It is often said that you get out of something what you put into it and in the game of football, like most sports, student-athletes put in a tremendous amount of work that costs them their blood, sweat and tears.
Anyone who has seen University of South Alabama senior linebacker Darrell Songy at practice or in competition has seen a definite example of someone who leaves it all on the field, to his last drop of sweat.
It's hard to miss Songy during the fall as he is usually bouncing around on the field to the music played over the speakers during practice or shouting out encouraging words to his teammates.
A smile seems to always be on his face. A catastrophic event early on in his life took that away from him, but the game of football helped bring it back and develop him into the player he is today.
Songy was born in Mons, Belgium, where his mother, Theresa was stationed in the Army. His family eventually moved to Louisiana so his mom could finish up her 20 years of service at Fort Polk located along the western part of the state where Songy would spend his early youth.
While in Louisiana, Songy and his two other siblings were raised mainly by his mother after his parents divorced when he was five. Songy says his mom's military background helped her manage the difficult task of raising the three children.
"When it comes to the military background she had, she knew how to raise men and she raised my brother and me the best that she could," he said. "She made sure we had good grades, went to school and stayed out of trouble. I feel that she helped take our energy out of doing other things that could get us in trouble and put us into sports and other outdoor activities."
Then in August 2005 when he was about to start fifth grade, Songy and his family were affected by one of the worst natural disasters to hit the United States as Hurricane Katrina, a Category 4 storm, was approaching Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region.
That catastrophe would cause significant changes over the next few years not only for his family, but Songy personally.
"I guess everybody tries to look for the silver lining in those types of situations," Songy said of the life-changing event. "It was good for a lot of different personal situations, but it also hurt because my grandfather had built a bunch of the houses that were on the two blocks in our neighborhood, including the house we were living in and that my mom had grown up in. When the hurricane happened, it just destroyed everything and was a mental break for the whole family because none of us expected things to happen the way they did.
"We evacuated in the middle of the night the night before the hurricane hit. None of us were originally planning on leaving, but my grandfather called everyone in the middle of the night and told us we should probably leave.
"My mom told us to not really take anything with us and just pack something for the weekend because we were going to be right back, but we woke up the next day and things were different. It ended up bringing our family together. I feel that those are the times when our family was really, really close simply because we had to pull through together."
However, that weekend trip turned out to be a permanent move as the levies broke and flooded his neighborhood known in the New Orleans area as "Uptown", destroying the house his grandfather had built and he and his mother had grown up in, along with the rest of their belongings.
"I remember the rain that night and getting in the car and not really knowing what was happening. I was just wondering if I could take my Xbox," Songy said.
Katrina would make landfall the following morning, Aug. 29, 2005, but Songy and his family were already headed westward.
Because they hadn't planned to evacuate and didn't know where exactly they were going, the trip took a couple of days for Songy and the rest of his family. Fortunately though, his sister found a place for them to stay in an apartment complex in East Austin, Texas.
The move would ultimately work out for him and his family, but at first the new living situation had a profound effect on Songy himself.
"It was kind of tough actually because it made me become a very angry child," he said thinking back. "I was a very joyful and outgoing child before we had to move, but around that time I became distant from everyone and I became reserved. People who had moved to Texas because of the hurricane were being called refugees and I really didn't like that. I felt like people were giving me pity. Our apartment complex also wasn't the best place to be as Texas people and New Orleans people would do a lot of arguing. There was a lot of shootings there and my brother even got shot at out in front of our apartment."
Songy's mom helped him look into another new experience at the start of his sixth-grade year that would prove to be a big turning point and help the youngster begin to return to his old self.
"I was very reserved when we moved there and didn't have too many friends," he said. "My mom gave me that nudge to try football and it took my mind off of things. I had never really played pee-wee football before like most kids in Texas and football is big there. From there, it just stuck with me."
Songy had only played the sport with neighborhood friends until moving to the Texas. The new sport almost immediately helped him shed some of the anger issues he had as a result of the new living situation.
"Football gave me the chance to start building friends and provided me a chance to get my mind off of the situation we were in and how hard it was for us," Songy said. "Football took away the stigma people gave us since we were from New Orleans."
When asked when he developed his love and passion for football Songy responded, "I would say I instantly had it when I played park ball because I was always looking forward to going to practice and having my mom cheer me on."
The sport would also help him learn more about someone who had been in and out of his early life.
"When I began to play football, I also began to learn that my dad was a really good football player," he said.
Songy's father, Darrell Sr., had been a standout defensive back at Oklahoma from 1979-82, playing in 34 games and recording six interceptions for the Sooners. The elder Songy was also part of a pair of Big 8 Conference championship teams and helped OU finish third in the final Associated Press poll three times.
As he grew in the sport and discovered his natural ability in it, his dad's collegiate success would help Songy strive to get better.
"I would say that it did put some pressure on me," he said. "Once I started realizing that he was this great guy when it came to football, I started wanting to reach that standard, if not be better just because I saw how his life turned out. I just felt like if I do this, I want to do it better than him. That was my motivation for a long time as a kid."
His love and passion for the game would be tested early on as he didn't play much his seventh and eighth grade seasons, going winless in the latter.
"In eighth grade we lost every game, so it would have been really easy for me to give up football, but I always loved the sport," Songy said.
After a standout prep career at John B. Connally High, Songy eventually began his collegiate career at Oregon State where he was one of three true freshmen to play for the Beavers during the 2013 campaign. He appeared in all 12 contests — recording a total of nine stops — while helping the Beavers go 7-6 after defeating Boise State in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl.
He redshirted the following year and then, after a coaching change, decided a change of scenery was necessary and transferred to Garden City [Kan.] Community College. In his lone season at GCCC, he ranked fourth on the team with 68 total tackles and was fifth with 11½ stops for loss.
