Ace Carter's City Player of the Week

The streets of Philadelphia are harsh, largely unyielding, and have consumed so many of our young people that it's frightening.

Tuesday afternoon at Overbrook, however, I interviewed a rose bold enough to bust through the concrete.

A city record-setting performance last week earned senior wide receiver Moriba Perry my latest City Player of the Week award  (Catholic, Public and Inter-Ac Leagues), but a life spent molded by his mother, Eva Roberts, seems to have prepared him for much more.

I met Perry, whose birthday was Monday, inside the school, across from the noticeably empty football field at 59th and Lancaster Avenue.

About an hour before I arrived, coach Rendell Ivory explained via text that the team only would watch film.

When I arrived, he explained that the threat of neighborhood violence, stemming from a recent fight outside the school, caused a change in practice plans.

So I sat in a classroom with Perry, who set a single-game record for receiving yards and tied a city record for receiving touchdowns in the Panthers' 54-42 loss to Southern. His 284 yards on eight catches broke the mark held by current NFL player and former Roman Catholic star Will Fuller, who had 276 yards in 2011, according to TedSilary.com.

That's great company, considering Perry said his foot was run over by a car when he was in the fifth grade, an injury doctors thought might stop him from playing football ever again.

Gratz's Stanley Baylis set the Pub receiving-yardage record with 224 yards in 2009.

Perry's four touchdown catches also tied several players through the years across the Public, Catholic and Inter-Ac Leagues.

Records are great, but more impressive were Perry's humility and his  perspective on hard work and resilience and his mother's love.

The 5-foot-9, 160-pounder couldn't say enough about his teammates. He bragged about the Panthers' young offensive line and how it "opened the door" so they could all go through it.

Perry, who went to Motivation and played for Bartram as a freshman and sophomore, transferred to Overbrook (1-7, 1-6) and earned a starting spot at defensive back as a junior.

In August, a four-day team football camp in Green Lane, he said, helped bring the team together. Through the 5 a.m. wakeup calls and running up a steep, dew-slicked hill, Perry kept his mind focused on the future.

"Think about all the good stuff that'll come out of it," he said. "You think about where it's gonna take you in life. When you get up that hill, you feel like you achieved a goal. A lot of people don't get this chance, so you want to treasure every moment of it. Even if it's hard, you want to treasure every moment of that."

That perspective, he said, was taught by Roberts, his mother.

"Even without a father," he said, "my mom was there, teaching me this, that and the third — everything I needed to know."

Later, he added: "If I wanted to give up, she was there to tell me 'there's no giving up.' When I was told I'd never play football again, she said, 'No giving up.' She put everything together for me. If it wasn't for her, I don't think any of this would have been possible."

For Perry, on-field success is likely just the beginning.

College coaches have yet to make inquiries, but he hopes to study architectural design and business in college. He also loves reading and writing. His favorite book is The Outsiders.

And amid the pitfalls the city presents — into which so many generations have plunged — Perry has left a blueprint for his 13-year-old brother, Dominick Roberts, who is also a football player.

"There's a lot of things that come with being a young black male," Perry said, "so you have to learn how to carry yourself, and show that you're not what everybody expects you to be.

"My little brother," he said, smiling, "I can't wait until he plays high school football. He's gonna be a major problem. Maybe he can break my record."