Motivated by tragedies, Carolina Forest High grad strengthens CCU’s offensive line
Growing up, Antwine Loper’s loudest and most consistent voice of encouragement to excel on the football field was his older paternal half-brother, Micah Fisher.
He remains Loper’s greatest source of motivation, seven years after his murder.
Loper has been using the memory of his greatest loss to facilitate positive gains, and it has manifested on the gridiron this year for Coastal Carolina.
The Carolina Forest High graduate has earned the starting left tackle position as a redshirt junior to help stabilize an offensive line that has yet to allow a sack through the Chanticleers’ 2-0 start to the season.
“When he passed it was kind of like a motivator for me to keep my head in the game and to keep grinding so that some way I could eventually end up in the position I’m in now,” Loper said. “I think about him a lot, because I know right now he’d be proud of me and where I am, especially about to be a college graduate.
“I’m working this hard not only for him but my entire family. I know right now he’s smiling down on me, he’s proud of me, and that’s really my main motivator. That’s the main thing right there that drives me to keep getting better.”
Two tragedies
Fisher, who was a basketball player at the Community College of Philadelphia at the time of his death, was spending the night at a friend’s apartment in the Philadelphia area on Nov. 9, 2013, when Loper was a high school freshman.
The friend was involved in a dispute with a landlord, and following a confrontation at the apartment between the two, Fisher was shot and killed. Authorities said he was not involved in the argument.
“It definitely changed me a little bit because he was a guy who always kind of pushed me to be an athlete,” Loper said. “I was one of those kids where I wasn’t the most athletic and I wasn’t the strongest, and he just kept pushing me. He was like, ‘I know it’s tough now, I know you’re not the most athletic kid on the field, but you’ve just got to keep grinding.’
“He was an athletic person but he understood that it took a lot to get where he was and he just had hope for me and kind of kept me pushing forward. So when he passed it was really hard for me. I had the support from my family, but he was like my big brother.”
If Fisher was Loper’s biggest supporter, right behind him was his cousin, Razzaq McBride, who was more like a brother considering the time they spent together.
McBride was also an athlete headed to college when he was shot and killed by an acquaintance at the age of 18 in December 2012 in New Jersey, and he also inspired Loper with his fervor for playing and practicing.
“He saw the two of them so eager and motivated, and they encouraged him to do the same,” said Loper’s mother, Farrah Charles, a nurse at Tidelands Health and McLeod Cardiology. “I’m just glad he had those influences in his life, and they are still with him. They are watching over him. Especially how he has developed into the player he is now, I think they are watching over him and guiding him.”
Finding the Strand
Loper grew up in Galloway Township, N.J., but moved with his mother, stepfather Duane Comeaux, who is retired, and older brother Vaughn to Conway prior to his junior year in high school.
Charles said the family moved to escape rising property taxes and to go south, where she expected Loper to go to college. “I wasn’t ready to let go,” she said.
He chose CCU despite another scholarship offer from Charlotte and visits to other schools in the south, and moved into campus housing as a freshman with his family home less than a five-minute drive from the school.
“Even though most kids want to get away from home, I was only living in Myrtle Beach at the time for like three years, so it wasn’t like I was in this area for a very long time. I was still experiencing new things in Myrtle Beach and the Conway area,” Loper said.
“Having that family feeling at Coastal, then having my family not even five minutes away from campus, whenever I needed that support I had not only the coaches and staff, but if I was dealing with something I could go home and talk to my parents about it and talk to my brother about it.”
Loper wasn’t an immediate success on the field. He redshirted as a freshman, played sparingly in five games in 2018 and began his redshirt sophomore season last year as a backup.
“The biggest thing with Lope was he had some ability, you questioned how much did he love it, how much did he want to be great at it, and I think he turned it on. He has improved tremendously,” CCU head coach Jamey Chadwell said. “I would say he has exceeded my expectations where he’s at right now. He’s really taken ownership and become one of our most consistent players up there.”
Stepping up
Loper was pressed into a starting role at tackle last year when then junior Steven Bedosky was lost for the season due to an injury in the second game and senior tackle Ethan Howard also missed games with an injury.
After starting two games, Loper had emergency surgery to remove his appendix and missed multiple games before finishing out the season as the starting right tackle. He started a total of six games despite being unable to work out for a month after the appendicitis.
“He has really grown as a player and a person,” Bedosky said. “When he first got here, like a lot of college kids are, they don’t know what’s going on. They’re still young so they have fun and football sometimes falls to second place. But Antwine, especially after I got hurt last year, really stepped up to the role.
“He took it upon himself to lead a bunch of the tackles and help them out, because we were young last year, we had a bunch of freshmen backing up the starters. . . . He’s a good friend of mine, so I’m really excited to see what he grows into as a football player and a person.”
Loper, a biology major who has made multiple Dean’s Lists and intends to either attend medical school or pursue pharmacology when he leaves Coastal, gained confidence with his increased play last year.
“When you first start playing you’re a little nervous and conservative on how you do things, you’re overthinking stuff,” he said. “As you start playing more you start getting that confidence and you start knowing your strengths and knowing your weaknesses so you can focus on them for the next game.”
Loper made transformative gains this past off-season. He was named the team’s most improved lineman through spring practices.
He worked on mastering his assignments in the playbook, tried to incorporate the techniques and intensity of some of the team’s leaders including fellow offensive lineman Trey Carter and linebackers Silas Kelly and Teddy Gallagher, and has benefited from regularly going against First Team All-Sun Belt Conference defensive end Tarron Jackson in practice.
Loper has dropped 15 pounds off his 6-foot-3 frame to 275 through workouts and nutrition to become a leaner, faster and stronger athlete.
“I’ve seen a drastic change,” his mother said. “His features have changed, his body has changed, his whole demeanor has changed. There have been a whole lot of changes I’ve seen over the past year. Looking at him on that field now, he is really a different kid.”
CCU’s offensive line has yet to allow a sack and has allowed just two tackles for a loss this season. Conversely, CCU’s defense has 10 sacks and 20 tackles for loss combined in wins over Campbell and Kansas.
“We take a lot of pride in [no sacks]. We work really hard to make sure our quarterback doesn’t get hit so as a team we can progress as an offense,” Loper said. “We all work well together and we have a lot of great communication on the line.”
Because he remained close to home, Loper enjoys the emotional support from his immediate family to go along with the spiritual support he has retained from his close relatives lost as he continues his college football career.
“It’s a great honor being from this area and being able to play for Coastal Carolina because you feel really embraced by the community,” he said. “Being able to have my family support me, I love being at games and being able to look up and see my mom and stepfather right there, and my mom screaming my name from the sidelines.”
Saturday’s Game
What: Arkansas State (1-1) at Coastal Carolina (2-0)
When: Noon
Where: Brooks Stadium, Conway
TV: ESPN2
Radio: WRNN 99.5 FM
Online: www.goccusports.com
This story was originally published September 30, 2020 at 10:53 AM.
