2012 Student Athlete College Combine

This event is for graduating seniors for 2012 school year. We invite students from ALL school districts to attend. Our goal is to make sure our student athletes get into college and off the streets and continue to save lives. 

Pre-Registration: Was held is Thursday, Feb 2, 2012 at 9am at the DJCF Center with the below presentations. If you were unable to attend please fill out the Registration Intake Form (the height and weight will be taken the day of the combine). If you are having trouble downloading the registration form, please email Jami Dolby at jami@djgivesback.com

Making Good Decisions
Dwayne T. Bess, Author & Growth Coach

Qualifying For College: Students-In-Transition
Deidra Thomas-Murray, Saint Louis Public Schools

Getting Into College: Division II & III, NAIA and Junior College
David Peirce, Missouri Baptist Univeristy
Assistant Professor and Undergraduate Sport Management Coordinator

College Combine: (you must be registered in order to attend)
Saturday, February 18th 10am-4pm
FREE
Dellwood Indoor Recreation Complex

For more information: please contact us at 314-367-4141

ST. LOUIS – The Demetrious Johnson Charitable Foundation announced today that they have partnered with the St. Louis Phoenix professional basketball team to create stability for basketball fans in St. Louis.

“I’m giving the team to the community and the Demetrious Johnson Charitable Foundation is the best way to achieve my goals,” said owner James Graham.  “I want to provide a stable and reliable professional basketball team for young men who dream of becoming a pro ball player.”

The Demetrious Johnson Charitable Foundation will operate and conduct the day to day operations including game day setup. 

“A professional ball club owned by the community will create the bond we need to make it successful,” said Demetrious Johnson.

Bully Survival Guide
A. Is it bullying?

• Physical Violence
• Looks
• Gestures
• Actions
• Threats
• Text Messages (Facebook, Myspace, Youtube)
• Remarks
• Rumors

C. What can I do when bullied?

• Stay Calm and remember don’t become a “MESS”
• M-Mad
• E- Embarrassed
• S – Sad
• S – Scared

D. Should I report being bullied?

• YES -
• Report it – reporting is when someone is trying to stop or prevent someone from getting hurt or stopping a crime.
• Contact your teacher, nearby adult,  or parent.

Does Black History Month hold any real significance for blacks — or is it merely an attempt to pacify and appease an outspoken, downtrodden, disenfranchised community?

Black History Month has its roots in Negro History Week, established in 1926 by historian Carter G. Woodson to commemorate the births of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Woodson hoped one day to eliminate the “Week” part, that black history would become as fundamental to American history as the Civil War.

Nearly 80 years on, we remain light years away from Woodson’s ideal. The nonstop barrage of TV public service announcements, museum exhibits, lectures, tours and book promotions do little to construct, let alone connect Americans to, a deeper understanding of the importance of black contributions to this country — even within the black community.

A growing number of angry voices say, too, that Black History Month is a waste. That confining the celebration of black achievement to the coldest, shortest month of the year constitutes a slap in the face. A bandage. High visibility for a measly four weeks, then virtually ignored thereafter.

John Wiley Price, the sole black county commissioner in Dallas, Texas, boycotts the month entirely, refusing all invitations to speak. “I’m not going to be, as the kids say, ‘pimped’ during the month of February,” Price declared.

Should we ditch Black History Month? Or, if we eliminate it entirely, do we wind up diminishing ourselves? And just who should be responsible for educating blacks about their past? White America?

I don’t think so!

One, blacks’ contributions to this country deserve to be recognized. The achievements, sacrifices, trials-by-fire of our black leaders should be taught. Integrated into our psyche and collective wisdom. And in this, the black community, itself, needs to lead the charge.

Second, black athletes, especially, can make a huge impact. I do not expect them to possess the same selfless dedication of a Dr. Martin Luther King, Miss Rosa Parks, Malcolm X or Harriet Tubman. But, black sports stars’ larger-than-life presence on the national stage, the hero worship by our youth, ensures that whatever those players talk about, people will listen.

Black athletes command the kind of clout that can do more than sell Nikes. They can bring sharp focus to the legacy of debilitating policies and issues demoralizing blacks today. Through their words, through their actions, black athletes can teach, and not just one month out of the year.

Remember Tommie Smith and John Carlos? The two fastest men on the planet?

After winning the gold and bronze medals, respectively, in the 200 meters at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Smith and Carlos ascended the podium for the national anthem, bowed their heads and raised their black glove-clad fists in the air in silence.

Americans, aghast and terrified by the stark image, widely interpreted it as an arrogant display of “black power” and allegiance to the Black Panthers. Smith and Carlos were summarily demonized by everyone. Very few people, even in the black community, bothered to ask the men “why”.

