Original subtitles

A lot of the things that were taught to me

as a player or said to me in particular,

never quitting and the value of hard work,

always being accountable and not to point a finger,

you know, if things don't go right,

you don't sit there and blame everybody else.

And when you're a family,

you're not jealous of who gets the glory.

You're just happy with the end results

and that's the victory.

You're not born with that knowledge.

You have to learn it somewhere.

Giving them tough love, helping them grow

is being there for them when they need it.

All right, here we go.

When you was in little league.

Okay so when you played little league football,

you dream of a stage like this,

you dream of a big game like this.

Those little kids right there behind you dreaming right now,

they want to be in your shoes.

Okay.

You got opportunity to do something

that nobody have done in Israel yet.

Nobody have knocked them down.

Trust in God. I believe in you.

You didn't travel this far to lay down.

I know that. We know that.

We believe in you and that's all that matters.

That all that matters.

Say everybody understand this.

And we all have the same thing in common.

No, we care about the kids.

We love the kids and we wanna see the kids succeed.

Every player I have a different relationship with

and that's what keeps me involved in football,

to build these relationships and pass on the strength

that young men are gonna need

when they go out into the world.

Okay, we take it to them, okay.

Yeah, you knock 'em in the mouth

and you knock 'em in the mouth.

Anything that allows the kids to be constructive

and part of a team element and successful,

I think it will always help 'em in the long run.

I know that football really saved me so if it saved me,

it could probably save a lot of others.

All the kids really want someone to push them,

someone to be there for them

and we provide that throughout the program.

The social piece of this and emotional side of what we do

is just as important to me as the academic side.

When they leave Atlantic High School,

they're still part of our family.

Athletics and academics, mix in the home life

and what it means for that environment to be created.

I wish more schools would do that.

The support that we have in place here at Atlantic,

it's almost unheard of.

It's always been a great program,

but the response from the community

has never been this massive.

My community supports what we do here.

You don't play if you don't subscribe to his philosophy,

no matter how good you are.

A football program is a perfect incubator.

One of the benefits of covering these games

as a media member is the credential

which gets you into the game so much quicker

and at some schools it's not a problem

and then you go to Atlantic where it seems

like you come in an hour before the game starts

and there's already a line like there's a blockbuster movie

about to come out.

In our last game in regionals before state,

before Corey scored I felt a sense of loss.

Our teammates already thought it was over with.

They didn't think we would be able to come back.

Couple seconds before half time, he caught the pit.

After Corey scored,

the whole vibe on the sideline was way different.

We went into half time and coach TJ

pulled all of us in the locker room.

He sat all of us down and let us know that we got this

and that we can't let this one game stop us

from going to where we wanna go.

And Corey was the main one that came to me,

crying at five minutes and saying, "It's over, coach."

And Corey went out, he started making plays

and it was really big.

And he scored that.

He put us up.

Corey was dabnot, everybody's saying we got this.

Game not over until the clock hits double zero.

Like before the play even started,

my heart was pounding and the crowd made it even worse.

Well Henry Bryant, being that he possesses the power

and the size, you have to utilize that.

But I already knew Coach TJ was gonna give him the ball

because coach TJ knows that Henry's gonna get the ball

in the goal line no matter what.

And I think when we got down to that one yard line

and that two yard line and Henry walked up to Coach...

Seen Henry running on that field,

I knew it was over.

I went up to coach TJ so I was like oh, coach,

let me run the ball.

So we have a package for short yardage

or things of that nature that basically we'll put him in.

And he like looked at me like yeah,

like it's a good idea.

And here he comes and there's very few,

if any opponents that can stop him.

Kalani hiked the ball.

I start like running.

I see Kamareon, you know, blocking

so I'm like okay.

And the old line was like blocking like harder than ever.

You know, I just like dove.

And I reached my arm out

and then I remember when I had like hit the ground,

I looked to the side and I looked at the ref

and I seen him put his hands up

and I was just like whew, like thank God.

Like I was just so excited and so happy.

The team started going crazy. The crowd was going crazy.

You're just so happy your hugging strangers.

That's what that night was.

There's only a few teams that can make it,

you know, to the finals

so everybody else has had some level of defeat

along the way and anybody can win well

It's really hard to lose well.

It was just like a big moment cause you know,

Coach Alex always talked about how we haven't made it

to states in a while so knowing that we made a record,

especially with that team of talent,

it was just, it was something big.

It wasn't a game that we just won out of the gate.

It's one we had to fight for all the way to the last second

and we knew what it meant to this program

and we knew that it wasn't just about that year,

that it was about all the years before.

This semifinal was huge for both teams

for pretty obvious reasons.

Atlantic hadn't been to a state championship game

since the 1970s and none of these players were born.

Heck, you know, there are probably a bunch of coaches

on the sideline who weren't even born yet

the last time Atlantic played for a state title.

The fact that they lost and they have,

you know, a reason to be motivated, to get back and return,

that's a good thing for Atlantic.

You know, TJ Jackson's been there for a while now.

He's established a program.

He's known for being a good coach

so kids want to play there.

And they, you know, they're able,

they're probably the best team

in Palm Beach County right now

and they definitely have a shot

to get back to the state championship game.

When You have that much talent on the field,

you're eventually gonna win it all.

I believe this team has the potential to win state,

let alone go to state is almost like unfinished business.

And that should be our theme, unfinished business,

because we do have unfinished business.

Part of our strategic plan

is to having a goal of 90% or higher on graduation rate.

When we started looking at some of our players

and some of their post-secondary options and graduation,

we realized that we can do better.

My son started here at Atlantic High School as a freshman

and he was playing freshman football.

You know, we have team fees so we started talking about it

and so I said how about we barter services

and I start tutoring after school.

While my son is in practice,

I'll tutor your football players.

Well that's how it all started.

These are amazing kids, but they needed that bridge.

What's gonna be the bridge that gets them into college?

The program is set up for you to succeed

at Atlantic Community High School.

Many of them or some of them

may not have educated parents at home.

So therefore coaches and sponsors find themselves

having to be more than just a sponsor or a coach.

We're a big family and a team and we support each other

and we work together.

We look at the kids like they're our own.

Our kids don't challenge the program.

They don't challenge what we give them as individuals.

The only challenge they have

is the challenge within themself.

The advice I can give to the JV kids that's coming up

is always put forth the effort.

Don't give up and just trust the process.

The evolution of the program under TJ has been amazing.

When you look at where they were when he took over,

the problems that they had

both in the classroom and off the field,

there was a number of different issues.

A lot of talented kids weren't staying.

Even though they could attend school there,

they were going elsewhere.

TJ brought them all back into the fold.

Most coaches would just be concerned

about winning the next football game,

but here's a guy that knows that what's more important

is the wellbeing of his students

and preparing them for their future.

You know, football is important to us,

but education is more important to us

so we try to really focus on education

and get their mindset on education

and let them understand it's a privilege

to play the game of football.

Well he's trying to get these kids scholarships

to get in there and get an education.

Football is the means of getting there. It's not the end.

One of the pieces that I admired about not just Coach TJ,

but his coaching staff was that academics

was considered the priority.

You know, some kids get upset,

you know, he'll send the kid to tutoring

rather than coming to practice.

We try to tailor the academic plans for our students

based on their specific needs

so I approached Coach Jackson and I asked him

how he felt about me developing a football class

during the day based on their need.

If they need tutoring services during the day,

we can do it during that block of time.

That's when the light bulb went off with Coach TJ

and he said, you know,

this is also a time we can work on NCAA requirements.

But the key to that wasn't just him having a bright idea.

It was where we brought in Miss Mose-Cooper.

I started doing progress reports for the varsity

and I was doing such a great job cause you know,

in education, when you do good,

you get rewarded with more work.

Do you want the whole nation to see you sleeping in a class?

There you go.

All right so now to find a...

I started really looking at our football players

because we started seeing slips.

You know, when they're in season,

they were doing well and when they were off season,

they weren't doing as well.

So we set a system in place with Miss Mose-Cooper

who's doing a terrific job.

Coach TJ requires from us players

to have a signed progress report

from all our teachers every week.

