East Bay roots sprout a Texas Longhorn by way of Hollywood, selfless service and combat

By Jeff Faraudo
Bay Area News Group

Nate Boyer has made a lifetime's worth of surprising choices in the decade since he left Valley Christian High in Dublin: aspiring actor, working with autistic children in Los Angeles and refugees in Darfur, joining the Green Berets.

But none, perhaps, is more stunning than this one.

When Cal plays Texas in the Holiday Bowl on Wednesday, Boyer will be on the sidelines for the Longhorns -- a 30-year-old walk-on defensive back who never had played football before making the team.

Boyer probably won't play, but his mere presence -- and his personal story -- have inspired his teammates all season.

"Everybody knows Mr. Boyer," said Joe Bergeron, a 19-year-old freshman running back.

"He's got unique life experiences," said defensive backs coach Duane Akina. "When he can convey what it's like to be deployed and we're in (training camp) two-a-days, it shows there's no reason for us to be feeling sorry for ourselves."

Boyer, who grew up in Pleasanton picked Texas after he left the Green Berets. He went there largely because his GI Bill benefits covered his school costs.

Upon arriving in Austin, Boyer decided to try out for the football team even though, at 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds, "I was not a physical specimen."

Boyer never told the Texas coaching staff that he hadn't played football before. But he didn't fool Akina, the Longhorns' assistant head coach in addition to coaching the defensive backs. Akina

spotted Boyer as a newbie "the first time I saw him running around" he said, chuckling.

It didn't matter. Boyer outworked other candidates at a tryout last year, and made the cut.

"They threw me into the fire with a bunch of guys," Boyer said. "It's like trying out for the Special Forces. So much of it is mental toughness."

Although Boyer mostly stands on the sidelines during games -- his only appearance was on special teams -- Texas coach Mack Brown calls the reserve safety a valued member of the squad.

"He's a great young man," Brown said. "His character and determination are things we can all look up to. As he told (our players), you can't have a bad day when you're in the military."

Boyer didn't intend to become a role model. After graduating from Valley Christian, he flirted briefly with junior college, then followed his acting aspirations to Hollywood.

To make ends meet, he took a baby-sitting job that involved caring for an autistic child, and that led to doing therapy with autistic children in L.A.

"He's always had this thing about the injustice of the world, the unfairness," said his mother, Laura McDowell-Boyer.

After reading a magazine article about genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, Boyer told his parents in 2004 he wanted to fly to Africa to work in the refugee camps. They gulped and gave him their blessing.

"I'd never been to a place like that," said Boyer, who worked in camps on the Chad side of the border. "It was mostly children and women. All their husbands were off fighting or had been killed."

The experience in Africa, coupled with the memory of the 9/11 attacks on New York, convinced Boyer to enlist in the Army. This was a tougher endeavor for his parents to embrace. Boyer's father, Steve, is a racehorse veterinarian and his mom is an environmental engineer. Both have Ph.D.s and expected their son would attend college.

Instead, he told them he planned to try out for the Special Forces unit after basic training.

Africa prepared Boyer for some of what greeted him in Iraq, but not all. In his first week, a bomb killed a fellow soldier.

"You're thinking, 'OK, this is real,'" he said.

He spent part of his time in Iraq training local military forces in the An Najaf province, earning him the Bronze Star.

By 2009, Boyer's active enlistment was up and he transitioned to the National Guard reserves. He also began looking at colleges.

Boyer is studying kinesiology at Texas and hopes to pursue an MBA. But spending time with his teammates is the best part of his day, he said.

Blake Gideon, a four-year starter for the Longhorns and Boyer's roommate, has worked with him from the start, helping him with football techniques that he knew nothing about.

"His military experience has shown in his willingness to learn and get better every day," Gideon said. "It didn't matter that he didn't play before. He's making up for that."

Boyer has three more years of football eligibility and is working to become a long-snapper for field goals and punts; it's another way to get on the field.

While an appearance in the Holiday Bowl is a long shot, Boyer had a day to remember Nov. 5 during a game against Texas Tech.

With is parents in the stands and the Longhorns were well on their way to a 55-20 victory, Boyer was sent in to help on kickoff coverage -- his first play in a college-football game.

Earlier in the game, Boyer was watching from the sidelines as Bergeron scored one of his three touchdowns.

"Everybody's cheering for him," Boyer recalled, "and he came right up to me, all pumped up. He looked me right in the eye and said, 'That one's for you.'"

Said Bergeron: "It was basically saying, 'Thank you,' and that I'm playing for him."

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