"Rouse's Past Makes Him Strong Leader"

For more than three years, a father sat behind iron bars in a maximum security prison in Virginia, wondering whether the son he hardly knew would ever forgive him.

Virginia Tech senior Aaron Rouse barely knows Roosevelt "Tim" Newby, who was in and out of his life while Rouse, his mother and his siblings grew up in the tough housing projects of Virginia Beach, Va. What Rouse remembers most is his father not being there after he had promised his young son he would never leave again.

"It's not like I can forget growing up without a father," Rouse said. "But being a man, I forgive him. I grew up without a father, but look at where I'm at now."

Click here to read the rest of Mark Schlabach's ESPN column.