Haley Toetz

When Malachi Coleman was five years old, his mother left him and his two year old sister at a stranger's house. She said she would be back. He plays wide receiver for Wisconsin now, and he has never seen her again. His father had already died. So at five, Malachi became the person responsible for keeping his sister Nevaeh alive. They went into foster care in Nebraska. They lived in three different homes. He was abused in the system. Then a couple named Craig and Miranda Coleman heard something at church and decided to become foster parents. They planned to take one child at a time. At the end of their licensing class, the agency asked whether they would consider two siblings who were about to be separated from each other. They thought about it for a couple of weeks and said yes. The kids started coming on weekends in October 2014. They moved in that January. On November 20, 2015, Craig and Miranda adopted both of them. Here is what Craig said about the boy who showed up. "He was a broken kid." Miranda said he lived for today and only today. Malachi says he was mean and selfish and would not do one kind thing for anybody. So one day Miranda argued with him about it for an hour. And at the end of it she did not ask him to become a good person. She asked him to hold a door open for one person. One door. One stranger. That was all. He has not stopped since. He holds doors for everybody now, and he will tell you that kindness is the thing he cares about most. When Nebraska started letting high school athletes earn money off their names, Malachi Coleman put his into a burrito at a local restaurant and sent a cut of it to the foster care system. He runs a foundation now that works to get kids out of foster care and into permanent homes. The football is almost the small part. He was a top 60 recruit out of Lincoln East and he stayed home and signed with the Nebraska Cornhuskers. It did not work. Eight catches as a freshman, then shoulder surgery, then nothing. He transferred to Minnesota and barely played there either. Three seasons. Thirteen catches. This year Wisconsin took him, because a coach who had him at Minnesota vouched for him. In his first game he caught four passes for 76 yards and a touchdown against Notre Dame, which was more than he gained in all of last season. Last weekend he caught a 46 yard touchdown against Michigan State. He says he faked his confidence until it became real. He got that line from his mother. A woman once sat and argued with a furious, broken kid for an hour, and then asked him to hold one door open for one stranger. Here is what he says now. "I see myself as wanted."