Aug. 11, 2013
Training Camp Central
Lobo Football Season-Ticket Info
By Greg Archuleta
UNM Assistant Director of Communications
RUIDOSO, N.M. – No matter what happens from this point forward, Sam Mabany already is a success story.
The freshman defensive end from Denver, Colo., at times looks tentative on the football field during the University of New Mexico’s fall camp. Defensive line coach Archie McDaniel sometimes has to show Mabany the proper stance during a drill in practice. The 6-foot-6, 250-pound man-child understands he has a lot to learn about making the transition from high school to college football.
But the fact that he’s even here is an amazing story, not to mention a huge benefit to both Mabany and the Lobos.
Mabany was born in the Sudan, amid unrest in the country. According to an article in the Denver Post that Mabany confirmed, his family decided they needed to leave the country – which was being ravaged by a civil war – for their own safety in 2000. Mabany’s mother, Mary Majok, took the family – to Egypt while his father, Daniel, stayed behind to care for the children of two of his brothers who were killed in the war.
With help from the United Nations, Mary and her children – Samuel’s younger brother Patros still attends Denver South High School – moved to the United States and found a home in Tennessee in 2005.
That was the first time the children attended school. Sam Mabany was 11 years old and knew virtually no English.
Mary discovered she had a relative living in Denver, and she moved the family there in 2008. When Sam was a sophomore, Denver South football coach Tony Lindsay approached the large young man and asked whether he’d be interested in playing on the team.
Mabany didn’t like football, but Lindsay had the right recruiting pitch.
“He said I could do big things playing football,” Mabany said after a recent practice in Ruidoso. “I could go to college and get my education paid for. That was the No. 1 thing. That sounded pretty good to me.”
Mabany said he intended to give football a try for two weeks to determine whether he would like it. He didn’t need that long to decide.
“I started doing good right away,” he said, “so I decided I liked it.”
Mabany was a key contributor on the Denver South teams in 2011 and 2012. During his senior year, Mabany had 48 tackles, seven tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks, three forced fumbles and two blocked punts. He was a first-team All-Plains honoree and an honorable mention Class 4A All-State selection.
It was former Lobo coach DeAndre Smith who recruited Mabany to UNM. Mabany said Smith told him that the UNM coaching staff really liked him and that Albuquerque would be a great place for him.
When he visited UNM, Mabany said he was impressed by the friendliness of the people in the city. When the Lobos offered him a scholarship, he realized what Denver South coach Lindsay had told him was true: Football was going to pay for his college education.
Coach Bob Davie said he will redshirt Mabany this season to help him get acclimated to the college game, as well as the college education process. On the field, Mabany is raw but with tremendous upside.
“He’s so new to all of this,” Davie said. “I don’t even want the temptation of putting him in a game. So we’re going to redshirt him, get him up to speed and get him going in January.”
Which suits Mabany just fine.
“(Football) is still new to me, and I’m working hard to try to get comfortable,” Mabany said. “Coach Mac (McDaniel) is a really good coach, and I feel like I’m a pretty fast learner. I just want to learn the plays, work on my technique, go to school, lift and get bigger. I feel like I can take off next year.”
If Mabany can go as far during the next stage of his life as he has come during the journey that he traveled to this point, he’s going to have a great college career.