Dear Community,
My name is Antonio Daniels and I am a senior student athlete at a local public school in Indianapolis. I grew up listening to my grandfather tell me stories of the great Crispus Attucks, Arsenal Tech and Shortridge High School sports teams.
He talked about the athletes at those schools as though they were giants – everyone in the city knew them and in those days it was almost impossible to get into games because the crowds were amazing.
Growing up hearing those stories inspired me to play sports and dream of maybe playing on the same field or court those great men once played on.
As I reach the end of my high school career and reflect on my athletic experience, I want to tell my grandfather that my experience was in no way as exciting and memorable as his. At my high school we barely had people at our games and we only had one winning season in football and basketball in four years.
The local newspapers never covered our games and when they did, they only showed the box scores.
The community did not know any of the players and in some cases people seemed happy to tell us how bad we were. My teammates and I wanted to represent our community and neighborhoods, we wanted our church members to attend our games, we wanted our teachers to come out and show support. Most of all, we wanted our coaches to have high expectations for us.
Four years have quickly flown by, but I am glad it did because I am ready to move on. Unfortunately, my teammates and I do not have too many great stories to share with our grandchildren, but most of us are going to college and we want to return to our community so we can make sure other kids do not go through their high school years with little or no memories.
My new dream is to be a high school teacher and coach so I can help teenagers realize their dreams.
From Coach E
Like Antonio, too many young people are leaving our schools without the great memories of high school that many former athletes had to enjoy. You can do your part to help our youth. Attend a game, be a volunteer coach at one of the youth leagues, middle or high schools. Plant a seed and watch it grow.
For information on how you can get involved, e-mail ekiyore@ips.k12.in.us.