We are not having as many failing kids

when it comes to their junior and senior year.

The worst is just bringing their test grades up,

their test scores on ACT and SAT.

If there's students that are struggling during the day,

we just figure out how are we gonna make the academic plan

for this student to be successful.

Okay so if you need to sign up for these tests,

these deadlines are passing you by.

So there's two sections of math, test three, test four.

Are you going to get all of them correct? No.

Now we're trying to shoot for a 500

at least in each section.

That'll give you enough buffer that for NCAA

if you get 1,000, you're still okay.

That's less than 50% of the questions.

My GPA right now is a 2.5.

My GPA is a 3.6 or 3.7.

He want all us to maintain like a 3.0.

I have a 3.5 GPA.

We wanna see 'em succeed as young men in the real world.

We don't want them to be another statistic.

The administration really cares about your academics.

I mean if you don't got the grades, you can't play.

You can't just be a bad student

and then be able to go on the field.

My criteria is that they will have As, Bs and Cs

and good conduct in their classes.

If they have that, they go on the no issue list.

There was a few times I probably had a D,

but it went up as soon as I like went into tutoring.

If they have a behavior issue,

if they have Ds or Fs in any of their classes,

they have to go to tutoring for part of the time

to get their grades up.

Coach, he just sat me down

and they went over all my grades

and what I had to do to make up those classes that I failed.

And I just had to get on it.

My last score was an 1120

and that's been my highest score so far.

I already been offered five scholarship

since this year started.

If it's not an athletic scholarship,

get an academic scholarship.

Just get into college and go no matter what.

The NFL is not the ticket. It's getting a college degree.

Your education is gonna take you way further

than football could ever take you

throughout the course of your life.

Just use football as a tool.

You're good at it? Okay.

That's not the only thing God blessed you with.

He blessed you with brains.

Use your brain more than you use your athletic ability

and you'll go further in life.

Coach Jackson is trying to instill those values

that education comes first.

He's a coach that really cares about our academics

and making sure we're all okay.

I just wanna make my dad proud.

I wanna be the first one to take the better route.

Never give up on finding a way to help a child succeed.

Our main goal is to help these kids understand

the importance of education and go to a four year university

and get out of the environment that they in right now.

When you get knocked down every day,

you don't see another option.

It's survival, your instincts kick in and it's self-defense.

The worst thing I experienced

is not sticking together in the neighborhood

and I feel that that

community that stick together can succeed.

But I don't feel that in my community.

Growing up in the ghetto and in the hood,

I mean it's just, it's really killing everywhere.

They be killing us every day.

Every time I go outside, sirens.

I can't go to sleep. Sirens, sirens, all that.

You never know what's gonna happen.

Some days can be good. Some days are quiet.

Some days are just not, you just don't even go outside.

There's not a neighborhood that you could say is quiet

every day and every night.

I live in an area of Delray that there's drugs being sold

all the time across the street, there's drive-by shootings

so I understand their plight of where they live.

There is a lot of violence and just like typically

every African American neighborhood, there's violence.

It's a dangerous city down there,

but you know, for me, I just stay in the house

and stay up out of trouble and stuff.

They have no choice but to get involved

with some of that bad stuff because it's all around them

and it's all what they see and do their whole life.

Kids, they just grow up and they have no other choice,

but to do the same.

It's either you starve or you go get it in the hood.

In my neighborhood it's some good times,

but then it always end up bad.

I just wanna get away from all that.

My mom tried to keep me and hot me away from that stuff

that was going on when I was little

so she can keep us safe cause she didn't want us

to get taken away from the environment that we was in.

We got some kids that wanna be on the streets and gang

and try to play football to maintain.

You can't do both.

It's just bad cause so many people

get lost to the environment.

You gotta pick one side.

You gonna play football or you gonna go to the streets?

Let's go, let's go.

People jealous.

They see what you got, you know,

they wanna take that away from you.

They like, jeez, I see what he getting

so I want some of him

so I'm gonna try to hurt you to prevent you

from doing what I wanna do.

I grew up in the city of Delray Beach, Florida.

The area I came from was hard area which is called the set.

That area specifically you had to be real tough.

Well I come from Miami, Florida,

inner city, tough neighborhood, tough being raised.

And a lot of our kids in Delray has the same situation

so if I can give them the same break that I received,

then that's wonderful.

I think stability in anyone's life is important.

I think that's what we all wish for.

That's the model that, you know, 15 years ago,

20 years ago or however many years ago,

depending on how old you are,

that's what it's supposed to be.

I think reality is it's not going to be like that

for all of my kids.

Keep playing ball, bro.

Attack a lot of scrimmage, bro.

Keep...

A lot of these families you go in

and you see how bad they're living.

Mold, mildew, the ceiling is caving in.

Kid is sleeping and he has a huge garbage can

right next to him to catch the water

that's coming from the rain.

So we think it's an anger problem. It's not.

We think it's behavioral problems. It's not.

We classify them ADHD. It is not.

They need a healthy breakfast in the morning.

They need a father at home or a father figure

or someone who can tell them they love them

and who's always there

and doesn't just show up and disappear.

And these are the same kids that you're asking questions

on why they're not doing their homework while they're home.

So these kids are coming in,

oh, you don't have any homework,

you didn't do your homework.

Oh you gonna get a F.

And then you just never know

what's going on in their house

and what they're dealing with.

At times we never know what a kid is going through

until they actually open their mouth.

So they may not come out and say

"Coach, I'm not eating at home."

Or "Coach, you know, Mom's not there.

I'm having trouble. I don't know who to talk to."

So we try to develop a community here,

a bond so that they are comfortable in opening up

and asking for that of which they need.

And so as a coaching staff,

we try to be there for the kids and let them understand

that hey, you have support from us.

Your mom and dad did everything for your family.

We've learned a lot of these kids don't have a mom and dad

and I think what made you so successful

is you had a mom and dad who said you can.

It's kinda hard for these kids to say you can

when there's nobody at home.

I thank Mom and Dad every day.

They don't read and write and here I am,

a state representative,

I'm no different from any of these kids, man.

I am them. That's all I want them to know.

I always tell the kids even when they think

that they wanna give up, it's too much, they can't do it,

we sit down, we map a plan

and we say this is how we're gonna get there.

Good afternoon. I hope everyone

had a wonderful Wednesday.

All right, today we have a track meet

we are hosting right here in Atlantic at four o'clock

so come out and support

our awesome track team boys and our girls.

Miss Tara Ocampo, that's the best lady ever.

That's the best principal a student can ask for.

You know, she's always on top of your grades.

You need help, she will help you.

You can come in her office anytime to talk to her.

See at my old school, I couldn't just walk

in my principal's office and talk to her

about something that I'm feeling.

Every time I'm going to Miss Ocampo's office

and like she always welcomes us.

The thing that makes me feel like it's friendly here

at Atlantic is when I'm hungry,

I can go to Miss Ocampo

and I feel great about it, I feel welcome.

I love you all. I will do anything for you.

I'm proud of you and I'm thankful for you in my life.

Congratulations.

You know, we have a mixture of kids.

We have some kids that have both mothers and fathers.

I'll say 90% of our kids

are living with either their grandmother

or their grandfather or just their mother

so they're coming from a single parent home

and it's difficult, you know,

for that parent and it's difficult for that kid.

The difficulties that some of our kids deal with now

are much greater than they were when I was a student.

Why are y'all not finished? Good, Gonzoli.

Honestly, I've been walking this road by myself.

I don't really tell anyone about what goes on.

It's kind of a weight to carry,

but you know, I get through it.

It is a down port for the athlete

not to have family or parental support from home.

No matter how many times you get knocked down,

that whistle blows, you get back up.

We don't just come to work every day,

come coach these kids and say "Hey, you know,

all right, now we're done with you.

You know, go home, go tend your family."

You know, we are family.

When reality sets in, it's not the same

as you would see in a book.

You know, these kids are not a open book.

These kids are facing what I like to call

real life tough situations.

