For Derek Santos – who graduates this year from DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland – April 14 is a date he says he will never forget.
“It was a huge day and a huge moment of relief,” Santos said of the day he learned that he has been accepted to the Naval Academy Prep School (NAPS).
Located in Newport, Rhode Island, NAPS is a prep school for those entering the Naval Academy.
After waiting for months to learn whether he had been appointed to Naval Academy, Santos was at school “when I noticed my mom was blowing up my phone texting me.”
Santos said he missed the texts because he had his phone turned off. “I have just come out of an exam – which I passed by the way – when I saw all the texts from my mom. At first I thought I was in trouble and I did something wrong.”
That dread turned to celebration when he learned his mom, Cintia Santos, was not mad at him, but had good news to share. Cinta and Derek live in Rockville, Maryland and are parishioners of St. Mary’s Catholic Church there.
Santos said he comes from “a really big extended Catholic family” in Mexico. He added that his own faith is bolstered by the example of his mother.
“My mom is a prayerful woman, and I also pray so much” Santos said, added that his mom also heads the school’s “Moms in Prayer” group which gathers weekly to pray for the students, faculty and staff of DeMatha Catholic High School.
The Catholic faith was instilled early in Derek when he and his mother resided at St. Ann's Infant and Maternity Home – now known as the St. Ann's Center for Children, Youth and Families – in Hyattsville, Maryland.
“I am proud my mom was there, because that is where God came to be the center of our lives,” Santos said. “I grew up surrounded by so much love. I was protected there and my mom was protected there.”
Run by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent De Paul, the center provides housing, support and other assistance to young mothers and pregnant women.
Santos and Cintia, who at the time was a young teen mother, were residents there from 2008 to 2013, from the time he was a baby until he was about 5 years old.
Because of their time there, Santos said, “my mom and I have always put God first – and there is no bad direction when He is the one leading.”
Santos believes that God led him to DeMatha High School where “I’ve developed lifelong friendships here.”
“I’ve grown so much in my faith here, and they (teachers and staff) have inspired me to put my best foot forward,” he said.
Santos graduates this year with a better than 4.0 grade point average. In addition to football, he participated in student government at DeMatha and ran track for the Firebirds, a Gaithersburg, Maryland-based track and field club for boys and girls.
After completing the NAPS program, Santos said at the Naval Academy he plans to pursue a double major in political science and foreign studies.
“My emphasis will be on the Middle East and North Africa, and I want to learn (to speak) Arabic,” he said. “Eventually I would like a career in intelligence.”
His connection to the Naval Academy was also seen last football season when as a defensive back for the Stags, he wore jersey #10 in memory of the late Brendan Looney, who graduated from DeMatha in 1999 and from the Naval Academy in 2004.
Navy Lt. (SEAL) Brendan Looney and eight others were killed Sept. 21, 2010 when the Blackhawk helicopter in which they were flying crashed in southern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border.
“I know all about Brendan,” Santos said. “I love his story. I like the person he was, his motto of being accountable, and how he was like a big brother to so many people.”
“Learning about service and the military really drew me,” he said. “And after you graduate from the service academy, you get a job that is good, honest work.”
