SALT LAKE CITY — Ten years ago, 13-year-old Nate Fakahafua had a decision to make — one that would dramatically alter the course of his life.

Would he return to the gang-riddled streets of Los Angeles where he grew up, remain homeless on the streets of Salt Lake City — or knock on the door of the Orchard family?

He chose the Orchards, where he found structure, discipline, faith and family.

That one decision changed his life and put him on an unlikely path to stardom at the University of Utah and eventually the NFL.

Most Ute fans know him as Nate Orchard. For the current Cleveland Browns linebacker, changing his name was his way of honoring a family that believed in him, changed his life, and never gave up on him.

“Nate learned at an early age just how to survive,” said Dave Orchard, referring to his adopted son’s story as if it were straight out of the film “The Blind Side.”

Nate calls his birth-family “dysfunctional,” though he doesn’t do so lightly.

“Just bouncing all over the place, home to home with different family members,” he said. “Running the streets with my brother, doing who knows what.”

A chance meeting on the basketball court helped the former Nate Fakahafua strike up an unlikely friendship with Sam Orchard, and the two have been the best of friends since playing on the same basketball team in the seventh grade.

“Dave, he didn’t give up on me,” Nate said. “He knew I had potential to do something great. He was there every day, picking me up. He took me to practice, gave me pep talks, things like that.

“It was always going through one ear and out the other and I’m thinking, ‘this guy, this guy.’ When the time came, I knew I didn’t want to move back (to L.A.). He’s a person I could rely on and a person I trusted very much and so I went to him.”

Katherine Orchard remembers her first encounter with Nate, when he came running up to the house wearing his basketball uniform.

“I was out in the garden in the front yard and I could see him coming down the street wearing his uniform from the basketball team,” she recalled. “I was thinking, what is he doing here?”

Nate knocked on the Orchard’s door and asked if he could stay with his friend’s family. Katherine and Dave went over a bunch of reasons why they should say either yes or no.

But the family quickly fell in love with their new sibling.

“From day one, our kids loved him,” Dave said.

Added Katherine: “Just the structure, I think, was a big adjustment for him. He had seen so much more of life than the kids his age in the neighborhood.”

The Orchards treated Nate like the rest of their children — and that included rules, responsibilities and house chores. Nate had a strict curfew, which took some adjustment time.

“Initially that was really difficult because he had never had anything like that,” Dave said. “He would do whatever he wanted to do.”

The Orchards weren’t sure how long Nate would stick around — maybe a week, or a month, perhaps even a year.

The arrangement soon became permanent.

“There were so many times where I was a knucklehead and I’m surprised they didn’t give up on me,” Nate said. “I was that kid where I wanted to go back to my mom, so I ran away a few times and you had Dave and Katherine chasing after me and trying to find me.”

Nate’s new siblings were just as crucial in keeping him around. With the Orchards, he also found a close group of friends, football coaches and teachers that took young Nate under their wing.

“Our kids were devastated when he wasn’t here,” Katherine said. “He’s just part of my family.

“He had amazing coaches who mentored him and cared about him and didn’t let him get away with nonsense. But at the same time, they loved him and were always there for him. They’ll be people who will be in his life forever.”

Highland head football coach Brody Benson was another important mentor who never gave up on Nate, even when Nate tried to give up on the team.

The rising football star told Benson that he was going to miss a summer camp in July before his senior year — to go to a basketball tournament in Minnesota.

Benson wouldn’t have any of it.

“I just told him he was going to be at camp,” Benson said. “He kind of blew up. He made the comment there was nothing he was going to learn at camp that he didn't already know. At that moment, I said you are right. You are a gifted athlete and there aren’t many players on our team that can do what you do, but it’s more about what the 75 guys on the other side see if you are not there.

“He was visibly upset. I could just tell by his body language he was upset. But from that moment on, I’ve never had a kid grow up more and really put the team first.”

Nate is glad he didn’t quit the team before his senior season, and says he owes it all to Benson.

“I’m just happy to have had someone like that while I was going through my ups and downs in high school — who didn’t give up on me and was there for me through thick and thin.”

During Nate’s senior year, the Rams advanced to the Class 4A state title game against Mountain Crest — a game the Orchards will always remember, watching their sons Nate and Sam on the field together.

Nate’s play was “unreal,” the family recalled, as he helped Highland to a state championship.

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“There was no way he was going to let that game get away,” Dave said. “He wanted it as bad for himself as he did for everyone else."

Utah coach Kyle Whittingham saw that 195-pound wide receiver, and liked him enough to turn him into a standout 255-pound linebacker.

"He was an incredible athlete," Whittingham said. "You could tell right away that he was different than the other kids.

"He embraced the opportunity to be a defensive end from the very beginning. The rest is history."

Nate was hoping for a breakout season in the NFL this year, but a high ankle sprain landed him on Cleveland’s injured reserve list in September.

Still, the Browns defender is grateful for a family that took a shot on him — and hopes to repay it to his wife Megan and their daughter Katherine. Like his Orchard family, the two most important women in his life have made Nate the man he is today.

"Just being married really allowed me to settle down, get my priorities straight, and understand if I really wanted to make it to the NFL, I had to focus on graduating and being the best athlete on the field I could," Nate said.

The former Utah standout looks back on his journey to the NFL with fondness. But more important is the journey and transformation that has changed Nate Fakahafua off the field into the Nate Orchard he is today.

“I would’ve thought that was a joke (finding a family like the Orchards), that there was no way that was going to happen,” Nate said. “Especially given the circumstances that I grew up in.

"Coming out of that tunnel (in Cleveland), the flames burning up ... it was definitely a memorable feeling. But I want more. I want to be great. So many people think I could be a bust. But I just want to prove people wrong."

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