up Boatright wasn’t easy.

In an impassioned speech at her son’s hometown celebration over the weekend, Tanesha Boatright touched on her journey as teen mother to NCAA basketball champion Ryan Boatright.

With a hoarse voice from cheering on the UConn guard, the single mother of four said raising the basketball star presented a number of obstacles.

In high school, Tanesha gave up her own dreams as a track-star standout to give birth to a son.

“(After) getting pregnant ... and not knowing why God chose me and not knowing why I didn’t get to continue my journey of being an athlete and all the things I desired to be, I went through a transition where I didn’t understand and really never forgiving myself,” Tanesha said at the Paramount in downtown Aurora.

But in the midst of anger and bitterness came strength and tenacity.

God had a plan for her, she said, and her son, Ryan.

“There were people who didn’t think I should have been encouraged to give birth at such a young age. Or that maybe my parents didn’t make the best decision by allowing me to have a child so early,” Tanesha said. “But my message is you don’t know who you’re carrying. I was carrying an awesome, dynamic, talented, handsome, gifted, God-fearing, respectable child. And God knew that from the beginning.”

At 4, people started asking for her son’s autograph. By middle school, Ryan Boatright committed to play basketball in college. He would later decommit and eventually ended up running the court for the University of Connecticut.

People talked about her, Tanesha said. People questioned her decisions. Why did she send her son to East Aurora and not West Aurora? They wanted her to do things their way, she said.

“There were times when I started to say to myself, ‘Lord, you can have basketball. I just want my kids. I just want my family. I just want my health,’” Tanesha said. “It was a lot to carry and I didn’t know all the time how to carry it.”

Tears flowing down her face, Tanesha said that she constantly leaned on her faith.

“I used to say to God, every season, I would make a promise. ‘If you get us through this season ... to the next season ... each season (we) would get higher,” she said.

Alderman Scheketa Hart-Burns, who knew Tanesha as a young mother, said the teen could have chosen not to give birth to her son.

“I’m saying this because there might be some among us that have a little problem ... that boy he might be a little bad. He’s a knucklehead? You mold that head like our parents used to do to us and love that baby,” Hart-Burns said. “You have a little Ryan Boatright.”

Tanesha said she wants single moms to know her journey also wasn’t easy.

“It’s not going to be easy and you’re not always going to get everything right,” she said. “You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to date the wrong men, you’re going to do a lot of things.”

But Tanesha turned her mistakes into accomplishments, she said.

“God is so merciful.”