The 7 sisters of South Carolina’s Juice Wells, and how they made him for this moment
Antwane “Juice” Wells Jr.’s childhood mornings most often began with brushing his teeth in the kitchen sink.
For the first 15 years of his life, he shared a home with his mom and many sisters. Their Virginian house had five or six bedrooms, Wells recalled, but only three bathrooms. He did what had to be done.
“It was definitely a wait time in the morning,” he said through a reminiscent smile.
Besides teaching him to come up with inventive ways of getting ready, Wells’ sisters taught him invaluable lessons: “How to respect a woman, how to be their caregiver,” Wells said. ”Definitely happy I went through that.”
Wells was the Gamecocks’ No. 1 wide receiver last season. He flirted with the idea of declaring for the NFL Draft but ultimately decided to come back to Columbia. This year he’s assumed the role of one of South Carolina football’s main offensive providers, a part he first played growing up as the sole brother of seven sisters.
‘We were like our own community’
The Berry-Wells family starts with mom Rachelle Berry. She had six daughters who shared her last name: Olivia (33), Verna (29), Kayla (28), twins Kierra and Tamira (26), and Nyasia (24). Then she had Antwane Wells Jr. (22) and Angel Wells (21) with Antwane Wells Sr. All eight children grew up living with Rachelle until Antwane moved in with his father when he was 15.
Antwane said he went to live with his dad so he could “toughen him up.” Angel quips he just got tired of being the only boy in the house.
Growing up, the Berry-Wells children made their home their playground. They took hide and seek very seriously, with some of their most creative hiding spots including inside the dryer, under the kitchen sink and on top of the refrigerator. They’d play “fashion show” with Rachelle’s clothes when she wasn’t home. And the cul de sac that their Highland Springs home stood on served as the field for countless games of tag.
“We were like our own community,” Verna said. “There’s so many of us. (People in the neighborhood) always used to tell my mom, ‘You’ve got a football team!’ They always told us, ‘Y’all need your own TV show.’ But I will say it was fun.”
Antwane started playing football at 5 years old, eager to bring the game home to his sisters. They often played in the living room or outside with other neighborhood children. Back then he split time between wide receiver and quarterback, where he could really call the shots.
While most college football fans know Antwane by his nickname “Juice” — which he earned for the explosiveness he showed in pee-wee football — the Berry-Wells family know him better as A.J. or “Dippy.”
“Dippy” first came from Rachelle, who gave the moniker to her son because he was always “dipping” his hands into something he shouldn’t be. Whether that be covering himself in the Vaseline and coconut oil used for his sisters’ hair, or smashing his own face into his first birthday cake.
When Antwane’s sisters talk about him, you can hear their smiles through the phone. He’s their cornerstone, their protector, their ride or die.
Verna has several years on Antwane but still views him as her big brother. Angel, the baby, may not know much about football — “(The quarterback) that’s when you throw the ball to them and they run with it, right?” — but she knows Antwane and loves him with all the wholesomeness of a baby sister.
“He’s just the provider. He is down,” Angel said. “Anything that you need, whether it’s advice or anything. I can call my brother, and 100% he got me.”
‘So, Dippy, what’s next?’
Antwane’s first Instagram post after South Carolina’s loss in the Gator Bowl came on Jan. 4. The comments were flooded with users begging him to stay. Their pleading remarks were littered with juice boxes praying hands and chicken emojis.
“You and Spence got some unfinished business in Columbia,” one user wrote, “y’all know what to do.”
Another: “Run it back gang”
Another: “One more year”
And another: “Stay home brother”
Antwane’s debut season with the Gamecocks made declaring for the NFL Draft a very real, very lucrative possibility. The transfer from James Madison finished with 68 catches for 928 yards — the second-most in the Southeastern Conference. He went for 110 yards or more four times — including USC’s upset win over then-No. 5 Tennessee, where he logged 11 catches for 177 yards.
He was named a first team All-SEC performer by Pro Football Focus, Phil Steele and the league’s coaches.
Before Antwane made the decision to come back to South Carolina, he asked Verna for guidance.
She lives in Greenville, the closest geographically of all the sisters. The proximity allows her to do his hair often. And on that particular spring day, Antwane sat in Verna’s chair torn between staying in school and declaring for the NFL Draft.