The majority of my students come anywhere

from with no parents involved

to possibly one or both in jail,

murders, crimes, robberies, stabbing

to very bad divorce situations,

verbal abuse, physical abuse, mental abuse,

no food in the home.

You start to discover things about different individuals

like maybe they don't have anything to eat

or maybe they're living at their grandma's

out of a suitcase.

My mom, my brothers and sister are at home

and I don't have, I'm just there by myself with my auntie

so I don't have nobody who I really talk to.

They need an environment in which to flourish.

Do you know that 80% of this school

lives below the poverty line?

Are you all aware of that?

That's why you're called a Title I school.

They don't have a hot meal during the weekend.

Perhaps Mom or Dad is not in the house

and perhaps, you know, friends of bad influence

are, you know, taking them out

and who knows what can happen.

My mom passed when I was five years old.

That's why my favorite number is five.

So I live with my auntie and my auntie's son.

The last time I spoke to my father,

I was like four years old.

My younger brother, he came up to me about what,

a month or two ago and he was like "Ciah,

why is Daddy never home?"

And I was like, I was in such a shock.

I didn't even know how to answer him at first.

My father, he left when I was eight years old.

Like it was so nice I cried, I cried myself to sleep.

I never mentioned it to my mom.

Growing up without my father,

it was something I got got used to over time.

I mean we communicated occasionally,

but it was something, it was better than nothing.

It's almost like you have fiction and nonfiction.

We're trying to instill those values into our young men

on how big family is and the importance of family.

Coach TJ sent me an email.

This is an actual letter that came to your coach

and I'm gonna read it.

Coach Jackson, I was wondering if you had the transcripts

for A, B and C.

Also, if you can tell me a little bit more about them,

I'd greatly appreciate it.

Their true size,

a little bit about their family,

their work ethic, leadership capabilities,

if there is anything off the field

we need to know about them.

Do they have any kids?

Why is a coach asking do they have any kids?

You have no idea how much work it takes to have a child.

How could you possibly have the time for that child

when you're in high school, going to college?

Do you honestly think you can put up your best performance?

What happens if that child gets sick?

What happens if that child needs medical attention

and you don't have the money for it?

What about yourself?

Who gets the short end of the stick?

It's that baby.

That one mistake could be a lifelong mistake

that you can't change.

If they end up even going to college,

they're not together anymore.

So you have to be very responsible with your life.

You just heard from a coach.

He's asking because this is what's happening

and your concentration should be in the classroom

and on that field.

Nothing else should matter.

Majority of the times, it's not a positive relationship

between a mom and the dad.

How did it feel for you not having a dad in the home

all the time there to talk to?

And even if you do have the dad that wanna be around,

the mom is probably so sour because they're not together

and the dad has another girlfriend

so the kids will toggle between this whole battle.

You have the ability to stop it now.

She help us a lot

because she talk about real life situations

like not having children while you're in high school

until you can take care of yourself

and then you can take care of your own children.

I've always had to take care of my brothers and sisters,

no matter what case may be.

I feel like I had to become the father of the house.

And they start to build their families.

Want them to know that that's their rock

and they have something so sacred that they should be there

and try to provide something that they probably didn't have.

I got a job and I help my mom as much as I can.

And far as me having a family,

I would, I don't know.

I know I wanna have one. I'm probably just gonna wait.

My mom, my dad, it's not the other.

My mom got six kids and my dad has I think seven kids.

I know it's kinda of hard,

you know, they come home without a father

or going to see their father,

spending time just be with their father.

You know, people don't have that

so that kinda leave them clueless.

But I just wanna let 'em know I'm here for 'em.

It makes me feel happy just to know

somebody's there for me.

First I'm gonna start by saying

how my father influenced me.

He kept me on the right path.

I'm alright.

My dad.

Thank you, thank you.

I see people walk around with their mom and dad every day.

I know personally I don't have my mom and dad.

It just touched me and made me feel

like I wish I had my mom and dad, but it is what it is.

Picture that, that you're playing football

with your very own son

and tell me how do you think that's gonna make you feel.

Parents are everything to their children.

They're an example, protector counselor,

the one place you can always go to

when everything's going wrong.

If I'm playing football with my son

and he's five years old and I'm just,

I'm sitting there just looking at him.

That's gonna make me feel so special

to be and have that moment and that connection with my son.

TJ is not only embraced in football,

but what he does outside of football

and that level of respect comes from that.

Like you're my coach,

but I honestly feel like you're more than my coach.

You're a father figure.

He talks one-on-one with kids.

He tells me how to be a great person.

That's what I need.

I need somebody like that and that's who he is.

He's just an amazing person,

amazing coach, amazing mentor and an amazing father figure

to some teammates who may not have

that father figure in their life.

Guys, you gotta play with discipline.

Everybody understand that?

Yes, sir.

Only way we gonna come out victorious

is we gotta have discipline.

No penalties. Eerybody understand it?

Yes, sir.

No stealing mistakes and play full speed.

Here we go, family on three. One, two, three.

Family.

I was on the second day of my job and I met Coach TJ.

I was in my office and he came to the door

and I said "You have to be the football coach."

TJ's like no other person you ever meet in your life.

You know, he doesn't talk, he doesn't smile that much,

but he has a huge heart.

All right, James, you all right.

He can't throw that far.

I know, I know, but don't get in his head right now.

This ain't the time to get in his head.

You good, all right. Look, look, we good.

You got it?

We gonna come back and we're gonna score. You got it?

We good.

Don't get in his head.

Don't get in his head.

Don't get in his head.

You'll be alright.

He don't care about us being football players,

but he cares about us as men.

Come here.

Mayou, why you backing up?

First down. Let's go.

TJ can't be one of the best high school football coaches

in America.

No, no, no. Come on, both y'all line.

I was like, but obviously he is.

Drop me out. Light, go, light, go, both y'all line.

I'm like, how is that?

Like he's not this grew with Xs and Os.

When the ball is going this way, all right,

you gotta flow over top.

I'm like or maybe he is and I'm not giving him credit

for being such a good football coach.

Blue, blue. Ask him, ask him.

You good?

Even when he played football,

he was known as a genetic freak.

Why did I saw what did I saw blitch?

Not a guy that outworked and out film worked everybody

so like he's totally doing it by a culture.

Let's go. Blue, blow, blue, blow, blue, blow.

Let's go.

Man, get it right here, John, Guen, J, Jeremiah.

You're here.

Third down, third down, third down.

Third down.

He's a man of his word.

He's a man of his word.

Got a lot of things we have to work on, guys.

If you guys wanna be a great team,

we gotta work on...

They always come back to district.

It's about football, it's about family.

So they look at him as a great role model

for all of the kids out there.

And I know his players respect him,

they look up to him, they love him.

You know, the fact that your head coach cares about you

not just as a player, but also as a person

and that's what Coach Jackson brings to the table.

TJ was my hero, you know, growing up.

He's two, three years older than me,

but always told people this.

It was just watching him, you know,

he was just the star at everything on a football field.

He always took me under his wing.

He took me wherever he went.

Let's go down the line. Don't mess off on the line.

Here we go.

Jamar, you can't go. You're limping.

Put me in.

All right, you got away.

Let's go, let's go, let's go.

Hold on the line. Hold on.

You got it? Relax.

Tyler. Tyler.

Put me in.

Hold on, wait.

I thought you went, man.

Here we go. Let's go, hit it.

Let's go.

You need a break?

Jack, you're on the line. No, Marquis can come down.

He gotta get in.

Hey, hey, get somebody for Jacques and Antoine.

Part return. Go, go, go.

Why you down on the line? Can we get a measurement?

Hey, put me in.

All right, hold on. Wait, wait, wait.

Hold on.

And the kick is good.

They come here for discipline.

They come here for structure.

A lot of kids don't get that

when they come into a school system.

They just go to school,

but our kids are surrounded by family

and they get the nurturing,

they get the care that they need.

and when they get here, they excel

because that's what a lot of our kids are looking for.

Coach TJ has a relationship with all our parents

so if I do something wrong,

my mom's gonna call him and just discipline us on the field

and tell us you can't be doing that, you can't do this

and you gotta treat your parents with respect.