Had they done so, they would have learned that Smith and Carlos were not disrespecting the U.S., they were protesting against racism. The racism that meant “none could truly have a day in the sun without education, housing and employment”.

To them, medals were an unfulfilling carrot on a stick. “If you can’t give your wife or son or daughter what they need to live,” Carlos explains, ”after a while, you try to escape who you are. That’s why people turn to drugs and why our communities have been destroyed. That’s why there was a revolt . . . win[ning] a medal aint’ going to save your momma.”

So, the two strode up to the podium barefoot, wearing black shirts, gloves and beads. Barefoot, to inform the world that in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, South Central Los Angeles and Chicago, blacks still walked in poverty with no clothes on their backs, no shoes for their kids. Beads, to commemorated those black men “lynched, hung tarred, thrown off the side of boats or killed that no one said a prayer for”.

That is deep. Powerful. So, yeah. Black Power, if you will – but, of an educational and societally heroic kind, rather than of a militarily violent mind.

Then, too, there were the black American Football League players who boycotted the 1967 All-Star game in New Orleans to draw attention to Louisiana’s segregationist policies. These brave athletes refused to give the state, by their presence at the game, even the appearance of credibility.

Their risk was big. The AFL (precursor to the American Football Conference), recruited heavily from small black colleges, at a time when the NFL only grudgingly drafted black players. “We’ll start signing Negroes,” Washington Redskins owner George Preston Marshall once chided, “when the Harlem Globetrotters start signing whites.”

The players’ protest could have jeopardized the AFL’s future draft decisions, not to mention their own jobs. Still, they willingly risked losing it all for the sake of doing the right thing.

Black heroes such as these, and color-barrier breakers like Fritz Pollard (football), Jackie Robinson (baseball), Charlie Wiggins (auto racing) and Tiger Woods (golf), lead by example. They bring black history to life. They teach us, inspire us and infuse our legacy into the mainstream of America.

Unfortunately, few black sports superstars today would ever risk losing their endorsement deals, let alone their careers, to stand up for their own. Look at Michael Jordan. When asked to endorse a black candidate for Senator against the racist incumbent, Jesse Helms, in his home state of North Carolina, Jordan declined. Why? “Republicans buy sneakers, too.”

I will be the first to tell you, from experience, money – and its illusion of inclusion — is hard to resist.

First, when you come out of college after 21 years of second-class citizenry, you get hooked up with a white agent by your white coach (because, shamefully, only three NCAA Division I head coaches are black). You get drafted by a pro team owned by a white guy (because only one major sports team has a black majority owner), and now the money starts rolling in. Your white agent introduces you to your new, white accountant and public relations adviser. You begin to develop a lot of white friends.

Next, your team introduces you to a white real estate agent to help you find a nice house in a nice neighborhood. The broker advises against moving into a black neighborhood, or simply neglects to show you homes in mixed areas.

Your white agent then recommends you start a foundation to “improve” (i.e., “soften”) your image. Your agent escorts you to affluent (white) events and gives you the false impression that you are accepted by the white community as this great, non-threatening, assimilated player. Your conversion is complete; you leave the community forever.

For example, Toby Wright, a former St. Louis Ram strong safety, created the “Wright to Dream Foundation”. But, rather than sponsoring disadvantaged black kids, he chose to sponsor the all-white football league in Oakville, Illinois (a nearly all-white community), including their year-end banquet.

Kevin Carter, a Tennessee Titan and former Ram defensive end, used to hold his football camp in affluent areas of predominantly white St. Louis County, rather than in the deprived, predominantly black areas of the City.

You can choose differently.

I am not saying blacks should cross white folks off their list. I am no hypocrite. I played pro football for the Lions and Chargers, and I still have my white lawyer and white accountant. But, I also have a black attorney and my adviser is a collective of family and close friends, black and white.

But to me, black athletes who are in the enviable position to make a difference, have a responsibility to step up and teach. Lead. Inspire. The black community.

Unfortunately, our black hero pool appears depleted. There are no more Muhammad Alis who refuse to fight in unjust wars; it’s me first, my people last. When the brash, outspoken broadcaster and former NBA great, Charles Barkley, admits he is not a role model for kids, you know which kids he is talking about.

We should never forget that America was built on the backs of black slave labor. Our freedom, paid for with the blood of brave men and women who risked everything to further the struggle for liberty and equality for all.

Black athletes need to speak out for people who can’t, 12 months out of every year. It is our responsibility. Our history. God, give us heroes who will lead!

© 2011 All rights reserved. Demetrious Johnson writes for www.Giveback.com, and hosts The Demetrious Johnson Talk Radio Show on Hot 104.1FM, Sunday Mornings 8 am-10 am