New initiatives helping shape BPS turnaround
By Eitan Tye - ESPNBoston.com
ROXBURY, Mass. -- “Get that homework out, we ain’t
sittin’ on no luxury chairs today!”
It’s 10 a.m. on a Saturday at the Vine Street Community
Center in Roxbury, and hulking basketball coach Larry Merritt is
taking no excuses.
“Tell them if they’re done with their homework, they
can get a book to read. Write down the names of the kids who say
they got nothing to do, some of them are repeat
offenders.”
Upon hearing Merritt’s booming pronouncement, twenty pairs
of eyes shift nervously to the floor as worksheets and textbooks
begin to line the table. Careful to avoid the ire of their
intimidating coach, the pre-teen boys start working on their
assignments, under the watchful eyes of several volunteer
tutors.
Merritt’s AAU basketball program, called Meritting
Attention, is just one of a host of athletic initiatives
complementing ESPN’s recent Rise Up project, helping Boston
students succeed both on the field and in the classroom.
This past summer, ESPN identified Dorchester and TechBoston
Academies, both of whom used the same dilapidated public field, as
candidates for an athletic facility renovation courtesy of the
network’s ‘Rise Up’ program. According to ESPN
High School editor Margaret Myers, the station “contacted
school authorities and the city of Boston, finding community
contractors and local businesses who wanted to help with the
project.” Volunteers from construction companies around the
city re-sodded the baseball fields at Roberts Playground, installed
a new walking path, and put in lighting and fencing to increase
safety. Workers also built a new cardio room inside the school, and
constructed a women’s locker room.
Although the final unveiling of the transformed facilities
received great publicity and was the subject of a September 27
special on ESPN, the recent renovation has only served as one small
part of renewed academic and athletic progress at Boston’s
public high schools. Local initiatives such as Meriting Attention,
the Boston Scholar-Athlete Program, and Red Bull’s
“Boston’s got Wings” project, have combined with
Rise Up to lift achievement among the city’s
student-athletes.
Building from the ground up
Merritt described his organization as Boston’s “out of
school time student-athlete program,” and sums up the
club’s entire philosophy with his slogan, “we study
before we play.”
“Students must be doing well in the classroom in order to
participate in our program,” Merritt explained. “We
hold tutoring and homework sessions before all of our practices,
and all participants must have an ‘action plan’ in
order to improve academically.”
In addition to coaching AAU teams for children in grades three to
11, Merritt holds Saturday morning basketball camps before the
season starts. Since he frequently uses BPS facilities for homework
sessions, practices, and games, the coach was quick to emphasize
the universal value of Rise Up’s facility restoration in
Dorchester.
"The renovations have brought a new life to the world of sports
for the entire Dorchester Educational Complex community," Merritt
said. "Having quality facilities to play on is huge for inner-city
kids. Normally, they would have to travel to the suburbs to
experience a game on state of the art facilities.”
Merritt’s program combines basketball instruction with
academic tutoring and leadership development, and the coach assures
that “each student-athlete will understand the importance of
being a student in the classroom first, and then a student of the
game.”
Most importantly, however, Merritt believes in the power of
athletics as a springboard to achievement.
“Sports are a necessity for youth in general,” he
said. “If kids are in good athletic programs, they should be
able to encompass all the life-skills that they need to be
successful.”
Jamal Allen, a recent graduate of Merritting Attention,
exemplifies the coach’s sentiments.
“Larry’s program helped me improve
academically,” he said. “It gave me the confidence to
ask for help and succeed at school.”
Allen has since enrolled in Lincoln Middle School as part of the
METCO Program, and stars on the school’s basketball team. He
plans on attending Lincoln-Sudbury High School next fall.
Allen also highlighted Merritt’s role in supporting the
community.
"Larry brings them together to do something productive, instead of
spending time at home watching TV or wasting time on the streets,"
he said.
Volunteer mentor and Boston International senior Jesse Barbosa
agreed, pointing out that the program "takes kids from [dangerous
areas] and helps them do something that they really like and are
interested in."
"Larry is helping to build a stronger community," she said.
Academic success through athletics
Elementary and middle-school aged children make up the vast
majority of Meritting Attention’s players, and those who
don’t later receive scholarships to private secondary schools
must navigate the BPS system. However, the Boston-Scholar Athlete
program (BSA), implemented in 2009 as a result of a Boston
Globe article condemning the state of high school sports in
the city, has made an effort to increase athletic participation and
eligibility.
