When I was thirteen, we moved to four hours south of Daytona Beach to Fort Lauderdale. This was an adjustment for me because it meant saying bye to my father, grandmother, other family members and friends. My mother was the single parent of two growing teenage boys who could eat you out of house and home. We didn’t have the best of everything, but my mother made sure that we had everything that we needed. She ran a tight ship and we were expected to do our share. When she didn’t work two jobs, mom held down the night shift from 3pm to 11 and she expected us to do all the cooking and cleaning. She taught us how to cook and take care of ourselves at a very early age. She gave us enough freedom to explore the world, but she lived by the creed,
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Coach George King was the running back coach for the football team and the physical education teacher. Coach King was cool teacher and mentor who played a large role in the critical stages of my life. He played an instrumental part in guiding me through the perils of being a black male in a world ruled by white people. An excellent athlete in his own right, Coach King and played football at Bethune Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida, so we had an instant connection. We bonded playing paddle ball against one another. During our competitive matches, he kept asking me to try out for the team. I told him that I was a baseball player, not a football player. By my sophomore year, good ole Coach King managed to convince me to try out on the team. He wanted me to start on the junior varsity team which I thought was a step backwards since I was freshmen starting on the varsity baseball team. To this day, I believe that he underestimated the depth of my talent. Just because I didn’t like the game, didn’t mean that I couldn’t play it. I played running back for the junior varsity team until I got the call to move up to the varsity team, but there was one …show more content…
Marty Butler was the star running back and Coach King’s protégé. So they switched me to receiver for next season. “During off season, I was asked to try out for the track team and my first response was track involved too much
Coach George King was the running back coach for the football team and the physical education teacher. Coach King was cool teacher and mentor who played a large role in the critical stages of my life. He played an instrumental part in guiding me through the perils of being a black male in a world ruled by white people. An excellent athlete in his own right, Coach King and played football at Bethune Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida, so we had an instant connection. We bonded playing paddle ball against one another. During our competitive matches, he kept asking me to try out for the team. I told him that I was a baseball player, not a football player. By my sophomore year, good ole Coach King managed to convince me to try out on the team. He wanted me to start on the junior varsity team which I thought was a step backwards since I was freshmen starting on the varsity baseball team. To this day, I believe that he underestimated the depth of my talent. Just because I didn’t like the game, didn’t mean that I couldn’t play it. I played running back for the junior varsity team until I got the call to move up to the varsity team, but there was one …show more content…
Marty Butler was the star running back and Coach King’s protégé. So they switched me to receiver for next season. “During off season, I was asked to try out for the track team and my first response was track involved too much