In the shadow of the Great Depression and the rising worldwide tensions of nearly a century ago, two young men from Cleveland, Ohio put pen to paper in hopes to bring hope to the down-trodden people of America.
In 1938, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster debuted ‘Action Comics #1,’ featuring a shiny new character – a superhero from the planet Krypton. His name was קול-אל, which translates to English as Kal-El.
Or, as he’s more famously known, Superman.
The name Kal-El is derived from Hebrew. When broken down, ‘Kal’ (קול) translates into ‘light.’ However, at the time of Superman’s creation, the way the word was spoken was more similar to Kol, which means ‘voice,’ while the word ‘El’ (אל) means ‘God.’
Put the two together, and you get ‘The voice of God.’
Almost 70 years after the creation of Superman, a mere 1,248 miles away, another child was born bearing the name Kal-El.
In Miami, Florida, Kal-El Pascal was born as the second son to Kendlie Labranche – a Christian woman from a two-parent household focused on faith and education, and Enel Pascal – the son of Haitian immigrants, with a strong-disciplined father that spent a lot of his time working.
When Kal-El was born, his father insisted on that being his name, seeing as Superman is his favorite superhero. Labranche was hesitant at first, but eventually gave in, now understanding the dual meaning of the name.
“ He was like, ‘Oh no, his name has to be Kal-El. That’s Superman’s real name.’ I was like, ‘Oh, please.’ But you know, I respect it,” she said. “Kal-El knows that his name is the voice of God, you know. It resembles the Hebrew character. Kal-El, he can be a mouthpiece of God. He is a mouthpiece of God.“
His parents separated when he was a child. While his father wasn’t around much early in his life, the two have since reconciled.
Quiet and reserved as a boy, Pascal often opted to spend time in his room with his brother, Julius.
When Pascal was four, he decided he wanted to follow in Julius’ footsteps and play football.
“ His older brother really motivated him because when he saw his older brother play, he said, ‘I’m going to play football,” Labranche said. “You know, so that’s exactly how it went and from there Kal-El has been playing since he was four.“
From the time he stepped onto the football field at the age of four with the Little River Saints, he was making plays. Labranche said that to this day, she still hears about a play he made in a Boynton Beach little league game.
Pascal made a big hit, scooped up the football, and took off with it – helping his team win both the game, and the league’s championship.
Raising two boys in Miami, Labranche’s goal was to keep both of her boys as busy as possible.
“ I kept them busy and I instilled education. I instilled the faith in them, as far as putting God first, praying, going to church…they had no time to be on the streets, they had no time to even play outside. Their playing outside would be going when they go to their Grandma’s house…when they get home, everyone’s inside the house,” Labranche said. “If he’s not going to football practice, he’s not going to school, [he’s] inside the church, there’s no such thing as playing outside because I knew how it was when I was growing up.”
According to NeighborhoodScout.com, Miami has a crime index of seven, meaning it is safer than just 7% of all U.S. cities. Per 1,000 residents, the city has a crime rate of 34.14.
“A lot of kids that grew up around Kal-El’s age, at this age now, a lot of them have passed away. Not only have they passed away, there’s some that are facing life in prison for murder. So I thank God for allowing me, being a single mom, to hold on,” she continued. “I want them to go a certain way in life and I don’t want them to be a statistic on the streets of Miami, Florida.”
Throughout his time at Dr. Michael M. Krop High School in North Miami Beach, Pascal called upon the faith his mother instilled in him, using it to become more vocal than he was as a child, while also helping lead others to the Lord.
“ He would walk around the school with a Bible in his hands. They would have Bible study, like this group thing. Kal-El would sit down and have sessions,” LaBranche said. “And this is high school, his senior year, 11th grade year.”
Pascal said that he wasn’t always this close to God.
While his mother instilled the Lord in him essentially from day one, when he was a child, like many others, Pascal didn’t pay as close attention. As he got older, more specifically as a sophomore in high school, he again found himself following in his brother’s footsteps.
“ It was a conversation with my brother. So, his relationship with God was growing,” he said. “It was me, him and my mom in our living room talking. I had seen how mature he’s gotten and like, I was just there just listening to him. How I was responding to the things that he was saying was not of God, and they had corrected me and said that I needed to be humble and I need to humble myself before God.”
Even today in Bowling Green, he participates in bible studies, bringing his friends, his teammates and others closer to God.
