NAMPA — Mahonri Bostrom speaks with a foreign accent on the voicemail of his cell phone.

But he's not foreign.

He wears a hat and sunglasses to his football team's dinners each week.

But he's usually forced to remove the accessories.

Bostrom appears to be the typical high school senior, flashing a little sense of humor and style every once in awhile.

But Bostrom is not the typical high school senior.

The Nampa High running back leads the 4A Southern Idaho Conference with 1,430 yards rushing and is a key member of another large and unique team — his family.

He wears blue and red on Friday nights and a smile across his face every day, thanks to the upbringing.

"He's a clown, that's what he is," Nampa High wrestling coach Wally Lester said jokingly. "He's a good-natured kid. I don't think he has a worry in the world, at least you wouldn't know it."

Life is good for Bostrom these days.

He's one of the best running backs in the state, plays for a team contending for a conference championship and has supportive and friendly faces in the standings every Friday night.

He's inspired through his brother, Jorrell, who defied the odds and walked-on to the University of Auburn football team.

Then there's grandfather, J.O. Young, who tugs at his heart strings through his wheelchaired condition — a condition which cannot keep him away from celebrating Mahonri's heroics each week.

"It seems like every week, I feel like I'm keeping him alive," Mahonri says.

Tonight at 7 p.m., Young said he'll be there watching again. Father, LaMont, mother, Jorjette, brothers Samuel, Joshua and Robert, and sister, Mandelynn, also plan to attend.

Together, they'll travel to Bishop Kelly High and watch the league's No. 1 running back lead Nampa (5-2, 4-1 4A SIC) into its biggest game of the season against the Knights (6-1, 5-0 4A SIC).

Two teams will be there. One goal is sought.

A Bulldog victory.

"On our team we talk about being a family," Bostrom said. "The same family values we share on our team, is the ones we share in our houses."

Developing character

Bostrom's story begins in Florida, where he entered the world without a name. His biological mother, whom he has not met to this day — "I made it this far. A little longer could not hurt," he says — suffered from a disability which limits her muscle movements. So she placed him into an adoption agency, and within two weeks, Bostrom was in his new Nampa home, under the roof of LaMont and Jorjette Bostrom.

He joined adopted brothers Samuel and Jorrell — who came from Arizona and Nampa, respectively. Over the years, Robert, who came from Virginia, and Mandelynn and Joshua, both from Philadelphia, entered the picture.

"We're just a normal family," Jorjette says.

The siblings are meshed together through one common denominator: Church. Jorjette taught the value of making the right choices and treating others the way you want to be treated — and the heart-warming environment has created a lingering effect on Mahonri's demeanor.

Character?

Last season, he saw limited carries behind senior running backs Cole Rivera and Kip Ramos, yet never complained.

"Never," Bulldogs coach Scott Wooldridge said.

Humility?

Mahonri would rather praise his offensive linemen than toot his own horn.

"They do all the dirty work," he says. "Props to them, because anybody can do what I do on a daily basis."

Even when his teammates commit holding penalties and negate his touchdowns, which happened twice against Skyview on Sept. 25, there's Mahonri, just smiling and heading back to the huddle.

"That would've been a lot to (upset) anybody else," said Lester, the Nampa wrestling coach who's taught Mahonri in the classroom for six semesters. "But he just gets up and keeps going."

Gets up and keeps going?

That runs in the family.

Driven for the family

Bostrom's everlasting smile and inner-will derives from his family — particularly his persevering grandfather and brother.

After all, a lot of people doubted Jorrell in April when he tried earning a spot on the University of Auburn football team.

"There was a whole bunch of people who didn't think he could make it down there," said Lester, who is Jorrell's father-in-law. "That's major football.

"We love the kid to death, but we didn't think he'd make it."

Jorrell admittingly had his doubts, too, but he never gave up. Through his persistence and perseverance, he eyed the big picture, dropped 27 pounds, and now sees playing time on special teams while being listed on the depth chart as the No. 2 left guard.

The key to his success? Family.

"Their support was reassuring," Jorrell said. "My family was always the one supporting me all the time."

And it provides an inspiration for his 17-year-old brother.

"He didn't look like he was going to go anywhere," Mahonri said. "I look at him, and it just makes it that much better.

"That just keeps me going."

So does his grandfather.

The 87-year-old Young sits in a wheelchair, oxygen tubes running through his nose, and said he's not sure how much time he has left on Earth. But every week, whether it's Twin Falls, Mountain Home, Emmett — or this week, Bishop Kelly — Young follows his grandson and the Bulldogs from the stands, screaming and rooting and watching No. 20 weave through defenders like they're trees rooted into the Earth.

"He's getting old," Mahonri says. "I mean, everybody dies. But it just seems like he's just holding on for every Friday night, just to see his grandson do what he does."

A happy-go-lucky kid

Mahonri's happy-go-lucky attitude derives from his faith, family and football.

"Sometimes things aren't easy," he says. "Sometimes the only way to get through things is smile, and look at the positive."

Positive people, to be specific.

There's his father, LaMont, who had a heart attack on April 8 —"I almost died," he said — yet he still watches the Bulldogs' "nailbiter games" out of love for his son.

He glows about Mahonri, marvels about his speed and shares stories about how Mahonri has progressed over the years. LaMont tells stories like the time when, at the age of 2, Mahonri slid face-first down the family-owned, 390-foot water slide, with an ear-to-ear grin he describes as "Kermit the Frog."

Or the time in Optimist football, when he took a handoff, rumbled to midfield, lost a shoe, raced another 20 yards, lost another shoe, then trotted into the end zone — in his socks.

There's Young, who keeps a scrapbook of his grandson's clips and calls his football games "the greatest part of the week."

And his mother,  Jorjette, who Mahonri describes glowingly as, "the sweetest person."

Whether it be in the end zone or at home with family, Bostrom is the same person.

He's happy.

"There's worse places to live," Mahonri said. "Some kids think, 'man, I hate my parents.' I just couldn't see myself living anywhere else than Nampa, Idaho.

"I couldn't see myself at any other place."