TAMPA,FLA --

Jeremiah Ashe is at home on a football field.

For Jeremiah, home isn’t always where the heart is. It’s football, the one constant love in his life.

“My focus is get better and strive for greatness,” Ashe said.

That focus stems from a traumatic childhood.  Jeremiah was just 12 years old when his mom died of a heart attack on Christmas Eve in Key West. His grandmother came to live with him, but she died two years later.

“I was just hurt for a long time,” Ashe said. “Had it on my back for the longest, but then I realized I had to grow up and do what’s best for me.”

 Jeremiah sees his mom when he looks in the mirror.

 “I got her nose and her teeth,” he said.

There’s something else Jeremiah inherited from his mom, speed.

“My mom, she used to run track,” he said.

It’s that speed that sets him apart from most on the football field. That and his versatility.

“What doesn’t he do well,” Freedom head coach Henry Scurry said. “He’s probably, if we lined him up at each position, he’d be the best player. Just dominate wherever he goes and he’s a special talent.”

Jeremiah making a big catch

A special player who brings more to the team than his innate skill set.

“He’s our leader and in times of roughness, he’ll say “Coach, let me do something to help the team out” and that’s what we’re looking for,” Scurry said. “I mean leadership on and off the field.”

Jeremiah ended up in Tampa when his aunt wanted to give him a stable living environment. And Freedom gave him a stable football environment, a place to help him secure a future.

“It helped me get scholarships, helped me stay focused in school, stay out of trouble, doing the right thing, basically, help me do the right thing,” he said.

Football’s a way out for Jeremiah, but for someone who had to grow up quickly at such a young age, football allows him to just be a kid.

“I just know I just like this sport and I play it,” Ashe said. “(I get to) be myself on the field.”