The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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116 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2016 FOOTBALL PREVIEW The Long Journey Now he's ready to make the most of it. Stribling was one of the Wolverines' early, pleasant surprises in 2015. He made his first career start in the season opener at Utah and recorded five tackles, and then picked off a pass and returned it 30 yards against UNLV in week two. He broke up one pass and contributed four tackles in a win over BYU in week four be- fore his injury, but he wasn't quite the same player when he returned for the Michigan State game Oct. 24. That's been on his mind ever since, espe- cially realizing the opportunity he has and what it took to get here, including significant sacrifices by much of his family. The son of not one but two military par- ents, Stribling moved seven times during his youth. He was born in Colorado and moved to Alabama, and then lived in Germany for four years from ages 3-6. He returned to the U.S. and lived in South Carolina, and then went back to Alabama, before moving to Hawaii, back to Alabama and then to North Carolina. When his parents were deployed, he stayed with either his grandparents or an aunt and uncle, and there were times when he and his two brothers spent plenty of time apart. "Both my parents played semi-pro basket- ball over in Germany," Stribling said. "They both wanted to keep playing, but when they had me they had to put their plans on hold. The military was a way for them to get to play overseas, and they did that. My mom even had a chance to play in the WNBA. "The path they took, they did it for my brothers and me. They told us, 'We did this for you so you wouldn't have to do it.' They were forced to, but they were going to put us in a situation where we weren't." Others made sacrifices, too, Stribling said, expressing gratitude for those in his extended family who took him in. Not until years later did he realize what his parents really experienced. His mother's mild memory loss was a direct result of an explo- sion during which she hit her head. While his father was never in combat, he always had to watch his step wondering who he could trust while he was in the Middle East. "They both had stuff going on, but they didn't want to tell me until I got older," Stribling said appreciatively. He was fortunate, too, to have others out- side of his family looking out for him. When he arrived as a gangly, aspiring sophomore basketball player at Mathews (N.C.) Butler High School, he had one of his coaches take him aside. "I wanted to play basketball in college," Stribling recalled. "He told me, 'There are a lot of 6-2 guards out there, but there are not a lot of tall receivers.' I was a receiver then be- fore I was a corner, but he felt my future was in football. That made me focus on it more." He showed great ball skills early in his career and made a number of big plays on both sides of the ball his junior season, but he didn't get the recruiting attention he prob- ably deserved. He only went to Michigan's 2012 summer camp hoping to impress some Mid-American Conference coaches that had shown interest during the season. "I was just trying to get a Ball State offer," he recalled. "They came to my high school and wanted to see me at the camp. I didn't know anything about Michigan other than Charles Woodson and Desmond Howard. One of my favorite players was [former U-M cornerback] Ty Law, but I didn't even know he went to Michigan. That was the crazy thing. "If Ball State didn't offer, I was hop- ing another one of the small schools there would. Then Michigan ended up offering." Still Growing Stribling ended up committing, and the rest is … well, still unwritten. He's shown flashes in his first three years but has the Carolina Connection Michigan hasn't poached a ton of football talent from North Carolina over the years, but the ones they have certainly added to the prestige of the program. Senior Channing Stribling has yet to graduate, but he will with a degree in psychology, and he has big plans following a potential NFL career. He'll jump into a career as a therapist if he plays a few years in the league, he said. Otherwise he'll turn to sales and marketing first. The former Mathews (N.C.) Butler standout is the second from his school to make a name for himself at the University of Michigan, following former safety Jamar Adams (2004‑08). "We keep in contact," Stribling said. "He had a shrine at our high school with his Rose Bowl jersey, pictures form practice, his trophies from high school." Adams enjoyed a few seasons in the NFL before another former Wolverine, center Dave Pearson — now senior vice president of affordable development for The Related Group, which is owned by Michigan alum and booster Stephen A. Ross — brought him on board at the New York office. Adams has since been working his way up the company ladder. "He has been a great addition," Pearson praised recently. "He took the same path as me. He didn't really know much of what he wanted to do. I brought him in to meet Mr. Ross, and he just had 'it' — he knew how to work and learn. He was hungry. Mr. Ross gave him an opportunity, and he has just been phenomenal with it." Two‑time consensus All‑American wide receiver turned safety Tripp Welborne (1989‑90) came before both. A knee injury on a November 1990 punt return derailed the Greensboro, N.C., native's NFL career, but he's excelled in business and, more recently, education. Welborne served as the athletics director at Shorecrest Preparatory School in St. Petersburg, Fla., from 2008‑15 before moving on to the prestigious Lawrenceville School in New Jersey in July 2015. "I decided I want to continue to do this at the highest level possible," Welborne told The Wol - verine last year, noting he'd like to be a college athletics director someday. "[Michigan AD] Warde Manuel and I are very close still … it's one of those things where as those opportunities come available you have to consider them, because you would like to impact people at the highest level of athletics." — Chris Balas Jamar Adams came from Mathews (N.C.) Butler High — which is also Stribling's alma mater — and excelled as a safety at Michi‑ gan from 2004‑08 and then spent a couple of years in the NFL. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN "Besides my freshman year coming in, I felt that was the best spring I've had." STRIBLING ON HIS 2016 SPRING