Garrett Paul is living a dream.
That the Rockville football team's senior defensive back/wide receiver will play for a state championship Saturday at 1:45 p.m. when the second-seeded Rams take on No. 1 Daniel Hand in the CIAC Class M final at Arute Field on the campus of Central Connecticut State is only a part. That he's able to do it in America after spending his early years in worn-torn Myanmar is why his dreams can come true.
"I was 9 when I moved to America," Paul said. "I moved here looking for a dream. I would watch TV and see things like New York City and what went on in America and dreamt about coming here. America is the dream and football became a part of it. Football is what made me what I am today.
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"To play for a state championship means a lot. I moved to the United States from a third-world country and started playing football. This is what I've been waiting for my whole life. Rockville and Rockville football mean so much to me. They took me in like I was one of their own. This is where I want to be and I'm what I want to be right now."
Paul was born in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). His father was in the United States military and his mother from Myanmar. According to Wikipedia, the country is located in Southeast Asia and is bordered on the north and northeast by China, on the east and southeast by Laos and Thailand, on the south by the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal and on the west by Bangladesh and India.
Eight years ago, he moved with his father to North Carolina and then settled in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He came to Vernon in 2022 and lives with his Aunt Philesha Johnson.
"I'm a military brat," Paul said. "Life in Myanmar ... There was civil war and mass genocide, just anything bad you could think of. So my dad came to pick me up. My mother and the rest of my family are still in Myanmar going through all that.
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"We moved to North Carolina and to South Carolina and I was living with my dad in South Carolina and there were just family issues. My aunt is just a wonderful person and she brought me in when I needed someone and has treated me like one of her own.
"I felt like Rockville was a good place for me. I visited three years ago and met a couple of players -- Lexington Hunter and Demeir Thomas -- and I never expected that I would ever be playing football with them."
But once he arrived in Vernon, it was something he wanted. Paul, who started playing pee-wee football while in North Carolina, made his way to a Rockville High practice.
He's been a part of the Rams since. He's been joined this season by his cousin, Phillip Odom.
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"Garrett literally showed up on the sideline last year," Rockville coach Erick Knickerbocker said. "It was like the third week of training camp and he's got his South Carolina accent and I asked who he was and he told me and said he wanted to play football. There are always kids that come out like that and a lot of them never materialize.
"Once he got acclimated, and that came quickly, he lined himself up against Joey Christian. Joey was one of our best receivers and every day in practice Garrett challenged him. Joey got the best of him early in the season. Garrett had played a little bit but because he had moved around a lot didn't have a lot of structure playing organized football. Once he made himself competitive, he made every drill fun."
Paul, whose idol is former New York Jets defensive back and 2023 NFL Hall of Fame inductee Darrelle Revis, earned his spot at Rockville and helped the Rams go 9-3 and advance to the Class M semifinals a year ago.
Sports helped him assimilate to his new school.
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"Football helped me with so many things," Paul said. "It's helped me stay focused, stay on task, emerge into the community because that's how I've met all of my friends. It came naturally."
Last winter he joined Rockville's wrestling team and finished second to Suffield/Windsor Locks' Naser Saleh in the 145-pound division of the NCCC championships. In the spring he joined the track team and earned all-conference honors and finished fifth in the 110-meter hurdles in the Class MM state meet.
By the time football came around again he was ready to take his game to a higher level.
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"That jump started in the spring when he joined the track team," Knickerbocker said. "He got into hurdling. He started getting more confidence and he was training with Amir Knighton, training with Lexington Hunter, training with Cam Washington, our top athletes in track. That was huge thing for him.
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"Over the summer he went to the 7x7 camps with us and became a leader. We went to a UConn camp and went up against some of the best players in the state and got destroyed, but Garrett competed and he was the only one who could cover them. And he let them know all about it. He gained so much confidence."
He took that confidence into the season and was named to the Pequot Uncas all-conference team. In the first quarter of a win over the CREC co-op he caught a touchdown pass and soon followed with a pick-six. He blocked a punt in a win over Cromwell/Portland, Rockville's best of the regular season.
But his best and most significant play of the year came in the Class M quarterfinals against Berlin on Nov. 28. The Redcoats came from 14 points down to pull within one with 2:40 left with only an extra point left to tie it. But Paul, Hunter, and Knighton broke through to get a piece of the kick and Rockville ran out the clock for a 14-13 win.
He's also persevered as his Aunt Philesha's aunt, Carol, passed away on Nov. 6. In what Paul calls a meaningful moment to him, he was honored by the Pequot Conference with the Ted Netcoh Award, named after the late Windsor Locks High assistant football coach.
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"Garrett's seen a lot for a 17-year-old and has experienced a lot in life," Knickerbocker said. "These last two years have been some of the most stable times for him. Football has been a part of it and his aunt has been a rock for him. It's a cool story about how he's been able to make an impact on our team but also an impact on our school's culture as well.
"Football has given him a family that, at times in his life, he hasn't had. He's made a lot of friends. He knows he has people here that are there for him but he also knows he has to do right things for his family here. That gives him that structure he hasn't had all the time."
Paul, who earned a spot on Rockville's first-quarter honor roll to start the 2023-24 school year, hopes to college next year and would like to play football and run track. After Saturday's game, he plans to try out for the Rams' basketball team.
But first he and Rockville (11-1) will face a difficult challenge against 13-time state champion Daniel Hand (11-1). But Paul has never been one to back down from a challenge.
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"It's going to be very special playing, the biggest moment of my career," Paul said. "This is a chance to show how good we are and what Pequot football about. It's an opportunity you dream about."
And Paul is living the dream.
Dec 8, 2023
Carl Adamec joined the Hearst Connecticut Media Group in June 2023 when the company purchased the Journal Inquirer. A graduate of Putnam High in Connecticut and St. John's University in New York, he's been honored by the Connecticut Girls Soccer Coaches Association and Connecticut American Legion baseball program in his time at the JI and was inducted into the United States Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2023.