The biggest thing that a lot of y'all may be aware of

is the coaching staff, Miss Mill-Thomas,

we're big on discipline.

We sometimes, we sit 'em out for a quarter

or half of a game

and I think that gets them more than anything else.

If you do something bad and he say he gonna sit you out,

he's gonna sit you out.

Back in my old school, it wasn't like that.

No matter what they did,

they'll still play that first quarter.

And TJ, if he says you're not playing that first quarter,

he's serious.

Hey, so anytime your kid is on the football field

and you see him sitting on the sideline

either in a different color jersey

or you see him on the sideline sitting out a first quarter

or second quarter or a whole game,

okay, go home and ask him what happened.

Coach TJ, no grades, trouble in school, anything,

no play time.

And we gonna do our best to make sure

that we take away something that they love

until they get it right on they end.

For all we been working for that whole weekend,

I just messed it all up doing one dumb thing.

Hey, listen up, okay.

If you retaliate, you gonna be,

your ass gonna be out for two games.

Come one, come on, come on.

Jafari, get your side.

If your coach doesn't yell at you,

that means that they don't care about you anymore

and they're always yelling at us

so we assume they still care.

Gary, raise your hand really quick.

Gentlemen, this is who provided all your shirts.

Well when I first met Miss Janie,

I was overwhelmed with how passionate she was.

Bringing her into our family has been a blessing,

not just for kids.

I think it's been a blessing for our family.

I'm seeing how her work has allowed them

to better handle situations.

My brother is Micaiah Joseph.

He's the first of my mom's four sons.

I was very, very short tempered.

After the ball went through the goal post,

one person came around the side and hit me for no reason

and I fell to the floor and then Micaiah.

once he saw that I got hit, he started coming onto the field

and then coach TJ had to hold him back.

One time, my changing moment there was,

I had a couple of them,

but one that I can remember off the back

was me and my brother,

as we got older we started like, you know,

when you get older, you develop a mind from yourself

and like I wouldn't say we started separating ourselves

from each other, but like we started thinking different

so me and Montahj got into a fight.

He could've lost his eye and I really regret that.

They have been able now to process it

and deal with it differently than they have in the past.

We used to always go pound for pound

and I just realized like that's my younger brother,

can't be fighting him like that.

People not really gonna listen to what you say,

what you show them.

They're learning responsibility and I learned something.

Responsibility means the ability to respond.

My brother had a temper.

Nobody could calm down like if something happen in the game,

he would retaliate.

I was the kind of person to start something.

I was always looking for trouble.

All right, where's the boy?

Hey, where's the...

Where is the white...

Get down.

This year we played Ely in the second round

and Micaiah, they threw the ball to the running back.

Micaiah chased him and hit him real hard.

The crowd went ooh

and the boy got up and hit Micaiah in the chin

and like Micaiah head went back.

You have two seconds to decide how to respond.

I know Micaiah. My brother's gonna retaliate.

Micaiah had everybody in shock.

He put his hands up and just started dancing.

I was standing right next to Miss Janie.

I ain't never seen that happen before.

I think she's opened up their hearts

to believe in something and believe in themselves.

God knows what you're gonna do before you even do it.

He knows the decisions you're gonna make.

If you hit Micaiah for no reason,

he's gonna hit you back.

I'm also thankful that God didn't give up on me

and he knew that one day I would come to realization

that I had to stop being who I was

and become a better person.

They're more in control of their actions now

because I think that they know what's important

and what's not important.

My name is Jane Swanko.

I attended Coral Gables High School

and I was All-American, All-City, All-State

and that year that I was a senior,

we won the state championship for water polo.

I was invited to come to Atlantic High School

to speak to their varsity football program

and TJ thought it might be good for me

to bring what I know in sports

and work with him on developing the kids

both physically as well as just getting them ready

to transition them into college.

That was on a summer about four years ago

and I've never left.

When I first met Miss Janie,

we were in the dance room and we had just finished workouts.

My arms were burning because we had to do

like a million pushups.

I was just ready to go, I was ready to leave

and then they had the whole team coming.

I was like oh my God.

Why is this lady holding up our time? I'm ready to go.

Jalen, is Bryce coming?

She started talking about every,

somebody owed her a essay

and I was like I'm not writing no essay.

This is summertime.

Why do I have to write an essay?

The first time that Janie came to our school

I felt like as if she was like crazy,

but as the season got on

and all this stuff started happening to us

and we just started being healthier and better

and we just became more of a family.

First time I seen Miss Janie, I was thinking to myself

like okay, what is she doing here?

Janie asked the quarterbacks to like stand up

and go towards her and turn around.

She asked the rest of the football team

like who is the best quarterback.

I got the most hands raised I guess

and then she came to me and looked me in the eye

and said you're the one.

I was just creeped out,

but like I felt special at the same time.

The rope not even high.

Y'all lazy, let's go.

Speed up. Y'all lazy, let's go.

Coordination, come on. Coordination, come one.

Coordination.

After practice I was not in the best of moods.

I was very angry.

I was mad with something that happened on the field

and I allowed that to get to me.

And when Miss Janie came up to me and asked me a question

I said something I should never said

and I thought about it and it hurt me

like that I talked to a lady that cared about me

and I could've messed up a good relationship.

Spiritually she's brought them to a level

that has helped them not only control their emotions,

but it also has affected their behavior in a positive way.

To get back on good terms with Miss Janie,

I wrote her a letter and I just wanted to make sure

she personally got it from me

and knew that I was truly sorry

and nothing like that would ever happen again.

Good morning.

It's great to see you guys.

I think faith is important to these kids

because a lot wanna know God,

but don't know how to get to know God.

You know, I would hear Coach Jackson say

"Okay, Sunday we're going to church."

You know, and the first time I heard that,

I went okay, I already know how amazing he is,

but this is just unbelievable.

Teaching a little bit of faith in them

is something that we do

from the standpoint of the kids want it.

I was at a point where I felt like God

wasn't doing anything for me,

but he wasn't doing anything

because I wasn't doing anything for him.

Starting off as a kid, I ain't really have faith.

Starting off like I ain't really believe in God.

I can't give you a percentage,

but I know some of 'em,

that could've been the first time

they stepped foot in to the church

or it could've been another Sunday for them.

My point is, you know, it was just to hear that,

it was amazing and then when Janie came on board,

I saw a complete transformation on my students

and their belief,

not only in faith, but in their level

of commitment to trusting,

in people, trusting in processes

and just trusting in God.

And that we would remember this particular team,

that it would live in our hearts

and that you would do something in this city and beyond

because of this moment and the moments that follow.

Christ, to you go the glory, amen and amen.

Amen.

Let's give it up one more time.

The message Miss Janie gave us that was the most impactful

was where we copy what she says before we play a game.

And I'm gonna tell you a scripture

that we're gonna say

every single time before we get out on that field.

Let's go.

When a lot of people told us

that we're not allowed to pray,

but the kids look forward to that pregame prayer.

Once we're all in that locker room together,

the adrenaline is like, it's like we're pumped and stuff.

But like after that prayer,

it's like it's on.

The thing we say before the game

is Lord, I trust you.

I trust you.

I follow you.

I follow you.

And I ask for strength.

And I ask for strength.

I mount up.

I mount up.

With wings, with wings.

My eagle, my eagle.

And I soar.

And I soar.

And I'll run.

And I'll run.

And I'll not be weary.

And I'll not be weary.

I'll walk, I'll walk.

And I'll not as faint.

And I'll not faint.

Lord God.

Lord God.

Make me, make me.

A mighty man, a mighty man.

Oh, Father, oh Father.

In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name.

Amen, amen.

It gives me like strength.

I know that God is watching over me.

He'll let me play my best game of all that day.

It feels like God is always with us

and we'll have no fear as long as we believe in God.

If you're in the shadow of God, then you'll be protected

so after she told me that,

I started running the ball, I started throwing touchdowns.

You know, I got my game back.

God told her to tell me that he got plans for me,

and that he gonna make me fast on my feet

and she was like don't think, just run.

