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Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had the opportunity to speak with middle school students in Halifax County and a group of high school teachers in Durham. My pitch to both groups: kids playing sports should prepare for a career in the business of sports...just in case their dream of playing sports fizzles. Have a back-up plan!

Consider the stats:

There are over 455,000 kids playing high school baseball in America. There are 7300 freshman roster positions across all colleges/universities, and 5700 will be playing as seniors. 600 will be drafted annually. The percent of high school senior players that make it to pro baseball is .5%.

Lets look at hoops: 550,000 youth are playing basketball in HS. There are 4500 freshmen roster spots at the college level…3500 senior players…and approx 44 will be drafted. High school seniors to pro = .03%.

I’m not trying to throw cold water on a kid’s dream, but they can use their education to prepare for a career in the sports business: sales and marketing, finance, food service, turf management, communications, IT.

Play sports. Prepare for a career in the front office.

BTW, I visited Enfield Middle School in Halifax County at the behest of Teach for America. Great school. Dedicated staff. Promising young scholars. Glad I made the trip.

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Here in the Bull City we recently honored Teacher of the Year nominees from the Durham Public Schools...

From left to right:
Emily Greenstreet, Northern High School
JeVar Bransome, Shepard Magnet Middle School
Takesha Trapp, Pearsontown Elementary School
Rebecca Myers, Rogers-Herr Middle School
Matt Hunt, Northern High School - 2009-10 Teacher of the Year

...and the winner is:

Takesha Trapp, Pearsontown Elementary School

Congratz!

Teach for America

It was my recent privilege to host ten soon to be public school teachers in our suite at the ballpark. They were in Durham for training as they entered the Teach for America program, and they will be teaching this fall across eastern north Carolina - assigned to low performing schools.

I am so impressed with TFA.

I just assumed it was some sort of scholarship program. Quite the opposite. TFA visits colleges to recruit kids that haven’t considered teaching as a career. They are looking for math, science and econ majors with leadership backgrounds – young people who can be “change agents” in the classroom. TFA provides intensive summertime training and the school districts hire them. The TFA corps members receive on-going mentoring and support during the school year. It’s a very effective system.

I am so impressed with the TFA recruits.

We met math majors…poly sci…a budding economist…pre-med. The Durham school system employees about thirty TFA corps members. Dr. Carl Harris, Superintendent of Durham Public Schools:

Our principals will line up to get a Teach For America teacher. They know from experience that Teach For America teachers are consistently good instructional personnel. Teach For America participants are very student focused and are highly committed to student success. Like all new teachers, they sometimes find the classroom a real challenge, but instead of succumbing, they rise to the opportunity, work through their problems, and come to a solution that will benefit the student, the teacher and the school.

Our TFA guests and Wool E. Bull; the E stands for education!

The TFA regional office is across the street at the American Tobacco campus. Please visit their website. Click here to learn more. I have only scratched the surface in this post. If you are interested in supporting a non-profit organization that’s making an impressive difference in our public schools, make a connection with Teach for America.