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Wondy Pierre-Louis is Free to play for Florida Gators (American Football)

On the surface, Wondy Pierre-Louis is a laid-back, smiling 18-year-old, a talented athlete preparing to play his freshman football season at Florida.

To examine his experience, however, is to realize a life more complicated.

Months ago, Pierre-Louis did not know if he was coming back to America, much less Gainesville. The 6-foot, 176-pound cornerback from Lely High School in Naples needed to return to his native Haiti this past June to get approval for a student visa.

For two weeks, Pierre-Louis endured anxious moments in his war-torn country, wondering if he was going to a get a chance to play college football. After batches of paperwork, countless phone calls and assurances, Pierre-Louis obtained the visa, the ticket to his dream of one day reaching the NFL.

"Everybody was praying for me so I could come back here and go to school," Pierre-Louis said. "So everything happened right."

So much could have gone wrong.

Pierre-Louis knew about a cousin that tried to get a student visa and didn't make it. There were pages of forms to fill out and concerns that he would end up bringing family members with him.

At least once, Pierre-Louis had his application rejected. But he felt good about his chances when officials at the U.S. Embassy told him to come back the following Monday.

"They never tell people to come back," Pierre-Louis said. "They always say come back in six months. He told me to come back in three days."

Chuck Heater, the UF secondary coach who recruited Pierre-Louis, flew down to Haiti for a weekend in June to provide moral support.

"I knew the likelihood was it was going to take some time and I wanted to let them know that we were committed to him," Heater said.

Heater knew of the political unrest in the country but did not realize the magnitude of poverty and violence until he arrived in Port au Prince. Last year, 53 Americans were kidnapped in Haiti. The month before Heater's visit, 20 Americans were kidnapped within a mile of the airport.

"Ignorance is bliss," Heater said.

"But clearly this kid, the opportunity that people gave him, the U.S. embassy gave him an opportunity to have a future, that was worth it."

Pierre-Louis said he has seen people shot in the streets, describing it as "kind of normal." The 2004 civil war in the country resulted in the Pierre-Louis family clothing business being burned down.

With that in mind, Pierre-Louis' mother, Dessece, kept her son inside the house for most of the two weeks.

"You get outside you never know what's going to happen to you," Wondy said. "So my mom kept me in the house to just sleep, eat."

Looking for a better life for her sons is what led Dessece to move them four years ago.

She brought Wondy and older brother John to Naples on a trip four years ago when Wondy was 14. It was there, Wondy first learned of football through a friend, figuring it would be something fun to do after school.

In his first practice, he was laid out on a hit by teammate.

"I thought, this was crazy," Pierre-Louis said.

Gradually, Pierre-Louis improved. Playing football helped him learn English because he needed to learn the plays. Within a year, the Creole-speaking Pierre-Louis was close to speaking fluent English.

"It was a process for him," Lely coach Chris Metzger said. "He had to learn about the aggressive nature of the game. At that point, we didn't realize he would become the player he became, but he was always challenging the older guys in practice because that was the level he wanted to reach."

In his junior season, Pierre-Louis returned two interceptions for touchdowns, catching the attention of Division I coaches with a 37-inch vertical leap. Later that year, Pierre-Louis won the Class 4A state track title in the long jump (23 feet, 11 inches) and triple jump (48 inches).

Pierre-Louis credited some of his agility from days when he chased goats in his native country.

"It was something we did for fun," he said.

By his senior year, Pierre-Louis landed the football scholarship to Florida and passed all standardized test requirements to become academically eligible. The student-visa obstacle, however, remained. Mary Ellen Cash, a counselor from Lely, spent two weeks filling out 15 pages of immigration papers. Help also came from Lely assistant football coach Buddy Quarles, Heater and Kim Green, the director of compliance at Florida.

"I didn't know that many people were going to get involved," Pierre-Louis said. "I was shocked."

"God definitely had a plan for him," Metzger said. "Wondy has such a tremendous disposition and for him to overcome what he did leaving his country and for the number of people who reached out to him, it was remarkable. I know it sounds cliche, but it really could be a script for a movie."

Now that he's here, Pierre-Louis said he wants to make the most of his opportunity. Back problems slowed him last week in practice, but he says he's fully recovered. He also reports no ill effects from offseason knee surgery.

Mostly, though, Pierre-Louis is pleased to live in a country that offers countless freedoms.

"It feels good," Pierre-Louis said. "You can do what you want. You have freedom. You have security. No one is going to do anything to you if you don't do anything to them. I'm happy to be here."