It's like all right, threw it up,

got both of my feet in the end zone, touchdown.

I got God on my side so I fly.

God had told us to not play this game for you,

but you're playing the game for him.

Ever since then, I pray before the game.

I try to say that I'm playing through God for God,

that he gave me this talent to do this.

We are special because we were created in his image

and his likeness.

And he's the reason why I'm sit here now

doing good things for myself.

You get what I'm saying?

All right, bro, listen.

Going speak.

All right, you wanna speak here or you...

Yeah.

No, we can do it right here.

Coach wanted me to work with you gentlemen

on breathing techniques.

I'm gonna speak to you about it now

and then when you're at the game, I'll be on the sidelines.

If you're having complications,

walk over to me and I'll walk you through it

and I'll keep working with you

until you've got it down for yourself.

Jalen, really quickly,

just go as fast as you can on that bike

and then walk over to me.

And I want one other person who's on a bike

to do the same thing for me.

All right, go as hard as you can.

Hard as you can.

Really quick come here. Come here.

Your muscles need oxygen

so your focus should be on replenishing the oxygen

that your muscles have lost and getting it into your blood

cause the blood feeds the muscles.

I'm sure you all have heard this, right?

You've heard all of this.

How do you feel?

Now go try it again and come back to me.

Come here, honey.

Do 30 seconds on a hard bike.

I had Terrance on the bike going hard

for about five, 10 minutes

And I was trying to show the other kids

how you get your heart and breathing back in sync

and I remember calling TJ and saying

this kid is gonna be an amazing athlete.

You have an amazing ability to run

and so capture that.

He had no rapid heartbeat which you should

after five minutes going hard on a bicycle.

At least bump it up a little bit.

Nothing.

When you're inhaling, feel your heart beating.

Get your nose breathing instinct with your heart.

And that's where it runs hard

because you work with these kids and they leave you,

sometimes to go to another school,

sometimes they leave you because you've lost them.

He was killed at a funeral.

Well I think poverty

and the things that these kids have seen,

the violence, family issues, addiction,

you know, it all adds up.

Mental health illnesses and problems,

they don't discriminate.

Hello.

Hi.

I'm here in Coach Rowe's football classroom

and I'm here to talk to them about suicide

and the issues of poverty related to it.

Please put away your cell phones,

please take your earbuds out

because what I'm about to tell you is very, very serious.

Miss Ocampo has called me, Coach TJ has called me

and I know I've said this a thousand times,

but I'm really gonna try to drive it into you guys

as best as I possibly can.

And I'm gonna tell you about facts, just straight out facts,

science, statistics and spiritual.

Science says your brain is not even developed

until you're 25 years old

which means your frontal lobes which are right here

cannot make a reasonable, cognitive,

understandable decision.

You really don't know what you're doing

because these are not developed.

So if your brain is not developed,

why are you guys making decisions

that you're not even developed to make?

And the point to all of this, gentlemen, is this.

You guys are having sex. Sex makes babies.

Look at the statistics here.

Number one contributor to suicide is poverty.

How the hell are you gonna raise a baby

when you don't even have a phone,

you don't have a car, you don't have an education

and I don't wanna hear your parents

and everybody's gonna help you...

because they're in poverty too.

If this is telling me that 90%,

when you have sex is gonna make you have a baby, 90%,

do you have any clue what you're doing?

And you don't and it's not your fault

because your brain's not developed

to understand what you're doing.

And believe me, gentlemen,

when I tell you I know what you're going through.

It is everywhere you go.

I see these gorgeous girls out here.

It's on TV, it's in films, it's on your phone.

It's on the billboards, it's in the movies.

It's everywhere like it's cool, don't worry about it,

but it's not.

Here's your stats.

Half of all mothers on welfare

had the first child as a teenager.

Half that are on welfare.

2/3 of the families that occur

are with an unmarried mom and they're poor.

Have any of you all experienced being poor?

Not having food,

not knowing when your next meal's gonna come,

not having a bed.

Have anybody...

The electricity has been turned off.

Has anybody experienced that?

Okay, doesn't feel good.

And by the way I was raised upper middle class,

but my dad told me at 13,

you're on your own when you graduate.

I knew when my mother told me if you have a baby,

you're out of the house.

We don't support that, get out of the house,

and I knew she meant it.

Great thing to do because it detoured me

from having anything to do with it.

And it's why I went to college

because my dad made it perfectly clear

you're on your own because they did it on their own.

But here's how I know how you feel.

Because when my parents said you're on your own at 18,

I know what it's like to be hungry cause I was on my own.

I know what it's like to lose somebody that you love.

Like we really understand what she's trying to say

because I know some students that's having children

in high school and like they don't know.

They don't know what to do.

Jalen lived homeless three years ago.

He lived homeless.

He had nowhere to go. His father had nothing to do with him.

My freshman year I fell into a little slope,

you know, but as time moved on,

I realized that you can't go nowhere without your grades.

He comes here. He had D1 offers.

He had other offers coming in.

He gets injured. He had nowhere to go.

He had no plan B which is what I'm trying to do

with all of you.

They wanna see you go to the next level.

They wanna see you go to college.

They don't care if it's a D1, D2, D3,

As long as you're in college, you get an education.

There is hope, gentlemen.

That's what all of your coaches, what Mrs. Ocampo,

what I'm here for.

There is no reason to feel like there's no hope.

And my heart breaks for that young man who took his life

because he was living in poverty.

This is not what you should be thinking about

and worrying about when you're in high school.

You should be going home exhausted from your sport,

ready to sit down and do your homework,

have a nice meal with your family

and go and get a good night's sleep.

That's normal.

And I know some of you have said to me Mrs. Janie,

that's not normal where I come from.

Well it probably isn't, but now let's stop that.

18 Years old. You may be old enough to vote.

You're still a kid.

Especially with some of these kids and what they've seen

that maybe their brain isn't fully developed in that regard

and it's so sad when you hear them crying

and venting about how bad things are

and there's nothing.

They feel there's nothing they could do to improve it

financially or just what they've seen

that gets them to that point.

And these pieces really do help

with the mental health component when it comes to children.

Home because if all else turns against you,

that is the one place where we should have your back.

This is home.

This football program is my home.

We knew we had that passion and hunger

to make it out of here.

And you know, everyone goal pretty much who played football

was to make it to the NFL.

Of course that's a childhood dream,

but why is that the only childhood dream that we have?

Why more of us didn't dream

or want to become doctors or lawyers?

You know what I mean? Engineers.

It's almost like football was a program.

Go be an engineer or a lawyer or a doctor

or run your own company or do construction.

You can study engineer and start at $80,000 a year.

Look it up.

You're in a fork right now.

You can go to the left and be despondent

which leads to depression which leads to suicide.

Or you can do what's right and focus and get your education,

going to football, going to the NFL or not.

And stop this madness because this is madness.

Being homeless, it really tear you down.

And I guess he been dealing with it,

dealing with being homeless for his whole life

and depression, it kills like it really kills.

It hurts being homeless and his mom being poor,

not having places to sleep.

He had to stay over at his friend's house

and that really hurt cause like you really be

wanting your own stuff.

Like you be wanting your parents to be okay.

I mean you'll be okay,

but he didn't have no place to stay in.

I know how that feel cause I was homeless.

I was homeless for two months

and I was kinda getting depressed,

but like I said, I got a family here at Atlantic

that keep me up and that helped me with things.

And God too, let's not forget about him.

But being homeless is hard

and it's sad that he had to do that.

He had to commit suicide.

I think that it's very important for the young men

to learn life's lessons through football.

That prepares our young men to be successful in life

after they graduate high school and go on.

At the end of the day, that's what it's about.

You want your young men to leave you better

than when they got there.

You know, when you're away from home,

when you're 18 years old and you're in a new place,

it can be scary

and the fact that you are relying upon those people,

that could make or break you as a college student,

your college football career

so it's important to kinda build that relationship

and have that family atmosphere for kids.

I think what brings everyone together

is that it's more than football.

We've seen what this can do,

what opportunities, what doors,

you know, this can open up for our youth,

how it can bring people together,

how it can be more than a team.

