Joseph Wilkins Jr. carries the name of a man he never met.
Before he was born, and before his mother’s pregnancy with him had even been discovered, Wilkins Jr’s opportunity to know and love his father was violently taken from him when Wilkins Sr. was killed after a close friend repeatedly shot him in the head in the parking lot of Chinese restaurant in Tampa, Fla. on June 8, 1999.
Wilkins Jr. was born seven months later, named to honor his slain father, who was viciously murdered at the age of 21 by a man his unborn child would later describe as his father’s “best friend.”
According to the St. Petersburg Times, the murder was carried out because of a “continuing dispute” between Wilkins and his killer, Daniel Harris, who is currently serving a life sentence without possibility of parole.
On Jan. 22, 2018, Wilkins Jr. turned 18, just three years younger than his father was at the time of his murder.
At the age that most see as the transition to adulthood, Wilkins Jr. reflected on his childhood and the times not having a father in his life burdened him the most.
“I never built a relationship with him, and I never met him,” Wilkins Jr. said. “When I was in middle school, I would go over to friends’ houses and see them with their fathers, and even now, I’ll go to my friend’s house and him and his dad are going fishing on Sunday, or him and his father have a ritual that they do. It’s just little things like that. Now that I’m older, I can see where I missed out on having a dad.”
A tragedy like the one that struck Wilkins Jr’s family would take a considerable toll on anyone, especially someone who was met with that reality the moment they opened their eyes and took their first living breath.
Wilkins Jr. never got to play catch with his dad in their backyard, never got to get coached by his dad in pee-wee football, or even look him in the eye, give him a hug or shake his hand.
“He didn’t even know he was going to have me, and my mom didn’t know either,” Wilkins said. “He died, and three months later my mom started getting signs that she was pregnant. He didn’t even know he was going to have a kid.”
With the father of her future child dead, Wilkins Jr’s mother, Kristina Woodley, was alone and pregnant.
From the moment Wilkins Jr. was born, his mother made it clear that the tragedy that befell his father would not define their lives.
“I looked up to my mother,” Wilkins Jr. said. “She plays both rolls and she does it well. She can be stern as a father should be, but she can also be sweet, kind and loving like a mother can be.”
Woodley was entirely responsible for Wilkins Jr’s life and wellbeing, and the Notre Dame signee said he watched his mother work almost non-stop to keep things afloat.
“I was raised by my mother my entire life, and we struggled,” Wilkins Jr said. “We weren’t dirt poor, but we weren’t wealthy or rich by any means. I watched her struggle with bills to pay, food and everything.”
While his mother worked tirelessly to keep the lights turned on have food on the table, Wilkins Jr. did the same on the football field and in the weight room.
If the thought of taking a play off or skipping a rep ever creeped into his mind, Wilkins Jr, though of his mother, and what she’d been through to give him a good life.
“I watched her struggle,” Wilkins Jr. said. “Seeing that, it made me grind harder to make sure that she never has to struggle ever again.”
The first box to check on that list was making sure the financial burden of a college education was taken off his mother’s shoulders, and Wilkins Jr made that official when he signed his National Letter of Intent with Notre Dame on Dec. 20.
“It’s really exciting and really relieving,” Wilkins Jr. said of his scholarship to Notre Dame. “I put a lot of time, countless hours during and after practice, for my entire life, and for that to all finally pay off, it means a lot.”
Wilkins Jr. has certainly earned that scholarship with his efforts on the field and in the classroom, but he’s quick to heap credit on his mother for turning him into the man he is.
“I don’t think anybody could do what she’s done,” Wilkins Jr. said. “She’s raised three kids (Woodley later gave birth to two twin girls), and we’re all in advanced classes or AP classes and all have a GPA over 3.5.”
In fact, Wilkins Jr. has a 4.0 GPA and will graduate from North Fort Myers high school summa cum laude then head off to Notre Dame.
Wilkins’s accomplishments have been plenty. There are trophies and ribbons, athletic and academic, lining his shelves for the world to see.
Because of an act of senseless violence brought about by a quibble between friends, Joe Wilkins Sr. never got to see his son achieve these things, and Joe Wilkins Jr. never got to rush home from school or football practice and recount the day to his father.
But amidst tragedy in the infancy of her life as a mother, Kristina Woodley gave birth to boy who became one the best football players in the country, and raised him up the best way she knew how.
Although he’s tried a million different times, Wilkins Jr. said there’s no way he could ever put into words what his mother has meant to him these last 18 years.
“She’s literally done everything she can to raise a young man and a family by herself,” Wilkins Jr. said. “It’s hard to express it. I’m so, so thankful for her.”
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