In the game of chess, one move can decide the entire game.
In the game of life, certain decisions determine the path forward, either following a storyline dictated by family history, or moving on to greater achievement. Kayvon Thibodeaux realized the power of taking actions into his own hands when he was told the game of chess “was a grown man’s game” from his uncle Jamal. He taught himself chess for a challenge, as well as to face his uncle. He even carried a chess board in the back of his car in case people wanted to challenge him.
“Not a lot of guys on the team play chess,” Thibodeaux said. “I’m still playing chess.”
Now Oregon freshman defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux, the nation’s No. 1 recruit according to ESPN, is strategizing and forging his path in a new way. He is on a mission to make the last name across his back something for people to remember.
“Thibodeaux means nothing,” he said. “I feel like this opportunity that I got and the talent I have … I can change the forefront of my future and my family’s future.”
The first important principle of chess is king safety.
Sometimes that can be hard when living in South-Central Los Angeles. In the last six months alone, there have been 295 violent crimes, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Outside of the violence, Thibodeaux’s being 6-foot-2 at age 13 brought its own troubles, like when parents scoffed at him outmuscling kids at birthday parties for candy that fell from piñatas, or when his mother, Shawnta Loice, had to argue with other parents during sporting events when they challenged his age due to being larger than the others.
“They would always pick on him because they thought he was older than what he really was,” Loice said. “He wouldn’t allow them to mess with him. But they would try.”
Loice, who has experienced senseless violence all her life, didn’t want that same life for her son. She wanted to move him out of the gang-infested area of South-Central to challenge him. She realized that her son, much like herself when going to school in the inner city before moving to Orange County, wasn’t being challenged in the classroom.
“He had too much free time on his hands in LA for me,” Loice said. “His homework was done. His tests were done. It just wasn’t enough.”
So Loice and Thibodeaux searched for schools with the best chance to challenge him. They settled on Oaks Christian High School in Westlake Village. While having to drive 80 miles per day in his ’95 Ford Mustang between home and school, he maintained well above a 3.0 GPA. The long trek became shorter when Thibodeaux and his mom moved to Woodland Hills, now an all-around 40-mile drive that was done in a white Kia Soul.
“I wanted him to have a better education,” Loice said. “I don’t care how good he was. I didn’t care who needed him on the team. It just didn’t matter to me because I told him education comes first.”
Finding greener pastures relates to Thibodeaux’s second-most important principle of chess: development. This allows you to create more firepower by finding the best squares for your pieces.
Finding Oaks Christian was crucial for his education. Moving 30 miles away to Woodland Hills was the best square of land for survival. Later, choosing the University of Oregon gave him the opportunity to get away from the violence and find the best square to build a foundation.
“If I would’ve stayed, I probably would’ve died,” Thibodeaux said. “I was a kid that walked and just tried to be by myself, but it doesn’t matter. It finds you.”
Eugene isn’t only a city with a less violent crime rate, but a place where he felt comfortable. In the midst of a chaotic recruiting process, Thibodeaux changed his mind every other day. He and Loice, without any idea of what being a No.1 recruit was like, were flooded with emails, mail, texts and calls from people all over the country.
“It was just too much,” Loice said. “I kept hearing stuff, so I had to just let people know that anything that goes on with my kid, you need to talk to me because I didn’t know who was for him and who was against him.”
Oregon wasn’t only the next “pit stop” for Thibodeaux to chase his football dreams; for Loice, it was something much different that she wanted for her son. She felt that Oregon, out of all 27 schools that offered him, had coaches with solid foundations who could serve as role models and offer him guidance when she was over 800 miles away.
“He’s beyond his years,” head coach Mario Cristobal said. “It’s not the five-star talent, it’s the five-star mentality, the five-star effort and the five-star approach. He has exceeded expectations.”
Despite trying to find the best pieces to build a foundation and develop as a man, hos past will always follow him, even if his pit stop is over 800 miles away. Los Angeles flows through Thibodeaux’s veins and is part of his DNA.
“You don’t get away where you come from,” he said. “You gotta find your own path, and I felt like my path brought me here.”
The third and final important principle to chess: center control. Controlling the center means controlling most of the action.
Thibodeaux is not only trying to control his center of gravity when terrorizing offenses around the country, but he has his mind occupied with the violent and challenging streets of South-Central. He said he’s hopeful to see a change.
“If you go to the city right now, 50 percent of the people have never even touched a credit card or they have been a part of credit card fraud,” Thibodeaux said. “It’s things like that, that need to be implemented into the kids and everybody coming up.”
Thibodeaux references Nipsey Hussle, a Los Angeles rapper and activist who was trying to change his community’s landscape before he was murdered on March 31 in the environment he was trying to change.
“[In] LA, it’s what you hear,” he said. “Just now, Nipsey died, and it was pretty sad. I felt it. It felt like a family member to me, and I’ve never met him.”
As of March 27, Thibodeaux has dubbed himself the “Chosen 1.” That’s what’s inked across his left forearm.
“I got it because nobody in my family has really done anything,” Thibodeaux said. “We don’t have anything to live for.”
Now, with Thibodeaux’s foundation laid and protected at Oregon, he can focus on his center and what he needs to do. He’s focused on more then just changing a program, but he wants to change his family’s legacy. It’s one reason why he plays:
“To change my family dynamic. To get us out of poverty. To get us out of everything,” he said.