And what's more than a team? A family.

Be safe over the weekend.

Don't get into trouble, okay?

Yes, sir.

Don't get in any trouble. Here we go.

Family on three, family on three.

One, two, three.

Family.

You can't do nothing without your family.

You need your family behind you.

That's just like on the field.

You can't have one person on the field.

You gotta have 11 and that 11 gotta be solid.

The bond that we have with our athletes is amazing.

I don't know that it exists anywhere else,

but we know here at Atlantic Community High School

that it is important.

Atlantic High football program is enormous family.

I wanna be here.

It's something that I enjoy being a part of.

I see my team as my brothers,

you know, we've all come up together.

You have other kids outside of the football family.

They're like I want some of that love

that you guys have amongst each other.

And we really created something

that's bigger than just a football team.

I see a lot of young kids right now.

They walk out of that game.

They don't have anybody there and it's sad.

You know, here's a kid getting a game ball.

There's nobody cheering for 'em,

wanna take a picture and put it on social media

saying I'm proud of my baby boy.

The kid just gets it and walks off like it's nothing.

And situations such as that,

we become that family.

These kids have their heads down.

There's nobody at their gate,

say you know what, come here, son.

Give me hug. I love you.

You played a awesome game.

We have outsiders here in the community

who kind of take on a parental role

and they attend the games.

They're there for them so that they don't feel

that they must stand alone.

So we have to make sure we do that as coaches

because those kids may not get it anywhere else.

Feel what makes the student athletes

want to be a part of the program is the family atmosphere.

When I'm on the field with my teammates,

all I can feel is love for my brothers, you know.

The best part is all of us caring for each other.

So since I came to Atlantic,

I was introduced to winnng.

I'm a winner. I love to win, I hate losing.

And that was something that stuck to me.

We started winning and it's like it just growing to me.

Like I gotta win. I love to win.

Can't lose and that's the atmosphere in Atlantic.

is a winning atmosphere.

When they come home Friday nights

and they may see themselves in the paper,

on the news and just seeing their team do successful thing.

The program at Atlantic High School

for as a football program

is one of the top programs in the country.

When we recruit a student athlete

and we look at their program,

we're looking at a program

that's gonna really push responsibility, accountability.

You know, a coach that's really gonna challenge 'em.

And again, it comes back to respect,

hard work and just doing the right things.

What makes Atlantic so great is the team atmosphere,

the family atmosphere, the stick it out atmosphere,

it's me against the world atmosphere.

The Tri-County area

has one of the biggest football programs in the country.

They are skilled players and rightfully so.

They have the best coaches.

You know, they have the best head coach in the world.

So normally the state is won

by whoever wins the southeastern part of the floor.

It's always tough when you graduate a class,

but you know, the best part of it

is if you've done your job correctly along the way,

you've taught the guys under you

and they're gonna pick up the slack when you leave.

Even though they lost a lot of great players,

they came back and had an undefeated season last year.

The winner is Atlantic High School.

How you deal with that loss

and how it motivates you to come back

and play stronger and better next year,

I think is real important.

For the students that left,

they have opportunity that they left behind

for the other kids.

This is what they started

so and the kids that have another opportunity,

they have a chance to win it this year.

You gotta believe in the program,

believe in Coach TJ, believe in the coaching staff

cause whatever they tell you is right.

I think one of the main reasons because of that

is because they don't have a good team.

They have a good program.

Pro return.

Hey, we need somebody.

Hey, hey, hey. Hey, chill.

Go, go, go, go, go, go over there. Chill.

Ain't nobody out here told them.

Chill. Go, chill.

All the way over.

Chill.

You can't get nothing in life if you don't work for it

so you gotta work.

And ever since then, it just stuck with me.

You gotta be a hard worker in whatever you do.

You have to be determined,

you have to be driven and you have to be focused.

It don't matter how good a team is.

Discipline could take you a long way.

If you don't have no discipline, you can't go nowhere.

Winning football games in South Florida

is a very big thing,

but he's going about in a different way

and he's still winning football games.

He's fostered a team atmosphere,

teaches 'em how to act off the field

which I think helps him on the field.

No, it's not a tackle. It's a tight end.

Line up behind the...

It's a tight end. It's two tight ends.

You gotta look at the formation.

Because TJ believes in a one or two star kid

more than a four star kid if they're doing what's right.

Keep your tail back, kid and sit down, all right.

You won't ever play again. You understand?

Okay, you got a full career a head you.

You got it? So go sit down.

Okay and keep your head. You're better than that.

All right.

I feel like discipline is a strong word

and it's not overused.

It's facts. It's like the rule of life.

You gotta have discipline in whatever you do.

Like they always say what you do for the team

and the guy next to you, how much you bond as a family,

which is what brings success

not only on a football field, but off of it.

We say all the time you play with each other

and for each other because there's no way

you can get this done without anybody else

and it's like being in a family.

You know, when you're a young man and you have a wife

and children, you know, you need them and they need you.

And again, it comes back to football and life lessons.

They put all their hearts into this whole season

and all the seasons before

and their whole life they've been playing football

so when I saw all them get very emotional and very upset

that this was the last game they were gonna play as seniors

and with the team that we have right now

with Coach TJ and with the staff,

that was very like a really heartfelt moment

for me and the team.

You guys gonna go to college

so don't tell me y'all don't got no offers.

You got offer if you want 'em.

You know, we're proud of our kids.

We wanna continue to just comfort and love our kids

and let them understand that hey,

you guys gonna go out there and play your butts off

and long as you play your butts off, you will win.

My best memory with my senior year

would just be like being able to play on this football team.

When I went to school in Indiana,

after my parents dropped me off and came back,

I was miles away.

17, 18 years old, tou're that far away from home

and you realize you can do whatever you want.

When I was in Gainesville,

it's a whole bunch of stuff out in the world

that I haven't seen and it's like wow

so it motivate me to have a great future,

make money, go out and see the world,

like what the world has in store for me.

We were born with everything we needed

and as long as everyone realizes that,

I think success should not be that difficult.

Us taking that trip to Columbia High School,

to play them and staying over in Gainesville

and practicing at the University of Florida was a blessing.

You let the kids have the opportunity to practice

on a college facility and it was a great experience

not only for the players,

but I think for a lot of our coaches

to be able to see the reaction of our kids face,

but also to just use the field

and I think that trip brought us together as a unit.

It's important for us to expose these young folks

to different avenues,

take them outside of their environment.

Some of these kids have never flown on an airplane.

Some of them have never left the county.

Nicholas.

Tyler B.

Right now we're on our way to practice

at the University of Florida indoor facility.

We're gonna watch them practice for like 45 minutes.

Then we'll practice right after.

So I wanted to be able to give those kids that experience

so they could see the game speed

and not just get in the playoff

and see the game speed is different.

So we wanted to go outside of Palm Beach County

and play some talented teams

that went to the states the year before.

I think that every one of them

could go play college football.

When we say college scholarships,

immediately people think that they have to go

to a division one school to play college football

and that's not the case.

There's a college

for every single football player to go to.

Every one of those seniors

who would like to play football at the next level

will have an opportunity to do so.

I try to keep everything levelheaded

and just focus on what we focus on every year

and just go out and play.

You know, I think people get caught up in a big game.

You know, every game is a big game

and that's how I try to approach

and that's why I try to tell the kid

no matter who you playing, every game is a big game.

You're going in. Alright, we'll get on this bus.

Okay. Then we're gonna go shower.

All right. We're shower, okay.

So some of you guys got three to the room.

It gonna take you a while.

Ask a coach can you use his room.

Okay, let's get in and get out.

Okay now be to the bus, all right, it's 7:40.

Be to the bus 8:00, 8:05.

Let get one.

What time they gonna play?

Before we get off the bus, listen up.

Do not be yelling across this restaurant, okay.

Use your inside voice like your parents taught you.

Okay and use your table manners.

All right, make sure you put your napkins on your lap.

Okay.

Let's look professional here, fellers, all right

and let's have some respect.

So everybody got it?

Yes, sir.

All right.

Come on in, come on in, come on.

