As a 14-year-old freshman who lacked confidence, Melion Busano entered high school with one thing in mind.
“Let’s just get these four years over with,” he said.
In September 2022, when he received 30 minutes to try out for the Eagle Rock High School basketball team, his confidence shook even further.
“They said if we send you a message, you'll make the team. I never got that message,” he said. “I denied it. “Maybe they forgot me.” After the third or fourth week I was [thinking]”Maybe they didn't send that message.”
The refusal left him adrift, but then came the moment that changed his life. While he was carrying a camera for filming practice, JV football coach Vince Vergara noticed him, pulled him aside and asked, “Hey, you want to play football?”
He joined the JV team as a sophomore. His mother refused to let him play football years ago after watching the 2015 movie “Concussion.” This time she told him, “Be careful.”
He started from scratch.
“I had to learn as I went,” he said. “I didn't know what type of rana was playing or anything like that. Never played youth football, never played under the flag.”
He played on the varsity team last season as a junior and rushed for 211 yards and two touchdowns. This season, as a much-improved 5-foot-10, 195-pound senior, he has become so valuable that coach Andy Moran named him the top running back in the City Section, rushing for 824 yards and 13 touchdowns heading into Friday's Northern League title decider against Franklin.
“He's not going down, and everyone was ready to stop him, but they didn't,” Moran said.
He had 143 yards against Granada Hills Kennedy, 108 yards against Monrovia, 146 yards against Bell, 141 yards against Marquez and 107 yards against Los Angeles Marshall.
His father was a Marine for 20 years and came here as a teenager from Belize. His mother is from the Philippines.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t go there, but I would like to go,” he said.
His name means “My Lion”.
“You’re a lion, that’s why you’re fierce,” his father tells him.
With new confidence, Busano discovered his love for football and the belief that he could improve with experience.
He even tried out basketball again and made the team before deciding to focus on football.
His father told him, “Try again, work harder, become better.”
It's all part of the high school experience – experimenting, exploring and dealing with the positives and negatives that happen to everyone during adolescence. His younger brother also made the football team.
“Now I’m kicking myself why I didn’t do it my freshman year,” Busano said. “Now I appreciate the little things, the discipline, always doing my job and not someone else's. It's helped me grow as a person. I was very ignorant and blind going into it. I felt like I probably wouldn't be the worst player, probably the second best player, but I went out there and started. It was, 'Wow!'
He hopes to visit Belize or Manila soon to learn more about his parents' home countries.
“My dad says my grandma has a house where you can wake up and look out the window and the beach is right there,” he said. “I want to visit both.”
He is 17 years old and sees a completely different world and a completely different future thanks to his football experience.
