Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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16 OCT. 14, 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY TYLER HORKA R ico Flores Jr. received the text in the early morning hours of a Saturday in February. "Did you hear what happened to Cruz?" He called the sender immediately. It was roughly 5 o'clock in the morning. "That's when they told me what hap- pened," Flores told Blue & Gold Illus- trated. "I was just lost. I was shook up after that. It still hurts." It's been 19 months since Flores lost his childhood best friend, his "god- brother," to gang violence. The death is still an open case, so Flores didn't expound upon how it happened. But it did, and the Notre Dame freshman wide receiver has been gutted ever since. Cruz, two years older than Flores, was there the day Flores was born. Their mothers were good friends. Their fa- thers? Flores couldn't accurately say. He's never truly known his. His mother, Erin Floria, raised him in a single-par- ent household. "He was in the streets, too," Flores said of his dad. "He was a dope boy. Turned out to be a drug addict." That's commonplace in Flores' home- town of North Highlands, Calif., just outside of Sacramento. Flores saw from an early age what dragged Cruz down and ultimately led to his loss of life. "A whole lot of violence," Flores said. "Drug abuse. Gang banging. That was always around you. Hearing gunshots and helicopters at night. Seeing things that I shouldn't have been seeing. That made me mature quick and fast. "I was always curious about what was going on. I didn't know what was good or bad. I just knew what it was. I saw everybody doing it around me, so that was the normal thing to do." Those are the words that keep every good-willed mother raising children in crime-ridden areas up at night. Floria knew her son was exposed to wrongdo- ings. But she couldn't be so sure Flores knew the wrongdoings were, well, wrong. So, when Flores reached the first grade, his mother deemed him old enough to take the first steps down a path that would one day lead him to one of the most prestigious academic and athletic institutions in the world — the University of Notre Dame. It was going to be difficult. Time- consuming and expensive, perhaps more than she could afford on either front as a healthcare worker looking af- ter adults with special needs. But it was still going to be a heck of a lot easier than anybody ever having to wake up to a text that said, "Did you hear what happened to Rico?" 'MY SECOND HOME' Flores arrived at Lemuel Adams' train- ing facility, Game-Fit, as a curly haired kid with clunky cleats that went well past his ankles. He thought he looked good, and he thought he played even better. Flores, a true freshman, has been one of the Fighting Irish's most productive wideouts in 2023. Through his first five college games, he had 11 receptions for 141 yards and 1 touchdown. PHOTO BY LARRY BLANKENSHIP ON THE MOVE Rico Flores Jr. grew up fast before he made it to Notre Dame; now he's making good on staying on the right path