Partnering with Boston mayor Thomas Menino and the BPS, Suffolk
Construction CEO John Fish pledged an unprecedented $5 million over
five years to "support academic achievement through athletics."
As of the 2011-12 school year, the BSA has established academic
“Zones” in all 19 Boston public high schools, complete
with outside tutors and work stations equipped with computers and
graphing calculators. In addition, the BSA sponsors numerous
showcasing events to increase exposure for star athletes, and has
made several equipment and facility improvements throughout the
city.
"We know through research that there exists a direct correlation
between participation in athletics and academic achievement," said
Evan Davis, the BSA's executive director. "Our goal is to help make
athletic programs in BPS schools as attractive as possible, and to
get as many kids playing sports as possible."
By all accounts, the BSA program has been successful.
Participation in fall athletics has increased by three percent
since 2009, and almost 3,200 student-athletes are currently
enrolled in Zones across Boston. In addition, graduation rates in
the city’s high schools are at an all-time high, with 63.2
percent of students graduating on-time in 2010, up 1.8 percent
since the implementation of the BSA program.
Barbosa, an avid softball player, described how the new Zone in
her school has helped initiate academic improvement.
“[Before the Zones] Many kids didn’t participate in
athletics because they didn’t think it was worth it,”
she said. “But as time went by, they decided to give it a
chance because there were new programs to help them academically.
Participating in athletics became a way for kids to help get their
grades up, and they became eligible to do things that they really
liked, such as sports.” (Depending on the school, BPS
students currently need between a 1.67 and 2.5 GPA to compete in
athletics.)
The BSA also gave students at English High School in Jamaica Plain
the support system they needed to meet the school’s landmark
new GPA requirement of 2.5 to participate in sports. Barry
Robinson, the athletic director and boys' basketball coach at
English, explained that the school needed to raise the athletic
prerequisite from a 1.67 because "when the season was over, the
players’ interest level in school went down. Most of the
time, they were just getting by and doing the minimum to get a
1.67."
Robinson emphasized that the BSA "really, really helps [the
school] out.” The student-athletes benefit from the
“laptops and tutors” in English’s Zone, and the
BSA has allowed coaches to “look at students’ grades on
a daily basis and monitor their progress in class,” he said.
The program has even let Robinson establish a four hour Saturday
study hall for student-athletes in the school’s Zone.
“The students need the extra support,” he said.
“It’s not as if they leave on Friday, and we
don’t see them again until Monday morning.”
Additionally, Barbosa explained that at Boston International,
“many teachers volunteer to be in the Zone, which gives kids
more contact with them and lets them feel more comfortable asking
for help.”
“Kids are getting more focused,” she said. “The
number of students who did really well on MCAS exams has increased
a lot.”
From 2009 to 2010, Boston International High School saw a 47
percent improvement in passing scores for English, and a 10 percent
increase in Math.
“With the BSA program, kids have found some kind of spark
within themselves and have decided to stay focused on
school,” Barbosa said. “Most have graduated and are now
in college. Many students are just trying to find a hand to hold
onto, so they can succeed.”
She recounted the story of one mentor in particular, Aly Azor, who
has risen above and beyond his obligations to make sure students at
Boston International feel cared for.
“Mr. Azor is always there for us,” she said.
“Even when we are not in the Zone, he shows that he cares and
that he is going to be there for us. He always has his hands open
to support us.”
Barbosa explained that Azor, who graduated from Boston College in
2009, monitors the progress of student-athletes both inside and
outside the Zone, and can frequently be seen smiling from the
stands at games. In addition, Boston International headmaster
Nicole Bahnam added that Azor’s frequent “homework
sessions” and “SAT prep classes” have had
“a great impact on the men and women” of her
school.
Tutors like Azor are said to exemplify the qualities that the BSA
hopes to instill in all BPS’ volunteers and coaches. In order
to meet this goal, the program offers a free professional
development course for all high school coaches in the city in
addition to their student-based projects. The BSA Coaches Academy,
as the program is called, “has helped coaches increase their
skills in working on and off the court with
student-athletes,” Merritt explained.
