Leadership Lessons from Overcoming the Odds

After my ninth birthday and with my mother’s permission, my dad began to be present more consistently in my life again.

How Football Shaped Early Leadership

A sports enthusiast, my dad saw it as his responsibility to introduce me to football. Those are still some of my best memories with my dad because I believe that is where I learned a lot of leadership skills that I display in my life’s work today. I remember my first induction into the game of football. One afternoon, my dad picked me up to go to a sports store, where I tried on football equipment. As a novice with no knowledge of the sport, I felt a mixture of excitement and nervousness. However, my desire to be close to my dad overcame any apprehensions. The store clerk helped me try on shoulder pads, pants, knee pads, and the rest of the necessary gear. Unaware that different positions require different helmets, I selected a bulky and very unsuitable defensive lineman helmet—after all I didn’t even know what position I would play, or if I would be any good at all.

Discovering Leadership on the Field

At the time, Ben Hill Recreation Center had organized a summer football camp and practice, drawing in hundreds of students and youth from the community.1 Sometimes, when I pass by groups of elementary, middle, or high school students practicing on the fields near my home, I can’t help but reminisce about my first day at camp. Despite my lack of experience, one of the recreational coaches, whom we called Coach Kool-Aid, noticed my potential and made me a defensive end due to my solid footwork, eventually moving me to a cornerback position. My role, however, quickly expanded. The following summer, I spent more time with Coach Kool-Aid and Coach Cowan, who recognized my strong throwing arm. By the start of the season, I was the quarterback for our recreational team and even led us to the championship.

Learning Leadership Through Loss and Growth

We didn’t win, but I was a leader. For the next three years, I dedicated myself to this position, learning invaluable leadership lessons that I still apply today—lessons like gathering people, speaking up, leading through loss, and one of the greatest lessons, using my voice.

Leadership Lessons That Last a Lifetime

I discovered the significance of hard work and persistence. Whatever the challenges, I learned to keep pushing forward. When faced with setbacks, I found the strength to get back up. And when someone criticized me or yelled at me, I saw it as an opportunity to become better.

Community and Leadership Formation

In addition to the skills and lessons I learned from football, the sport also helped me understand the power of community. I still miss those end-of-season banquets where team members gathered to celebrate our accomplishments—we all received trophies. The trophies were plastic, but they reminded us that we were all worth the time and effort our coaches and community poured into us. The camaraderie and the sense of being a part of something greater than myself were truly special. That was the beauty of the Campbellton Road community; it provided support, a sense of togetherness, family, and guidance—even when there were community problems and times got tough for families.

Leadership in the Face of Poverty

Yet the harsher sides of our reality were never far away. During Little League football and baseball practices, Coach Kool-Aid (who played football for Grambling State University, a historically Black college and university—HBCU) used to say, “Not everyone is lucky enough to make it out.” What he meant was that not everyone escapes the neighborhood with a solid education, a successful career, or the kind of personal growth and confidence that would enable them to transcend an environment riddled with poverty. In fact, he once told a few players from the team, “The reality is that some of you might not finish school or have the best path out of the hood. That will depend on how you take what we are teaching you and use it to overcome.” He understood trauma awareness long before any of us had sophisticated language to identify it, recognizing the deep emotional impacts of living in poverty and how it shapes one’s mental and emotional well-being. But I understood exactly what he was talking about.

Overcoming the Odds Through Mentorship

My coach shared these words in the early 1990s, around the time of the Rodney King beating, and talked to us about the obvious poverty and urban blight in Black neighborhoods. And the reality is that much of what I experienced when I was growing up remains true for many today. Coach dedicated himself to serving the youth after he overcame the odds and attended college.