Aamil Wagner was a high school freshman at a football camp when he had an epiphany.
Wagner was years away from becoming Notre Dame’s starting right tackle and helping the Fighting Irish reach the College Football Playoff championship game. He was an aspiring athlete who, along with the rest of the camp participants, was asked to think about someone in his life who had sacrificed for him.
A lightbulb flicked on. He told the story Saturday, when Notre Dame and Ohio State met with media before Monday night’s CFP title game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“I was like, ‘Wait a minute,’” Wagner told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “‘My mom gave up her lifelong dream of being a doctor so she could be there every single day with her kids.’”
Monday night under the MBS roof, Wagner, his teammates and their Buckeye opponents will fulfill a dream. So, too, will those who helped them get there, as no one reaches this point alone.
“The fact that you’ve got people behind you that love you, give you a belief in yourself, and then that belief in yourself, I think, drives you to a place like Notre Dame,” Fighting Irish offensive line coach Joe Rudolph told the AJC. “And then the reason for why you believe in yourself becomes those people that helped you on the journey. I think it’s a cool cycle.”
Asked by the AJC, a number of Notre Dame and Ohio State players were eager to reveal the identities of their inspirations in college football’s ultimate game.
Mom and/or Dad got most of the votes. Jesus received some, too. Buckeyes backup wide receiver Bryson Rodgers hailed his mother Amanda Dorchock for the rides to practice, keeping him fed and providing “any little thing I can ask for.” A breast cancer survivor, Dorchock has fueled his ambition.
“My mom probably will always be my favorite motivation on and off the field,” Rodgers said.
Ohio State defensive tackle Ty Hamilton bragged on his older brother DaVon, now a defensive lineman with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“He kind of shaped me how to be a man,” Hamilton said.
However, no one may exemplify the sacrifice and support that have lifted every participant in the final game of the 2024 season more than Wagner’s doctor mother, Teresa Bondurant.
Wagner would certainly think so.
“I always argue I have the best mom in the world,” he said. “I will die on that hill.”
Wagner is the youngest of Bondurant and her husband Lee Wagner’s four children. He is from Yellow Springs, Ohio, a small town in the southwestern part of the state.
According to Wagner, his mother made the choice to give up practicing medicine to be a stay-at-home mom somewhere around the time he was born. It is not a choice that every mother (or father) has the means to make, but also not the one that every parent, if given the choice, would make. That’s what clicked with Wagner at the camp.
“To give up something you worked so hard for years and years and years to take care of your children, it’s one of the awesomest sacrifices,” he said. “Whatever I do, I can’t thank her enough.”
Wagner’s three older siblings also played sports. He remembered his mother being at every game and always picking them up from practice.
That commitment helped all four children — Aamil has two older brothers, Ameer and Ahmad, and an older sister, Amani — compete in college athletics. Ameer played football at Texas Southern, Ahmad played basketball at Iowa and then football at Kentucky and Amani competed in track and field at Kentucky State.
Besides pursuing a variety of sports, Wagner took part in three musicals and also played the trombone for five years.
“My mom made sure we did everything,” he said.
Bondurant eventually returned to work at a senior center in Yellow Springs.
“It just shows how much she cares about other people and helping others,” her admiring son said.
Wagner talks on the phone with his mom at least a couple times a week and unashamedly calls her one of his two best friends (Amani, his sibling nearest in age, is the other).
“You just get that feeling from when they’re around each other and you see them, they really do appreciate each other,” said Rudolph, the Notre Dame offensive line coach, of Wagner’s family. “And I think that’s what he brings into the O-line room. He’s got great appreciation for the guys in that room, who’s around him and who he gets to do it with.”
Incidentally, Rudolph has stories about his own parents’ impact on his life. Rudolph was born with clubfoot, a condition in which the Achilles tendon is too short, causing the foot to be turned in and under. Casts and braces are part of the treatment, but that was not enough for Rudolph’s mother, Sistine. Among his earliest memories is her having him constantly hop on his right leg to strengthen it.
“What it taught me was, you can always solve your problems,” said Rudolph, who overcame his condition to reach the NFL. “Like, a problem wasn’t something you look at and go, ‘Oh, that’s that. I can’t do something.’”
Rudolph recalled his father, Alex, caring more that his son be a good teammate and play hard than a productive player.
“I always thought those two things stayed with me, and it’s what I try to pass on to the kids that I get to coach,” Rudolph said.
Wagner’s family members are expected to attend Monday night’s game. They will be part of his motivation, his mother in particular, to repay the investment made in him.
“I just love them so much,” he said. “Whatever I can do out there, I want to do it for them.”
For dozens of young men and those who have supported them, the coolest of cycles will be on display.
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