They are two young men who took wildly divergent paths to get where they are today.
Lucky Winters and Richard Hernandez are both high school seniors. Winters attends Whitko while Hernandez attends Warsaw Community High School.
Both are working with jail officers as they complete their co-op program through their respective high schools.
For Hernandez, this path seemed obvious. With uncles and cousins who are policemen, including Warsaw policeman Dave Morales, and a mother who used to work as a nurse in an Arizona state prison, he had grown up around law enforcement.
A self-described “adrenaline junkie,” Hernandez knew he didn’t want to work a co-op job where he just sat behind a desk doing the same thing everyday.
So when the chance came to work in the sheriff’s department jail division, Hernandez, 18, jumped at it.
As for Winters, he had more experience on the other side of the law.
Born in Milwaukee and raised on Chicago’s south side, Winters got into trouble.
Never knowing who his father was and with a mom who was rarely around, Winters acknowledges now he acted out for attention.
That acting out landed him in the juvenile detention system.
First he landed in a Lake County facility and then was moved to Pierceton Woods Academy.
That’s where things began to turn for the kid with the fortuitous first name.
He completed the first phase of Pierceton Woods Academy’s program faster than any other kid.
He enrolled at Whitko, and during an open gym met Whitko boys basketball coach Rob Irwin.
Irwin invited him back home “and he’s been here since,” said the coach.
Irwin felt Winters needed something to keep him busy outside of school and basketball.
Having known Sheriff Rocky Goshert and Captain Aaron Rovenstine for years, Irwin asked if Winters could work for them.
Winters started out on a volunteer basis.
“I think he wore the uniform the entire time that first week,” said Irwin.
Then when school started this year, Winters began working as a co-op.
He takes the morning shift from 8 a.m. to noon while Hernandez comes in from noon to 4 p.m.
Hernandez is always looking to help out and offers to work extra hours when needed.
“My mom was a little nervous at first, like moms are,” said Hernandez.
She was even more nervous when her son decided he wanted to be pepper sprayed.
In order for Hernandez to carry pepper spray he first had to be sprayed with it.
“I’m still trying to decide if I want to be Tasered,” said Hernandez.
Hernandez hopes to catch on with the sheriff’s department after high school. If there are no openings, he will join the Coast Guard to become a rescue swimmer.
He’s taking EMT classes as well.
Along with playing almost any sport he can, Hernandez has taken to his job as a sheriff’s department co-op as well as anyone.
And the co-op program has served as a good feeder system for the sheriff’s department.
According to Rovenstine, about six jailers and officers started out in the co-op program.
Hernandez has had his path carved out for a while and it took the co-op position to reinforce what he wanted to do with his life.
Hernandez said he enjoys every aspect of his job and is always volunteering to take on more responsibility.
Both Hernandez and Winters have grown close to the guys they work with.
Despite some light-hearted hazing and a nickname (Skippy), Hernandez said he’s already made plans to hang out with some of the jailers and staff once the school year is over.
Hernandez also has learned compassion for those inmates on the other side of the glass.
“You learn that a lot of them are good guys but they’ve just made mistakes,” said Hernandez.
As for Winters, it took more than just the co-op program. It took a second chance that he flourished with. It took a family like the Irwins to bring him in as their own.
Rob and his wife Ann, along with four kids, have been a safe haven for Winters.
“I consider them my immediate family, “said Winters. “I have a hard time calling Rob dad since I never really had a dad around so I call him different nicknames like Roberto.”
Winters still keeps in contact with his sister and said his family back home is proud of him.
But he also knows the dangers of where his life could have gone.
He recently lost his cousin Shannon, who was shot while walking home from the grocery store.
“I used to hang with him all the time,” said Winters. “If I was there I could have been with him.”
Winters, 19, has a keen awareness of what he’s been through. But he also has compassion that has not only helped him working in the jail but also helped him decide what he wants to do.
After high school, he plans to attend Defiance College where he hopes to play basketball.
Winters didn’t get a chance to play at Whitko this season after tearing an ACL.
“And I want to get into criminology and work with juveniles,” said Winters.
“I can tell them that I’m from where you’re from. I know where you’ve been. I know where you’re at right now,” said Winters.
Rovenstine said both Hernandez and Winters are good kids and have been assets to the program.
The program began in the early 1990s with Rovenstine’s father Al when he was sheriff.
It started out with college kids before branching out to high school students.
College interns still come in during the summer. The high school program is usually capped at three students.
