The One That Never Should Be

In our lives, both professional and personal, we have all had an encounter with one – one that never should be.

You know, the young girl that is pregnant in high school.   The young man that sleeps through class, when he’s there.   What about the young person that you have given your attention to and he/she just doesn’t get it.

I know, it’s the ones that come to school everyday clean and prepared that you prefer.   Or perhaps your preference is for the one with high marks and good manners.   Portrays professionalism and intellect during conversation or interview.   These are the young people that will be someone one day – someone we will be proud to stand next to and tell everyone that we were a part of their success.

What about the one you told or mentioned to their parent or family member that if he/she doesn’t do, then he/she will not be?   What about the one that “messed up” and ruined his/her chances to have a successful life?   Who will stand in the gap for them?

My challenge to you today is to stand for all of the young people, the ones that appear to be and the ones who appear to not be.   I challenge you that they all can and will be.

If no one stood for Ted Ginn, Jr., he would not have gone to school beyond middle school and he would have probably not played sports – he is learning disabled and was a very, very skinny young man with the look of no athletic ability.

Curtis Terry, a young man currently in his third year of college at The Ohio State University had someone say, you are going to be – and stood for him.   He comes from a situation of homelessness and blight from his mother re-entering prison.   He was destined not to be and today, you see him and he is.

If no one stands in the gap for a young Bahamian man named Jamaal Scavella – he may not be. They have many names and many faces.  They are young men who need us to stand in the gap.

Bahamas Youth Football is being built to stand in the gap of the youth of the Bahamas.

Bahamas Youth Football will provide opportunity for youth to enhance their lives through positive youth development through sport.  

The youth need much guidance and a sense of not only hope, they need opportunities. Bahamas Youth Football is designed to provide a game plan that will lead toward opportunities.

According to Mychal Wynn (2005) in Empowering African-American males:   teaching, parenting, & mentoring successful Black males.   The most difficult task facing educators, parents, and mentors of Black males in the United States, Bermuda, the Caribbean, Canada, Europe, and Africa is to expand their focus beyond intervention and prevention programs to conceptualizing and implementing empowerment processes.   Providing opportunities for Black males to develop personal empowerment, aspire to attend college and to look beyond their current circumstances and toward future possibilities is what Bahamas Youth Football is designed to accomplish.

Are we good enough? What do we value most? Who are we in this community? Where would we like our community to go in the next five, ten, twenty years?   These are compelling questions lie at the heart of the community building challenge.   For without a commonly held identity and a broadly shared vision, the hard work of regenerating community is very difficult to sustain (Kretzmann & Mckinght, 1993).   Coming to common ground on these issues is a long process.   It is often difficult to locate where to begin and what methods would be most effective.   A planning process that solves problems as it evolves can mobilize an entire community around its own capacity and vision.   Such a process, built solidly on a community’s strengths and involving the broadest possible array of participants, can successfully propel a community down the path of regeneration (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993).

Bahamas Youth Football is that process.

Are you aware of the plight of the young man of the Bahamas?

According to the Research and Support Sub-Committee of the National Education Conference (2005).   A status report:   The system of education in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. Bahamas:   The educational system of the Bahamas has reported academic performance issues.   Enrollment for state and private primary and secondary schools amounts to more than 66,000 students. Of those 66,000, approximately 9400 are high school aged males (Research & Support, 2005).   The educational performance level of the Bahamian males is considerably lower than that of females.   In 2004, of the 22,268 grades awarded (certificates of completion), females received 13,527 while males received 8,741, which indicates that the female participation was about 55 percent higher than the male participation.   Further, the Ministry of Education also reported that 3 out of 4 students attending post-secondary education programs are female (Research & Support, 2005).

Through the years, Bahamian children have been selected in small numbers, similar to the Darling twins, to move to the United States and live with relatives, friends of the family or host families in order to attend high school and college.   This opportunity comes with a high monetary price and is only afforded to those who are deemed capable of having success in sport and academics.   At early ages, between twelve and sixteen, young boys and girls leave their families for the hope of a chance to have success in the United States through sport.   With this selection, the Darling twins and others have been afforded opportunities to the best high school education, coaches and college educations.   This process is very difficult for the children, parents, families and communities.   The main reasons why is because the benefit is only for a few and the benefits come at high prices:   relocation and separation from family and the monetary cost for living arrangements, schools and coaches.