“So, Dippy, what’s next?” she remembered asking him.
He wasn’t sure.
“Which do you think I should do?” he asked Verna.
She offered him assurance, letting him know she thought he would succeed on either path.
Then one of his USC coaches called, she said, to provide another perspective: Stay one more year to perfect your skills. Take your game to the next level. Do what other guys wouldn’t do to get there.
Much went into Antwane’s decision to return to Columbia. Would quarterback Spencer Rattler stay another year? How much more could he and the Gamecocks accomplish if they gave it one more shot?
“After talking to my quarterback, my coaches and stuff like that, just felt like a lot was left on the line,” Antwane said. “We had a lot more to prove to the team. And me personally, I felt like I could do nothing but help if I come back.”
When he talks about his teammates it seems like his brotherly instincts kick in; to look out and provide for his squad, as he has for his sisters. Having set the precedent of greatness, there is enormous pressure for Antwane to build on the success of last season.
But he has worked his whole life under that kind of pressure. He came into the world as the seventh of eight children determined to take care of his family. He left high school under-recruited and determined to make the football world know his name.
That drive is what makes him great. Just ask his position coach Justin Stepp.
“He’s always worked with a chip on his shoulder,” Stepp said. “Now, I send him reminders where he wasn’t first-team All-SEC selection preseason. I said, ‘Hey man, that should tell you everything you need to know.’ He’s gonna work hard no matter what, but I definitely think that adds a little motivation.”
‘It’s all love at the end of the day’
Angel does hair for a living. She operates her own business, The Angelic Look out of Richmond, Virginia. The business offers natural hair services, braids and weaves.
She learned how to do hair by watching her sisters growing up, retiring from throwing the shot put and running track after a solid middle school athletics career to pursue hair more seriously.
It would be impossible for their mother alone to do the hair of seven girls and one boy every morning. So sisters pitched in where they could.
If mornings became particularly hectic, Antwane would craft Angel’s ponytail for her.
“A.J., he knows how to do hair on the low,” Angel said.
Antwane has always been the “man of the house,” despite being the second-youngest. When the Berry-Wells children were younger, he was who they went to before inviting someone new to their home. He was the one who told everybody when the house parties were over.
He was the one who stood up for his sisters, even when they stood taller than him.
“It’s all love at the end of the day,” Antwane said. “... I’m the seventh child. I got six older sisters, but I feel like I’m the oldest one in the household. It’s crazy.”
Now he’s the uncle of seven nephews — Ayden (11), Cyrus (6), Salethia (6), DJ (5), Daylen (4), Hunter (2) and Chase (1) — and one niece on the way. Antwane has stepped in as a primary or secondary father figure in their lives.
But Angel’s A.J. is different from Uncle Dippy, she said.
A.J. is often playful with her and letting his goofy side show. Uncle Dippy is more mature, assuming the responsibility he’s placed on himself to be a man for his nephews to look up to. And much of that comes from what they see of him on the gridiron.
His oldest nephew, Ayden, wants to play football because uncle Dippy does.
From his siblings to his nephews, Antwane’s impact runs deep. The Gamecocks’ first game of the 2023 season against the Tar Heels on Sept. 2 marks the beginning of his latest campaign to inspire.
When Antwane decided to return to South Carolina, he knew he would need his family’s support. In the past, finances and schedules haven’t always added up to where they can watch Antwane play in person. So he decided he needed to come up with a way to get them to more games.
Behold the power of name, image and likeness.
Darren Heitner, a sports law professor at the University of Florida and the University of Miami, tweeted earlier this year that Antwane was “leading the SEC in #NIL deals.” Wells said he is working out a plan with Garnet Trust, the official NIL partner of USC athletics, to get the whole family down to Columbia this season.
It’s all part of his plan.
The night of Antwane’s high school graduation, he and Verna talked for hours.
In a car outside his grandparents’ house, Antwane walked Verna through his plans for the future. She was taken aback by his confidence. No “ums,” “uhs” or “erms.” His voice never wavered.
“He’s been standing on his plans and actually putting in the work to accomplish what he wants,” she said, looking back. “And I’m just happy. I’m really, really, really happy that I know that my brother will be OK, because he’s the only brother that I have.”
