ORLANDO, FLA – It’s a moment most high school athletes dream about. National Signing Day.

A packed gym at Jones High School on Feb.2 was the stage for A’Ceon Cobb. At the mic with his mother, Orangie Maxwell, by his side, the wide receiver suspends the audience trying on hats of different college football programs.

“It’s exactly what I wanted. Everybody kept asking me where I was going? I was telling everybody different schools.”

Finally, a loud cheer echoes as A’Ceon picks Florida Atlantic University. A wide smile overtakes his face as he watches back the moment on his phone one month later. For Orangie, her son’s dream is complete.

“It became real in that moment knowing your son is going to college to play football, to get an education for free,” Orangie said. “So it just all became real.”

A’Ceon this almost wasn’t reality.

“There was a point in time where I didn’t want to go to college. I didn’t want to play football. I didn’t want to do nothing. Me signing was it was very important for me and my family.”

Two instances changed his perspective.

“Driving around seeing a lot of homeless people on the side of the road. Nothing to eat. My mom and my dad told me every day that’s not the life you want to live.”

What solidified his future was a moment he won’t forget. October 23, 2020. A’Ceon and Jones host local power Edgewater. It’s a game that grabbed the attention of the entire city and state.

In the first quarter, A’Ceon set the tone with a monster 80-yard touchdown catch. Jones dominated their way to a 31-13 win. After the game is where everything changed.

“I’m still at the parking lot at the school,” A’Ceon said. “I checked my phone. I dropped my phone and ran around the parking lot like I got an offer.”

His first official one from FAU. He was able to celebrate it with his father, Ace Cobb.

“My dad. He was like standing next to me smiling. He was like my boy. I was just happy.”

It’s a moment he will never forget. Nearly two months later, Dec. 20, is one he wish never happened. He awoke to the news that his father died of natural causes. Ace Cobb was just 71 years old.

“I walk in the house. I see his body there like asleep. I’m still thinking like they’re playing with me. He’s not dead. He’s cold. I touch his body. He’s cold. He’s stiff. He can’t move. I try to grab his arm and move it. It didn’t move. I was like dang my dad is really dead right now.”

A'Ceon honors his father in multiple ways. A necklace with the picture of both of them hangs in his room. A promise kept to Ace is what drives him.

“As you get older things change so eventually I want to get a degree. With him passing made me want to get it even more because that’s one thing he mainly focused on was me getting a degree in college.” 

As his mother said, that became real on Dec. 2 with his signature.

“I hadn’t even looked at these pictures,” Orangie says sitting next to her son on the couch. “This is my first time sitting here going through them.”

It’s a happy moment to remember. One this family is proud to witness.

“Just because you go through life-changing situations, it’s still possible to make it,” Orangie says.

For A’Ceon this a moment that changes his life and honors another.

“I know he’d be proud. He’d be happy.”

A’Ceon will play wide receiver under Willie Taggart at FAU. He plans to become a lawyer.