Originally Posted by
Jim Ganzer, "IWB"
Do you guys know Todd Townsend's back story? Pretty freaking incredible. Just a bit of a background...
When he was in high school, Townsend's family on the South side of Chicago pretty much split up. His brothers were older, his parents split up and he being the youngest, stayed with his mom. She had a chance at a new life but her future husband had four kids so not wanting to complicate things, she moved out and left Todd behind.
Todd was living alone in an apartment in high school. His mom would pay rent and stop by once a week with some groceries, but that was pretty much it. Many of the stories say he was basically living on syrup sandwiches because that is what he had. He started skipping school etc.
Through basketball he became friends with Matt Lottich (New coach at Valpo). He often stayed with Lottich and his dad until they got concerned that he never wanted to go home, so Townsend finally opened up and told them everything. He was a 16 year old kid, living alone on the Southside of Chicago.
The Lottich family found someone who might help in the Schwaba family and they eventually took him in and later adopted him.
When you hear guys described as, "He came from nothing", Todd Townsend literally did and is now one of the nicest guys you will meet.