Bahamas Youth Football will keep the best in the Bahamas as young people.   It will afford them the opportunities to develop here in their homes and communities with support networks that will  guide them toward achievement.   When they reach maturation, they will make informed decisions.   If they choose to leave the country for educational opportunities, they will more likely return to share in the sustaining of the Bahamas because of favorable experiences.

It is the desire of Bahamas Youth Football to have American Football as an organized, competitive sport in the Bahamas for all interested youth.   Along with the implementation of American football, there is also the need to implement academic support services for the student-athletes in order to develop and prepare them for success while in high school and beyond.   These two changes in the country will actually impact more than the children playing the sports.   The non-sport students will also be positively affected as well as school morale and involvement levels are expected to increase.  

Coupled with these effects on the youth, the families and communities will also grow interested and take active part in these changes.   Finally, the economy, businesses, organizations and government departments will also meet with positive enhancements from the implementation of these changes.   The impact will be far reaching.

Ø   Train and develop Bahamian coaches in the sport of American football and refereeing

Ø   Instruct and develop Bahamian youth in the sport of American football

Ø   Host a 8-10 week season of organized, competitive American football in Grand Bahama, Bahamas the Fall of 2007

Ø   Offer opportunity for youth athletes to participate in a positive youth development program

Ø   Create a Community Coalition of key stakeholders (i.e. school personnel, community leaders, parents and students)

As an additional point of discussion, American football for youth has not been effectively implemented outside the United States. There have been attempts and continue to be some programs in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean US Territories; but these programs are not producing results equal to the programs in the United States.   No other country has an effective youth football program, and no program has incorporated a positive youth development model to build up the player – the whole player:   athletically, academically, and socially.   The Bahamas, when we open on September 28, 2007 at Grand Bahama Sport Complex, will be the first country to accomplish this feat.

It is up to us to teach and demonstrate that Divine Intervention comes from no waiting; but from being prepared – being prepared and expecting.   This process is a result, a consequence of putting in the work and being ready.

I welcome you to join us, the Bahamas Youth Football team to stand for the youth and to believe that all the Bahamian youth will be.

I offer all of you an opportunity to share in the Efforts That Will Exceed the Expectations.

To read the BAHAMAS YOUTH FOOTBALL MANIFESTO click the attachment at the base of this article to open, download and view.

LaLisa Anthony, NFL HS/JPD Regional Director

LaLisa Anthony is a native of Canton, Ohio and is currently a Regional Director with the NFL’s High School/Junior Player Development Program managing program sites in eight NFL markets and one international site in Grand Bahama, Bahamas.   LaLisa’s passion is to empower people, especially young people, to maintain control of their lives and to determine their destinies.  

Recently, LaLisa completed seven years of service to the National Football Foundation’s youth development through sport program, Play It Smart.  She is the only individual associated with program that has been in the role of parent, Academic Coach, and Regional Coordinator supervising and developing Academic Coaches in the Midwest, United States.   During her time with Play It Smart, she graduated 100 student-athletes with 88 continuing on to college and 65 of those young men continued to play football.   The list of student athletes under her tutelage included:   Donte Whitner (Buffalo Bills), Charlton Keith (Oakland Raiders), Ted Ginn, Jr. (Miami Dolphins), Antonio Pittman (New Orleans Saints), and a host of graduated and current college student-athletes.

LaLisa’s current career began at the completion of her Bachelor’s Degree from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.   There she majored in Communication Sciences and minored in psychology and chemistry.   She has worked in the non-profit sector with United Way as a Campaign Associate and the YMCA as a youth Program Director designing and implementing programs for middle school-age youth.   She also served as the first woman president of the Canton Midget Football League, Inc. for five years.   In May 2007, LaLisa graduated with her Master’s of Science in Social Administration with a concentration in Management/Community Development from the Mandel School of Applied Social Science, also at Case.