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Determination, drive earn Bates scholarship

By Jeff Miller
Special to ESPNRISE.com

Friday, July 24, 2009

The first Wednesday of February is Christmas on the football recruiting calendar. The gift is a college football scholarship, the occasion routinely shared with parents. It caps a senior season that will be remembered for a lifetime. Little was routine when Brandon Bates -- a 6-foot-3, 235-pound defensive end -- walked into the library at A.C. Flora (Columbia, S.C.) to sign last February. No senior season. No parents, at least none whom he remembers. But maybe no senior across the country tre ...

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