Resilient and persistent, former Anchorage multi-sport star Leroy Elliott is still chasing his dream

Leroy Elliott Jr. is no stranger to the path less traveled.

Since graduating from West High eight years ago, Elliott’s journey has taken him to four different colleges and he’s overcome the kind of adversity that might be crushing to others.

One of the most decorated athletes to come out of Alaska in the last decade, Elliott’s ultimate goal is to make it to the NFL. Although the odds of him making it to the league at 26 years old are slim, he’s overcome plenty of obstacles to become an All-America track athlete.

“I don’t have that mindset that football is not for me,” Elliott said. “I feel like if anything, it’s the opposite. I feel like I’m built for it. That’s my goal and my main dream.”

His collegiate athletic career has come in fits and starts, but he believes it has strengthened his resolve and bolstered his belief in himself.

“Throughout this whole journey, it was kind of tough because I was not too sure where I was going to end up. But looking back, I feel like it was a low-key blessing in disguise,” Elliott said.

Elliott just completed his senior year at Colorado’s Adams State University, where he was a member of the track and field team.

He finished third in the 60-meter hurdles at the 2022 NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships and qualified for the outdoor national championship as well.

In the fall, he plans to join the Adams State football program for the first time since 2020, when he was on the roster before the season was canceled due to COVID-19.

Flashing his talent

As a senior at West, Elliott led the Eagles to a Division I Alaska state football championship in the fall of 2013 and was named Gatorade Player of the Year. In 2014, he won a state title in wrestling and multiple state titles in track.

He had offers from DII and DIII colleges to play wide receiver, but decided to go to Butte Community College in California. His first season was a grayshirt year, the junior college equivalent of a redshirt. But Elliott decided to transfer after one year because the offense didn’t feature the passing game as much as he’d hoped.

But during his one season there, Chabot College — also in California — caught his eye. When Butte played Chabot, Elliott was impressed with their high-volume passing game and eye-catching uniforms.

He ran his first year of junior college track at Chabot in 2015-2016 and earned All-America honors but didn’t play football that year because he got injured during a scrimmage game and had to medical redshirt that year.

In the fall of 2016, he played his first season of football since his time at West High.

“I didn’t start until halfway through the season and I got five touchdowns and between 200 to 300 yards,” Elliott said.

After the season ended, he transferred to another junior college, City College in San Francisco, because of changes on the Chabot coaching staff. There, he put up similar numbers to his previous season at Chabot.

“The coaches saw that I had talent, but at the time, I guess they weren’t really too sure I understood the plays because I was a transfer. So they didn’t have a lot of faith in me until halfway through the season,” Elliott said.

By then, Elliott said, he was getting scouted by some Division I schools for football but his grades weren’t up to standard.

Adversity strikes

Elliott said that the main reason that his academics suffered was because he spent most of his time trying to figure out where he and his brother, Chardo, who joined him at City College, were going to live.

“Right when we came back from winter break, our roommates didn’t pay rent and we all got evicted and went our separate ways because we were all going to different schools,” Elliott said.

He said from February to September 2018, he and his brother were homeless.

“There was a lot of times when we just slept in the car,” Elliott said. “I was in survival mode.”

He said that finding affordable housing in San Francisco was nearly impossible.

“For the first few months of that year, we were pretty much homeless,” Elliott said. “I had to stay another semester to get my grades right and even had to take summer classes because I failed all my classes.”

He viewed that time as a test of his resolve to see if he was serious about pursuing his dreams.

“I don’t want to let my family down,” Elliott said. “I don’t want to let the people that believe in me down and I don’t want to let myself down.”

Homelessness put a temporary hold on his athletic career.

He had to make up more classes in the fall of 2018 and didn’t compete. He also did not play in 2019 either because he had no offers from any schools.

Despite being in a more solid place now, he said he still struggles with food insecurity and resorts to intermittent fasting.

New beginnings

In spring 2020, an old friend and former high school foe from Palmer High — Ben Aumavae — reached out. He was at Adams State (a Division II program) and told Elliott the program wanted him to walk on for football but weren’t going to offer him a scholarship right away.

Elliott wasn’t able to play in the fall of 2020 because COVID-19 caused the cancellation of the season, and in 2021, he just focused on training for track.

He said he feels like he is in the right place coming off earning his third All-America in track and making it to nationals.

“Everything from this point on is going to be up to God’s hand,” Elliott said. “I still have faith in my abilities but I know that without him, I’m not anything really.”

He could potentially have two more years of eligibility left if he gets his medical redshirt season back, but even if he doesn’t, Elliott is determined to make the most of this fall.

“Since I’m already 26, I want to play one more season of (college) football and see how that goes,” Elliott said. “After that, I want to declare for the draft.”

Pro football prospect

He also said that he would explore playing in any of the supplemental leagues such as the U.S. Football League, Canadian Football League or the XFL when it relaunches in February if a direct avenue to the NFL isn’t available.

“As long as I set my mind to it and keep focused, cut out the bad habits, make sure I stay disciplined, motivated and consistent all the time, I know I can make it far,” Elliott said.

Elliott believes that his measurables and athletic testing numbers are comparable to the wide receivers already in the league.

Track can provide dual-sport athletes, or those who never got a fair shot in football by shining in another sport, the opportunity to find their way into the NFL.

U.S. track star and two-time Olympic hurdler Devin Allen signed a three-year contract in April with Philadelphia Eagles at 27 years old after testing off the charts at the Oregon Pro Day. He hasn’t played football since 2016 but just recorded the third fastest time in the 110-meter hurdles in history.

Another recent example of an older-than-usual wide receiver making it to the league is former Tennessee Volunteer Velus Jones Jr., who was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft at 25 years old.

Focus on the student

Elliott said he never had anyone tell or advise him to give up on his athletic pursuits, but some of his coaches in recent years have had candid conversations with him about the importance of education and preparing for life after sports.

Elliott believes that everything that he has endured up to this point in his journey has made him more motivated than the average athlete.

“When a lion is starving is when it’s at its most dangerous,” Elliott said.

He said that his grades are up now and that he even made the honor roll this past semester with a 3.3 GPA.

“I really stepped up my game in that sense,” Elliott said. “I know when I was homeless, my grades fell but now they’re at the highest they’ve ever been.”

Life aspirations after sports

Elliott graduated in the spring with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and a minor in business. He is considering taking classes to add a minor in psychology.

His field of study has helped him better understand his own body and how it works and adapts.

“Kinesiology has definitely helped me as far as being a better athlete because now I know how to recover right, how to train right, what to do and what not to do,” Elliott said.

Even if he doesn’t make it to the NFL, Elliott still intends to be involved with sports after his playing days are behind him.

He likes the impact that his coaches have had on him throughout the years and will likely pursue a career in strength and conditioning coaching if his athletic career doesn’t advance any further.

“I know the impact they had on me, and I want to have that same impact on someone else,” Elliott said.