Number five.

Kids today don't have what I had when I was growing up.

So to me, for these kids

to go through what they're going through,

being taught by Coach Jackson is something very special.

So for them to take and learn these life skills

is very important

because this is only gonna make them a better person,

a better person in the community.

It's gonna also make them a more productive person

in the community,

get the jobs they're looking for, get the education

cause that's what's really important is the education set

and that's what Coach Jackson is teaching them.

Here we go. Stay in the picture.

Where you going?

I'ma go.

All right.

All right. I'ma head out.

I'ma head out, look...

Finish on three. One, two, three.

Finish.

One thing that sticks out the most to me

is the way we gel.

A lot of people may not understand it

as far as from the outside looking in,

but it's not up to them to understand as long as we know,

you know, what we have and how we conduct ourselves

in order for this program to work,

that's the best part about it.

It's just like a life-changing experience

and one you'll remember for the rest of your life,

especially being the only girl on the team

and just being welcomed into that community.

It's a really great thing.

Playing football, it helped me a whole lot,

a bit like it takes away time from like going to see stuff

and like just keeping me busy.

It just keeping me in the right position

and a straight line, you know, so I can have a great future.

Touchdown Eagles.

Okay number 26.

Our kids get it.

They have that bitter taste in their mouth.

They know what it's like to go up the road

and, you know, take a loss.

Once you know how it feels to lose something,

it brings out that hunger in you, that dog in you.

It makes you want it that much more

because you know how it feels to lose it.

We're not going out there

to hand out cupcakes and lollipops.

I mean we're going out there to win.

It's every week now is do or die,

you know, so rankings and schedules

and all that stuff is out the window.

Now it's, you know, put up or shut up and let's get it on.

Probably I think the aha moment for me

was during the halftime which we planned with Mason

to come out and do his touchdown

and I'm very proud of my student Hayze Kingham

who came up with these personal project.

It's personal, it's family.

It's just a whole different level now.

Oh yeah, come on, Mason. Come on, Mason.

Mason, Mason, Mason, Mason, Mason, Mason

Mason, Mason, Mason, Mason, Mason, Mason.

Always having that heart to give back

and not always trying to have your hand out

will carry you a long ways as well,

you know, teach you values in life,

you know, and being able to give back sometimes

is rewarding in itself.

This is a program that has set the standard

going forth for schools, public or private,

that you can find that balance

and you know, we're gonna have the best players,

but we're also going to have kids who understand

that there's more to be done

than just what you do on the field.

Seeing the way that they react to Mason

and the way that they love him

and the way they take care of him,

that's all the work that Miss Janie,

that's all the work Coach Jackson

and that's all the work that we did during the day

to remind our kids how to be a good person

before you're a good football player.

More than 80% of our students

are living below the poverty line.

The business community and the city

have to step up to the plate.

This coach has a zero budget.

They told me about the resources that he was missing.

I thought that he was a great mentor, a great leader.

It made me confident that we were doing the right thing

to help him out.

Once I learned what he was doing

with the team at Atlantic,

I got behind him right away

and offer whatever support I could.

He then goes and says okay,

well if we're gonna raise money for our school,

we're not just gonna go out and put our hand out

and ask for a check.

Ask 'em do they wanna get their car wash

and come over here?

If they say no, say well, do you wanna donate

to the Atlantic High School football program.

Y'all can remember that?

Another thing I love about Coach TJ

is that he sees opportunity in everything.

All right now it's $10 for the car wash.

Okay, I only have five.

You only have five?

Can I get a half car wash?

A half? We won't dry it.

You have the tires, right?

Go on that side. Here we go.

You have the front.

All right, I'll take this one.

All right, you have the top.

You gonna do all four tires.

You heard me, little man?

You gonna stay in? You ladies gonna stay in the car.

Yeah.

All right, well wind your window up. Here goes.

All in, no.

Y'all gotta get off your cell phone when you gonna work.

Make sure you say thank you.

He takes it a step further

and comes to the business community

and we get innovative.

The ability to put happiness into someone's life

is the best feeling you can have

and one of the things they like to do every year

is give the kids new helmets or have them redone.

But due to his budgetary restraints this year,

he couldn't do 'em so he wanted to, you know,

make the helmets a different color,

change things around, change the logo

and I said let's do it.

Just to be able to say, you know,

you gave someone a new helmet

and those kids carry their helmets

like, you know, it's their life

so every time they have that helmet in their hand,

I want them to feel like, you know, they know me.

Publix Corporate gave us a cash card

so I'm using it to purchase the Gatorade

and the manager's been kind enough

to give us bananas and oranges.

When Coach TJ and Jane approached us

about supplying the food before the games,

it was perfect timing for us

because we were just getting ready

to start marketing our local delivery for the restaurant.

What better way to prove what we could do

than feed 70 hungry kids before a football game

and getting it there on time and making sure

that it was hot and served

and it really helped us to refine our delivery program.

Being supported by my community and people

that took the time to support the programs

that I was in, it's very rewarding to give that back.

They're helping me change this world,

they're helping me change this city

and we're raising these young men

to become great citizens of this world.

Soon after TJ graduated from Virginia Tech,

he came to Atlanta and trained with me

for the NFL Combine and getting ready for the NFL.

Okay cause I just didn't wanna talk about college and NFL.

He played with the Cowboys some, but it didn't like stick.

I was very blessed and had opportunity to go to college

and after, that further my career with NFL

and injuries that happened in my life

and I was able to just come back home

and be a blessing to my city and my family.

He lived with me in Atlanta for that fall

for maybe a month

and I was too young then to know as much as I know now,

but I knew he was different.

And I told him you're not gonna sit here

and chase this football dream.

I don't know why you didn't make it.

You were obviously good enough to make it,

but you didn't make it.

You need to get back down to South Florida and do something.

And I don't know why I told him that

and not any other athlete that I'd been working with,

but I told TJ that cause I cared about him.

Obviously it was the right thing to do.

Kareem Jackson, Wayne Gallman, Mason Schreck,

Marcus Gilchrist, Byron Maxwell, Mark Ingram,

Cody Sensabaugh,

all these guys that have relocated their lives

down here to Delray Beach

wouldn't be possible without your coach.

XPE Sports is a sports training company

that I founded in 2002.

It started in Atlanta.

In 2009, we moved it to South Florida

and partnered up with TJ Jackson.

One of my business partners at that time,

Tony Villani, training guys in Atlanta, Georgia

so I started a company down here in South Florida.

XPE is a for-profit side that really specializes

in NFL players and aspiring NFL players.

And we've started working with a lot more high school kids.

We just wanted to be able to focus on kids

that was in college or in NFL

and help those guys be successful

at what they're trying to accomplish in life as well.

TJ helped train the foundation of athletes

that built this whole program.

He took the job of y'all's high school coach

cause he realized that was a way to reach more kids.

NFL players that train with us wanna give back

because honestly there's about 1,200 NFL players in the NFL.

so the guys that come train here,

especially with the way we teach them

about off the field stuff at XPE

and the way TJ coaches his kids about off the field stuff,

they understand it's just part of life.

So if we have to go out there

and work out with kids on every Friday, it's fine.

You guys have to give respect to your coach

and you have to work hard and foster these relationships

that you have now cause this whole relationship

and all these pros are here is cause of the way TJ Jackson

acted when he was 18, 19 and 20 and 21 years old

when we used to train him.

Okay, it all starts now.

We see the difference.

The students are graduating more.

That's what it takes.

He might have them on his team for a year

or two years, three years,

but for a lifetime all these kids will remember him.

It is very fun to just see how, you know,

you start with a kid, whether they age nine, 10, 11, 12

and see how they grow throughout the years

and just to see them walk across the stage in high school

and college is just a blessing in itself.

I kinda appreciate that, enjoy that more

than just training NFL athletes

and professional athletes sometime.

You gonna understand this, okay?

We all we got.

We all we need.

We all we got.

We all we need.

We all we got.

We all we need.

Hey listen up.

Football will save their life in the long run.

Don't let that group steal your season.

You worked too damn hard.