“Having coaches who are passionate about kids and competent
about the sport in which they are coaching will help the kids stay
in BPS schools,” he said.
Justin Rice, founder of the website BPSsports.com, shared
Merritt’s opinion about the importance of capable
coaches.
“Athletics in urban schools sometimes serve as a
double-edged sword for disadvantaged youth if schools don't have
the proper support systems in place to put sports in context for
students,” he said. “Without solid coaches to promote a
healthy sports environment, many students start to think that
athletics are all about flashy dunks and fancy dribbling, and
believe that they are destined to become NBA players.”
Rice made clear that when only 0.15 percent of high school
athletes make it to the professional level (according to the NCAA),
sports can sometimes give students “a sense of false
hope” without qualified coaches to put athletics in
perspective.
“The more education coaches receive, the better,” he
said.
Boston celebrity gives back
Complementing the BSA’s model of identifying and renovating
deteriorating public athletic facilities, Celtics star Rajon Rondo
decided to launch his “Boston’s Got Wings”
program at the beginning of the last NBA season.
For every steal Rondo logged on the year, his sponsor Red Bull
donated $500 to the Boston Parks and Recreation Department, with
the purpose of refurbishing public basketball courts around the
city. Rondo raised almost $80,000 after recording 153 steals last
season, and 13 courts within five city parks received extensive
restorations as a result of his efforts. Malcolm X Park in Roxbury
-- featured in Chris Ballard’s “Hoop Nation” as
one of the top-30 national sites for pick-up basketball -- and the
Back Bay Fens -- just steps from the Green Monster and storied
Fenway Park -- were some of the more prominent courts to be
repaired.
Cesar Adim, a ninth grade Boston resident and basketball standout
at Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood, has witnessed
firsthand the positive impact that the newly restored courts have
had on the city’s young players.
“The renovations have given the kids around Boston a better,
safer place to play,” he said. “They aren’t
slipping on the court all the time, and the courts are not all
messed up like they used to be.”
Last August, at the opening ceremony of the newly revamped courts
at Malcolm X Park, Rondo echoed Adim’s reaction to Dime
Magazine: “Having a place to play is very big. Anything for
kids, I’m all with, and for.”
Rondo also explained to the magazine that the Boston’s Got
Wings project “means a lot” to him, as a kid who was
raised in inner-city Louisville.
Still a long road ahead
Nearly all the constructive initiatives recently put into
operation around the city have been privately financed, and there
remain numerous unfunded athletic needs within the BPS. Even with
the substantial improvements made possible by Rise Up, the BSA, and
Boston’s Got Wings, athletic facilities in many city schools
are still decrepit.
Only six of the 19 BPS high schools have their own football
fields; the rest are forced to play chronically under-attended
“home” games in Jamaica Plain’s White Stadium.
Once spring rolls around, nearly all the city’s baseball
players will find themselves competing in public parks, with some
teams, such as Boston International’s squad, hosting games as
far as five miles from where they go to class. Consequently, the
public schools appear an unattractive option to Boston’s most
gifted athletes, many of whom are offered scholarships to one of
the copious New England prep schools with powerhouse sports
programs.
"BPS athletics have very talented athletes, but the challenge is
that the private schools have better facilities," Merritt said.
"It’s like comparing apples to oranges when a family is asked
to make a decision between a state of the art facility, and a
facility that needs a make over. Prep and private schools use their
facilities as the recruiting hook when they invite candidates on
their campus."
Antonio Menefve, a member of the New Mission High School
basketball team in Roxbury, helped his team bring home the Division
2 State Championship last year. But the team still practices on a
rented floor at the Tobin Community Center, because the school
lacks its own gymnasium.
Barbosa, however, explained that her school lacks the resources
for students to even participate in the city’s most popular
sport.
“We are trying to start a basketball team, but the gym is
too small,” she said. “It brings down hope for kids
that are interested in basketball. Getting every public school the
same facilities and equipment would make the community
stronger.”
Robinson said that in spite of the BSA implementation, some
“parents think the grass is greener on the other side.”
They believe that private schools will help their children
“focus better, and concentrate on academics,” he
said.
Reflecting the feelings of some Boston-area parents, Menefve
maintained that the most urgent problem affecting his school is
that “kids are not being pushed hard enough to become true
student-athletes."