Throughout both of his stops before arriving in Mobile though one thing was consistent; his excitement level for the game out on the field.
"I would say I've always had it," Songy said. "It's weird because even when I was at Oregon State early on in my college career, there were older guys who told me that one day I would settle down, but I always just knew that was who I was at the end of the day. There would be days that I was just coming out to have fun with my boys, but there would also be days where I was really sore and had to motivate myself and be vocal in order to push myself. I just felt like that attitude was part of my game and it was just something I was doing for my team."
Songy brought that energy and passion with him when he signed with the Jaguars in December 2015 and it was immediately evident to the Jaguar coaching staff what type of player they were getting.
"Darrell Songy brings a lot of passion and excitement; he really loves to play the game and has fun when he's playing," South Alabama head coach Joey Jones said. "He's our juice on defense."
"He had actually just signed right before I got here, but when I pulled up the film you could see the natural athleticism," defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said of Songy. "When he walks in the door and you see the body type and that kind of speed, you realize that if he has any kind of head about him that he's going to be a special player. DJ is a very smart player, and you take all of those things combined with the experience he gained last year and he's a special player in this defense."
In his first season as a Jaguar, Songy started all but one of South's 13 contests and was named to the Sun Belt Conference All-Newcomer Team after leading the Jags with 100 total tackles, the sixth-highest season total in school history. He was also credited with 7½ stops behind the line of scrimmage, including a sack, four quarterback hurries, one fumble recovery and one pass break up. He led the squad in tackles on a team-high four occasions and posted a career-high 16 tackles against Air Force at the NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl, which ranked fifth on the school game record list and was the most by a Jag on the year.
Along with the stats he has accumulated on the field, probably the bigger impact that Songy has had is in the energy level that he brings each and every day, no matter whether its game day or just a hot, grueling August day during fall camp. That energy level and enthusiasm rubs off on his teammates.
"There's no doubt that the energy he brings has an effect, because even at practice he has that energy," Jones said. "You have to practice like you play in a game, that's what our team believes in. He's certainly a guy who does that on the field during practice and our players respond to him; he's the vocal leader of the defense.
"Jeremy Reaves is the statesman back there, but he is a leader as well."
"DJ is an energy creator for our defense and our team," Wommack added. "He's a guy who carries such strong emotion on his sleeves and plays with that emotion, but he also practices with that emotion. He's fun-loving and lifts our guys up. It's hard throughout the grind of a year to keep that energy going through a practice, but when you have guys like him who are such great playmakers and also provide such great energy for our defense, it's huge."
To Songy though, the energy he brings every day is just his way of helping his fellow players get through the hard times and getting the work done, especially when they see all of the sweat he is putting out and leaving on the field.
"When they see I'm tired and know I'm most likely going to cramp because I sweat a lot, they still consistently see me out there doing that. I feel that it's just got to pass off positive vibes to everyone," Songy said. "No matter the situation or how hot it is, we are out here together and we might as well enjoy it."
During fall camp when the temperatures either get near or exceed 100 degrees with a heat index well over the century mark, it is nothing for Songy to drop at least 10 pounds due to the excessive sweat.
"I'm constantly drinking water during practice. The first day of fall camp I had to get an IV and started getting them every day," Songy said thinking back to last summer. "I usually get an IV before every game because I sweat a lot, and it's made a difference. It was difficult for me to accept that I needed that at first, but I want to be at my best for the team, and if this is going help me be at my best I'll get it every game even though I hate needles."
One key bond among football team members is a "brotherhood" they form during their time together. That bond is one of the main reasons why Songy gives so much out on the field and chooses not to rely solely on his talent, a lesson he reflects back on that he learned from watching others in the early days when he began playing the sport.
"I just feel like I owe it to my brothers and my family because I've definitely been at different points in my life," Songy said. "I learned that I had talent and I started relying on my talent, then I began to meet others who didn't have the same level of talent as me but they always gave extreme effort all the time. That just showed me that you need both of those things to be a great player.
"I started getting lackadaisical when I began to learn that I was pretty good at the sport, but once I saw the effort of those other people, it made me realize I have to have that same level of effort all the time, regardless of what I'm going through out there on the field. At the end of the day, I know I have to give my best all the time because I'm not going to get this day or this time back, and there are plenty of other people that wish they could be in my position. I owe it to them to give it my best."
His loud vocal leadership is also just something that comes from an internal motivation.
"I just feel like that's me; if I'm not doing it, I'm not giving 100 percent and I'm not as involved," he said. "I sometimes have days where I'm not as vocal and I just go home and sit there wishing I could do it over. I feel that when I step out onto the field, that's the time to let anything I'm dealing with go; it's the only time that I really get to relax and do something I love and that I'm passionate about."
Following this season, Songy has aspirations of playing professionally, a dream that he hasn't always had and one that can help him not only achieve things personally but help others.
"I've had a lot of different ideas about what I want to do in life, because I didn't really see the NFL [National Football League] really being a part of my future in my younger years, but now I definitely want to have that happen just because I feel I have that opportunity," Songy stated. "I want to be able to go to the league and do my name good. If you Google my name, I feel like there is a lot of bad things out there from my past and I just want to change the image that I might have set for myself. I want to be able to go out and help kids who may have a similar background.
"For a long time in my life, I really didn't feel like I had anyone in my corner. I had my mom, of course, but she was raising three kids and it was hard for her to spread herself out. I don't think I really started having guidance until my later years growing up."
Along with guidance Darrell Songy now has a brotherhood on his side at the University of South Alabama, one he will leave every ounce of sweat out on the field for.
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
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