“[Kal-El], when I first got here, he was my first roommate. He helped me get closer with God, take me to bible study,” redshirt freshman linebacker Dorian Pringle said.
However, Pascal almost never made it to northwest Ohio in the first place.
Originally, he was committed to play for a different school, a much bigger school, closer to home.
“I was supposed to go to North Carolina State, but they dropped me during the ending of my senior year, when I was about to sign,” he said. “It happened a week or two before my signing day, at that point, in those two weeks I didn’t know what I was going to do, or if I was going to be able to graduate early to go to college.”
Pascal said that the reason given to him by NC State was that instead of bringing in a freshman out of high school, they were opting to add talent through the transfer portal.
That fateful call from NC State came on a Sunday as Pascal, his mother and his brother were getting ready to go to church.
“They were talking to me about how they were coming to the house that week,” Labranche said. “Then that same Sunday, they called Kal-El. I walked into the bathroom because I see Kal-El was taking so long inside the bathroom. When I knocked on the door, I was like, ‘Kal-El, what’s wrong?’ Kal-El was cradled like a baby on the floor with his towel, lying in tears. As a mother, as much as I wanted to cry, that’s my baby.”
Despite the strong emotions, Labranche knew that the NC State door closing only meant that God was going to open another, and He did.
“I encouraged him that entire week, until he received a phone call from Bowling Green. I don’t know how that phone call happened, I don’t know what took place, I just know he was in contact with Bowling Green,” she said. “Then, he was like, ‘Mom, I’m going to commit.”
The rest is history. Pascal joined the team for the spring semester of 2024. In his true freshman season, he recorded 17 tackles, including a team-high eight in the team’s Nov. 23 victory against Ball State.
“ It was just a blessing. Everything just fell into place on that day. So, NC State, it was the school that he wanted to go to, but that’s not the school that God chose for him,” Labranche said. “ When he gets back home to Bowling Green, all he has to do is call Damaris [Linker], or call his coach or call somebody, and then they’ll put somebody right on standby to go pick him up from the airport and take him back home. That’s family.”
Pascal has grown exponentially from his days as a quiet child, going from the quiet kid who would only speak when spoken to first, becoming someone that his teammates look to when they need a guiding light.
In doing so, they are helping Pascal live up to his name as ‘the voice of God.’
“When the coach has him stand in the middle to speak, everyone is at attention. Everyone listens when Kal-El speaks,” Labranche said. “ He is a mouthpiece of God. You know, God is leading him to say something. He’s gonna say exactly what God is leading him to say.”
Before games, Pascal will gather his teammates into a huddle to lead them in prayer, engaging in the practices passed down from his grandparents to his mother, and from his mother onto him.
“ Prayer was the key to all things,” Labranche said. “That’s how I was raised and brought up. And that’s how I brought up my kids.”
Without his father in the beginning part of his life, Pascal lacked the strong male figure for the beginning portion of his life. However, roughly five years ago, his mom brought another man into the lives of Pascal and his brother.
Labranche’s ‘partner in crime,’ as she described him, Trenton Brownlee has played a hand in the later development of Pascal and his brother.
“ [He’s taught me] how to operate as like a young black man in sports and stuff,” Pascal said. “Going through the hard times and like the situations that other young athletes go through with like decision making on which college to go to and stuff.”
While Brownlee is the sage adult with all the life experiences, it hasn’t just been him with teaching moments.
“ I tell [Kal-El] and his brother, Julius, all the time, those guys keep me young, they keep me motivated, they keep me pushing, you know,” Brownlee said. “Wanting better for myself as they would for themselves, it’s helped me a lot in my personal life.”
Brownlee as well has noticed how much faith flows through Pascal, the importance of having someone, or something to lean on, especially when you’re over a thousand miles from those you love.
“ Especially being away so far away from home and in college, there’s going to be times where you’re only going to have yourself and God,” he said. “So, you know, lean on Him and that’ll help you get through tough times because there will be tough times in college as part of the experience.”
When Pascal visited and later moved to Bowling Green, Brownlee accompanied Labranche and Pascal on the trips. When the team was in Mobile for the 68 Ventures Bowl back in December, Brownlee was there cheering on Pascal, then he brought him and his brother back home to Miami.
”He’s always been there and motivated me to keep a level head,” Pascal said. “And in God’s timing, everything will happen on time.”
