Prayers for a FAllen Player

I just received the news that one of my former players was killed last night in a drive-by shooting. He was 19 years old.
I coached Steltson Davis for four years up until he was 13. One of the best natural talents I ever coached, and a wonderful kid to be around. He had a very meager support system: No dad involved and a mom that did the best she could with a crowd of kids. I kind of became his surrogate father or a couple of years while we traveled all over creation playing baseball. He and my son were like brothers.
But as these things tend to happen, the kid and his mother started moving from project to project, he quit playing baseball to play more basketball, and I lost touched. I ran into him about a year ago and he told me he had been shot in the elbow not long before. I gave him the usual talk about staying away from trouble, education, etc but I could look at him and tell it was there anymore between us.
My heart breaks when I think what happened to this kid over a short period of time. He went from being one of the really cool kids I knew to being just another dead banger laying on the street bleeding. I have no more answers for this problem than anyone but I do know that there is an underbelly to our society that we ignore that is creating alot of monsters that will have to be dealt with sooner or later.

 

Sad Story

played out much the same way way to often. I know your hurting Ive been there myself many times. We do the best we can and hope that we reach just one kid to make it worth while. I worked the streets of Durham for almost 20 years. I coached many of these kids in youth football for years. I used to take them home from practice at night and the only way I got in or out was by having one of these boys in my car with me. Many people have no idea what some kids have to deal with growing up. Kids raising kids , drugs and crime are almost a way of life in many communities. I always felt if I could just get one of these young men to reach above what they thought they had to accept it was worth it.

Im sorry Baseballman. I know this is a hard day for you. Our kids have no idea how lucky they are. Last year we took our baseball team to the Ronald McDonald House in Durham and they spent a day playing video games and hanging out with the terminally ill kids. This year Im thinking of taking them to the homeless shelter and having them serve Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless. I wish we could do more. I wish we all could do more to help with this epidemic of cime and shattered lives all around us. It is way worse than any of us want to admit.

 

Sorry to hear Baseballman....I too had a little league player Biliah Lasco gunned down on the streets at age 18. I still wish all of my fatherless little league players never had to grow up because once they leave the care of their coaches these bad things seem to swallow them up. I can feel your pain for your player. May he rest in peace.

 

You know, Coach, this has made me think about a couple of things. First, this kid was a flat out stud. Best natural instincts I have ever coached, fast as lightning. I wonder if I would have paid his way, picked him up for practices and gamesfour or five nights a week, and all that if he had been an average player. Probably not.
Also, the thing that struck me about this kid was he was absolutely FEARLESS. He never sweated over a mistake. He never looked nervous. He always wanted to hit or pitch when the game was on the line. Now I think that what made him such a great player in some way led to his death.
I am really surprised how hard this is hitting me. This sucks.

 

I know I am not on this site often, but when I checked in and read this Baseballman, my heart broke. I am so sorry for your loss and I will lift you and those who knew him up in prayer.

Coach 27...sounds like you are doing some good things with young men by taking them to places that they may not normally visit.

Things like this really seem to put life in perspective, huh?

 

I hear you man.

I know exactly what you are saying and feeling. It sucks real bad. You know its kind of hard to worry about not getting a hit with risp when your more worried about what your going to eat when you get home. Or you hope no one shoots into your house tonight like they did last night. Some of these kids are 21 at the age of 12. They have worries that many of us adults have never had. I once had a kid that could not go outside at night , ever. Why? Because the drug dealers were using his front porch to stash their crack and heroin. They told him and his little brothers that if they came outside they would shoot their mother.

I rolled up on them one night and kick their ass. Thats right. I roll up and they start telling me to mind my own business. I told them those boys and their mother was my business and if they didnt move their business somewhere else it was going to be my business. Before it was all said and done I kick their ass. They left her alone after that. Of course I spent about a week in internal affairs trying to keep my job. That was one reason I had to leave that line of work after 20 years. They wanted us to say "Hello, have a nice night and drive on by." You know go get a doughnut and dont cause any problems. The problem was the only people getting hurt by that crap was the good decent honest folk. Fd up world in my opinion. Now I try to do some good by being a coach. At least my parents let me do my job.

 

I posted this in January of '04. It is about a terrifically talented young man that could not breakaway from the lures of the street. It is very similar to the situation that Baseballman went through....and just as tragic.

"I debated whether to post this, but I feel it may have interest to all parents.

My son and many members of this board know Antonio Cousart, one of the most talented athletes in Charlotte and an extremely talented junior pitcher at Myers Park. Antonio was shot and left, at this moment, paralyzed by the buzzsaw bullet. As a parent, you can imagine the emotions anyone close to Antonio is going through.....I thought to myself, how could this happen? You hear about things like this everyday, but not to someone you know and certainly not to a kid with as many option as Antonio had.....then you start thinking about your own son and where he goes and who he hangs out with.

When this happened to Antonio, I thought it was better not to say anything about this on the board and let it remain private, even though many of the people on this board know Antonio and were craving any tidbit of information on his progress.

Epilogue: Antonio Cousart is left paralyzed for the rest if his life


Part 2

Well......just when you start to regain some element of trust in society, at least in regards to our HS baseball players, it has happened again.

A local Charlotte HS pitcher was shot in the head last night....and chances of survival are slim at best. It was a senseless act and one of those " wrong place at the wrong time" situations......this is insane! I know this kid and I know his family very well...great people all around! It leaves a parent with a feeling of "what can I do to protect my child"? Can anyone really?

The point of this post is for all of us parents MUST know who are kids friends are and where they are going at all times...no, it won't prevent this kind of senseless tragedy......but it might....and at this time I don't know of anything else to do. It's frightening, maddening and frustrating.
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Epilogue: This young man recovered from his shooting to actually getting an opportunity to pitch a couple of innings the following year. He has made tremendous strides in his recovery and I believe he is continuing to progress towards 100%
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To be honest, I believe the problems are far too deep and too complex to offer any bullet points to make the situation dramatically improve.

 

Condolences...

Coach. Been there and know what it feels like.

 

Sorry

for my last post. I think I just had a flashback moment. This kind of stuff makes me so angry I have a hard time with it. It is so senseless. We have a society that spends hundreds of thousands of dollars and comes out in droves to put a man behind bars for dogfighting. (I know that is wrong and he should pay the price for it). But sits back and puts there head in the sand when it comes to the situations that many young people have to grow up in. Enough about that. I hope the family is ok. Baseballman I am truly sorry about your young player.