In the final installment of former Lady Spartan Lacrosse player Johannah Mitchell’s blog on her experience this summer with Coach Across America, she reflects on her summer working for Harlem Lacrosse and Leadership.

After working with three camps and over 30 children, my summer working for Coach Across America has officially come to an end.  I was extremely sad to leave the wonderful group of kids I spent the last two months working with.  This summer was an incredible learning experience for me and I could not be more grateful to both Coach Across America and Harlem Lacrosse and Leadership for awarding me this amazing opportunity.  I had the chance to work with influential coaches, as well as coach an awesome group of kids.

The final camp I worked with was HLL’s Boarding School Boot Camp.  This camp is designed to work with a few select players who are either already attending, newly accepted to, or potential candidates for boarding school.  During the camp, players worked on their reading and writing skills so they could be better prepared for the demands of boarding school.

During camp the kids read The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams, by Darcy Frey.  Frey’s non-fiction account of Coney Island’s four most promising basketball players, including Russell, Tchaka, Corey, and Stephon, is undeniably moving.  These players were given the chance to play basketball for the dedicated Coach Hartstein, who essentially had the ticket for them to get out of the ghetto.  In return basketball provided them with guidance, support and the hope of escaping a future filled with crime and poverty.  

Nelson Mandela once said, “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does.  It speaks to youth in a language they understand.  Sport can create hope where once there was only despair.”  Participation in sports has immense power on a child's life.  Sports can afford youth with the necessary tools, such as responsibility, teamwork, and leadership, to succeed in life.  

Harlem Lacrosse and Leadership does just that! HLL has taught their players the importance of education, as well as what it means to set goals and work hard to achieve those goals.  For instance, one day we had a guest speaker, a HLL Board Member, who also went to a boarding school.  He asked the kids their dreams for the future.  Hearing what the kids had in mind was incredible.   Many of the players have dreams of becoming marine biologists, lawyers, and businessmen and women.  One player, who is incredible bright, wants to study English Literature and one day become a college professor.  Unanimously, all of them want to graduate from boarding school, get into a college where they can play lacrosse, and pursue great paying jobs that will, as they put it, get them out of the ghetto.  

HLL emphasizes the meaning of challenging yourself and working hard to achieve your dreams.  However, they make it clear that not everyone is going to accomplish his or her goals.  At the next level of education everybody is in competition with each other to achieve the best of the best.  Often, this competition is unfair.   This is probably the hardest idea a teacher or coach has to come to terms with.  Just like in Frey's book, and as the campers found out in the epilogue, even though these four players were talented, hard working, and had dreams of their own, Stephon was the only player to succeed and make it out of Coney Island.  Teaching and coaching can only go so far and you are not going to get through to every kid.  At the end of the day, you can only hope you have given your students and/or players the necessary tools to move forward in life.     

Working with HLL this summer has allowed me to see how unbelievably great a program like this is for a struggling community with "at-risk" children.  HLL offers their players the chance to become part of a team, as well as the opportunity to take advantage of the many resources they have.  To educate their players, Harlem Lacrosse and Leadership sets up a variety of different field trips. They also have many volunteers and guest speakers who work with the children and help teach the players about all the various opportunities available to them, such as playing lacrosse, going to college, and getting a great job.  The common message with every trip and speaker is the importance of education.

For a program to offer services not only to these children during the school year, but also during the summer is absolutely fantastic.  The players who take advantage of both services are the children who are ambitious, enthusiastic, goal-oriented, devoted, and focused.  These children have a willingness to learn both on and off the field, as well as a desire to achieve and experience bigger and better things.

I have always understood the power of sports because I, myself, credit all my accomplishments to being a student-athlete.  At a time when budget cuts, layoffs, and in extreme cases school closers are all too familiar in our society the group that truly suffers the most are the children.  The art, music, and athletic programs are always the first programs to face the ax when school districts cut back.  In a startling two-year period, there were “more than $3.5 billion cut from sports programs in public schools.” (Up2Us.org)

These cutbacks are only hurting society.  Programs like Coach Across America and Harlem Lacrosse and Leadership bring communities with “at-risk” children the resources to help educate, facilitate physical health, and promote social development for their children.  When you take away programs, whose main goals are to benefit participates, you are not only doing a disservice to the kids, but also to the community.  Our focus as a nation should be on the future and how these decisions will effect our youth.  By supporting these programs, the youths of tomorrow are no longer crippled by society and can be given opportunities to achieve their goals.

The feeling of giving back to your community and helping children learn and grow is one of a kind.  And I am unbelievably thankful for the opportunity to work with these nonprofit programs.  Ending my service with Coach Across America and Harlem Lacrosse and Leadership is definitely bittersweet.  While I am certainly going to miss the people I have worked with and the kids I have met, I am excited to take what I’ve learned this summer and apply it to my future endeavors.

I owe a great deal of gratitude to the East Coach Conference Commissioner, Dr. Dranoff, who helped me throughout the entire CAA process, Coach Across America for awarding me the job, and Harlem Lacrosse and Leadership for facilitating my growth as a coach.  I would also like to thank all my friends and family, past coaches and teachers, and my past teammates, without their guidance and support I would have never been able to accomplish all that I have.  This summer I can undoubtedly say I have grown as a person, a player, and a coach.  

Please check out www.up2us.org and www.harlemlacrosse.org to learn about what you can do to help.