Social Justice: Urban Education
About Kalu
Outside of my academic aspirations, I spend the majority of my time around the game of basketball. I can honestly say that basketball has changed my life. Around the ages of 12 and 13, I started hanging around the wrong people. I was introduced to drugs and the street life and I began to go down the wrong path. My grades quickly dropped and I honestly spent more time home suspended or in ISS then the actual classroom. One day while I was in the office waiting to talk to the principal, some man approached me. He told me that his son went to the same school as me and since I was a pretty bigger kid, I should come tryout for his youth AAU basketball team. That night I told my mother about what happened and she agreed to let me tryout and play if I promise to not get suspended again that year. So a couple days later, I went to the tryout and I made the team. Being on the basketball team kept me out of trouble due to it being so time consuming. Coach Jackson also had a rule that if you didn’t have at least a 70% in all your classes, you couldn’t play but you still had to go to every single practice. He hosted study tables at his house every Monday before our practice. My grades gradually shot up and for the first time in my life, I was an honor student. If coach Jackson never took a chance on me and I didn’t fall in love with basketball, I don’t know where I would be.
I went on to play high school basketball for St. Paul Central, under the leadership of Coach Scott Howell. I was an All Conference player during my junior and senior year and was labeled a team captain. After high school, I went on to play collegiate basketball at St.Cloud Technical and Community College for a season and later played two seasons at Hamline University. Unfortunately due to a money situation, I was forced to take a leave of absence from school which ended my basketball career. Giving up basketball was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever had to make, because the sport meant so much to me. Some people see athletics as just sports but for some people, it’s a way out of bad situations.
The first couple months away from basketball was the toughest. I was so sad and mad all the time. I started using food as a coping mechanism and gained over thirty five pounds. Then one day my old college coach hit me up and asked me if I would like to coach summer AAU basketball for the Heat program. At first I was skeptical about it since I had never coached before but I decided to give it a shot. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Even though I wasn’t playing anymore, I was still able to be connected to the game that I love and was able to work with youth.
I still coach to this very day. I am currently coaching at my old high school St. Paul Central, as the JV coach and coaching for the Roseville Youth Traveling program. My goal with coaching is to be a mentor and help youth go down the right path like Coach Jackson did for