"The BSA motivates some kids, and is giving students a chance to
succeed, but I would go one step further and push up the athletic
GPA requirement [at New Mission] from a C-minus to a B,” he
said.
According to the Boston Globe and the BPS Superintendent’s
Office, the city has actually cut the school athletic budget from
$3.9 million in 2009 to $2.7 million for the 2012 Fiscal Year. When
queried on the issue, Mathew Wilder, the Director of Media
Relations for BPS, admitted that Boston schools “have a
limited budget and are not able to do this work alone.”
“When you have so much money going into education, and such
great emphasis on standardized test scores, you have to look for
athletic funding elsewhere,” Merritt said. “Educating
kids is so expensive.”
Wilder said the BPS athletic programs have largely been able to
survive the budget shortfall because "good partners like Suffolk
Construction have stepped up to the plate to help our students."
But city schools still have a long way to go in developing new
facilities and keeping kids academically motivated. The quality of
athletics and academics in BPS schools have so far managed to
improve considerably in an era of financial cuts, but it will take
years to fully asses the city’s progress.
Most of the progress to date has been made possible because a
coalition of large corporations such as Red Bull, ESPN, and Suffolk
Construction, have aligned with local volunteers and together built
a foundation for achievement in the city’s public schools. By
helping to mentor student-athletes and renovate athletic facilities
in Boston's inner-city, this partnership has started to "put in
time to make the community better,” as Dorchester teenager
Earl Stephens explained.
The companies have also helped to inspire a new wave of change --
from students at Dorchester and TechBoston Academies fixing up a
neighborhood playground as part of Rise Up’s corporate
outreach program, to Zone members in the BSA’s community
initiative participating in local service projects. Although
conditions in city schools remain nowhere near perfect, each
selfless act, whether a complete overhaul of a playing field, or
the simple step of showing up to a game, will continue to fortify
the Boston community and increase athletic and academic
opportunities for local children.
The experience of the Dorchester Bears Varsity football team, a
beneficiary of the Rise Up program, epitomizes the continuing
efforts of city charities and volunteers to improve athletic
conditions for Boston’s youth. Even though the Bears
currently reside at the bottom of the Boston City League standings
and still play home games at White Stadium, nearly 3 miles away
from their newly renovated school facilities, the players feel a
new sense of preparedness and drive to succeed as a result of
ESPN’s support.
“The Rise Up program has given us more hope," said senior
quarterback and captain Michael Belifore. "We were coming off of a
3-7 season from last year, and we have been doing much better (the
Bears are 4-3 so far in 2011); we stepped our game up. Everything
they have done has benefited our season in a huge way, including
the new weight room so we could get stronger, and the new track so
we could condition.
“Even though 'Rise Up' is gone, we all still have that sense
of pride because out of many schools, they chose ours, so its kind
feels as if they never left. Even though they did little with the
field, next year [the city] will be inserting turf and making it
look more like a stadium. I think that [the project] was successful
because it gave me more hope, showing me that anything is
possible.”
Jillian Smith, the athletic director at TechBoston Academy, home
of Bears athletics, accurately summed up the present state of BPS
athletics when describing the atmosphere of her school.
“Programs like Rise Up and the BSA have provided a
steppingstone to get athletics at our school where they need to
be,” she said. “But we’re not there yet. Despite
the renovations, we still lack our own full-length field. Students
at TechBoston would like nothing more than to eventually play home
football and soccer games under the lights, with teachers and
friends cheering them on."
Overall, however, Smith maintained that the projects “have
let kids know that we care about what they are doing, and want to
help them succeed.”
Buckling down
It’s 11 a.m. at the community center, and the sound of
excited giggling engulfs the first floor as twenty kids sprint up
the stairs to the basketball court. Study hall is over, and
it’s time to play ball.
The boys split up into two lines, each eagerly awaiting his chance
to demonstrate a perfectly executed left-handed lay-up for the
beaming coach at center court. Balls careen off the backboard as
one by one the players twirl and leap, awkwardly attempting to
complete the most subtly difficult of basketball plays.
Soon enough, the drills come to an end and the scrimmage finally
begins. For these few minutes, there is no violence, no drugs, and
each child is free to exalt in the supreme joy of competition.
But noon comes all too quickly. Time for the kids to stop
playing.
“Don’t forget your homework next week,” Merritt
reminds them.
