Sports and Mentoring

The involvement of young African American males in community and school-based athletics has been an ongoing conversation not only within the African American community but in the sports community at large. Often when we hear of African American males within athletics; be it collegiate or professional, it is often couched or enveloped in a negative connotation of some sort. But the primary impetus for this case study is to look at the importance of mentoring for African American male youth within community and school-based sports and how this is seen as a lifeline for community service and life lessons. This case study examines one leader's strategic approach to closing the achievement gap and providing mentoring with African American males through the sports-leadership nonprofit organization he manages.