Huh? He can get 99 for now.

Football keeps the kids off the street

or they look at football as their home

and a lot of them look at it

where that's their means of relieving a lot of stress.

Some people look at football that way

because you know, you clear everything out

and you come out to practice

and you just enjoy that game of football.

Football's under attack a little bit right now

and I think the positives completely outweigh the negative.

I went to Eastern Illinois

so I met kids from Chicago, Missouri

and just learning how to dance in different cultures,

cook in different cultures,

just traveling, you know, even as far as Hawaii,

you know, you never seen that

so college and high school

just opened up another avenue for me.

You know, I've seen kids go to the cold weather

and they've never seen snow in their entire life,

but that's such an experience

they would never get to go to and see

unless they had the opportunity

to get a football college scholarship.

When we see people, of course they're talking

about the season and how the kids are doing and everything,

but it's so much more than that.

Did you hear this guy went to college?

Did you hear this guy signed with the New York Jets?

And TJ's behind all that.

So I've witnessed student athletes

get recruited out of some really difficult situations

and now they're working on Wall Street.

And to be able to get a football scholarship

and take them out of their inner city environment

of that's run down homes, apartment complexes

and putting them into a university

where they have meals every day.

Society in general could take a lot of cues from football

and how we run our game and how everyone's on the same page.

Atlantic High School's not about football.

It's about life.

What I learned through football has helped me in my life

and I hope to pass that down

to the football players that play for me.

It teaches you to take advantage

of every opportunity you have

and as you get recruited and you go to college,

it's an opportunity to get an education.

Well I think we ended up with 99% of kids

that graduated from football during the regular school year

and we also had 97% of the kids that went to college

to a four year university,

whether it was for academics or athletic scholarship.

Thing we're looking at when we come down to Florida

and recruit these student athletes is number one,

are they doing the right thing in the classroom.

DJ got the opportunity to go to college.

He's got a scholarship offer on the table.

It's up to him to accept the challenge

and do the right things or he could mess it up.

Main thing is not the rush into this process.

Okay, take your time and make sure

that that the right fit for you.

Make sure that you wanna go to the school

that has your academic field

that you're looking to study in.

Key to this all is to make sure that you in a school

so that you can see the coach.

Make sure you going to every class,

make sure you doing the right thing.

Showcase your talent in the classroom

by making sure your grades is up to par.

Okay cause come the first week of February,

they're gonna move on if you're not ready.

These kids can have the talent for a D1 school

could get a full ride to a college

were not going to college.

They were stuck here on the streets of Delray

year after year.

You see 'em in the gas station cause I live locally.

You'd see 'em in the grocery store

and to hear their story that they didn't make it

and the reason they didn't make it

is because they didn't have the test score.

Everyone has a different learning style

and you have to bring that into the classroom.

I've seen student athletes all set ready to go.

He's on a full scholarship

and all of a sudden he doesn't do what he needs to do

his senior year second semester

and he's gone and thrown all his hard work away

just because he maybe wanted to have a little more fun

and not do the work.

So I think they just need to finish.

You know, signing that letter's a great thing,

but you still have some responsibilities to handle

after you sign that letter.

10, 10.

Check, boys.

Step back.

Check.

So these kids work so hard,

both on the field and then they realize

they have to work off the field

to match everything up for these college coaches

that it will ultimately save their life literally

by completing the cycle.

When I got to Atlantic this year,

I finished the last quarter with all As and one B

and so like I try my best to stay on my grades

because I trust Coach TJ to get me into college.

The integral part was Coach Jackson,

working on talking to college recruiters,

having them come to the school,

helping 'em, you know, bring the kids

to see these colleges, putting 'em on a college campus,

you know, letting 'em walk a college campus.

I mean that is huge.

I mean I don't really know really any coaches that do that.

It was a good experience to get out

and actually see other colleges,

you know, actually see how other players practice

and what they go through

and know what would be expected of you

when you get there and that it's no joke.

It welcomes you to the real world

where you're not with your parents.

You on your own and you gotta make decisions,

the best decision for your life.

Most of our kids pass the test during the summertime

or pass the test the first time in August with the SAT

and some are trying to take it to get a higher test score.

They want a 1300 or 1400 so, you know,

the higher the test score,

the more money they get for some of the kids

that won't have the opportunity

to go to a division one school.

And that's one thing we promote and we tell every student,

you know, you come to school, you do the right things,

you get your education,

you know, there's a university for everyone.

When we were doing our signing day,

just on the numbers that we're putting out there

with our students signing

and continuing to work on that process until graduation,

it's just been, it's been amazing.

I had a conversation with Larry Blustein

who's covered high school sports for nearly 50 years

and he had said to me that of all the schools he's covered,

he's really never seen a program like TJ's

that they've achieved that balance.

Now once you have that piece of paper,

you've created a lot of opportunities for yourself.

Working at university.

Coach Jackson reached out to Miss Janie

and asked her to do an etiquette class last summer.

I wanted to be able to teach the kids different things

on place settings of a table

and how to eat with a fork and how to cut a steak.

TJ understands that these kids

are transitioning to college

so he wants to make sure they're prepared.

So I wanna learn how to eat

and learn how to write college letters.

And in the school system they're losing sight

of the things that they need to apply every day in life.

Your spoon and your fork.

Let's twirl it, let's do it right like you were taught.

Keep the napkin on your lap.

Our kids are going to not only be role models

on the campus for other kids,

but they're also gonna do that in and around our community.

So we do a lot of educating on how to treat people,

how to talk to people, how to dress, how to shake a hand.

We talk to kids in TJ's program 15, 16, 17, 18,

sometimes even a little younger.

They get it. They understand the value of hard work.

They understand how to speak to adults.

When they look you in the eye and say thank you,

you can tell they mean it from the heart

What Coach TJ and I do is to reinforce the etiquette.

We'll take these kids to dinner.

First they taught me how to eat with the salad forks

and the hands always above the table.

They taught me the right way.

When you go out to eat, you have to eat a certain way,

the right way.

Cause when the kids come into the restaurant,

their etiquette is amazing.

They're a step above most kids their age.

They really are great kids.

I remember a dinner at Carrabba's

I had on some white pants so I asked for a white napkin.

He just looked at me like in a quick way

like okay, this kid, he knows a little something.

He was so taken aback by the waiter's response

because he knew that waiter knew he knew something.

Who would think something like that about a kid?

And I just felt like, you know,

that was something big in my life.

Home what I can do for you.

She was gonna teach us how to cook

and bake and write letters and I was like

oh, she really, she really cares about us, about the team

and she wants us to succeed as young men.

The football players are required

to write thank you notes.

He makes sure that they know what proper etiquette is.

The thank yous meant more to me personally and emotionally

than anything monetarily could bring to me.

I took time out and wrote the thank you note to them

so I think they appreciated it.

The thing that surprised me most about the thank you notes

is how nicely they were written.

This is exactly what Coach TJ was trying to tell them.

Be different, do things different that nobody else is doing.

The thank yous I received from all the players

were really impressive.

Once they found out who I was and they saw their helmets,

they all thanked me a dozen times.

What TJ has done at this school,

it could be done anywhere in any community

throughout the country.

We're all done with the inner city.

We're done with the poverty in our own community.

We want them to get out.

Everybody knows we're in this together

and the ultimate goal is success.

Just keep going because you never know

what that door can open.

You never know what's on the other side of that door.

Watching them walk across that stage

and know what their future's gonna hold for them

because they do have that diploma.

I would say the best part is just watching

the individual lives that it can change.

After college, I plan on like just pursue my career.

Maybe like build a business.

Like whatever works out.

Just know that I put in a lot of work and it all paid off.

Look where I been.

And you made it.

He's created a movement by getting these kids an education

and getting 'em out of here and letting 'em know

there's a better way.

Antonio Gonzalez.

I just wanna go to college cause if I go to college,

I'll be the first one in my family to go.

In the future I am looking for a wife.

I wanna be the best husband ever.

I just wanna be, I just want my name to be remembered

when I get older.

My dream is to be able to go to college,

be able to explore and be able to meet new people.

That's the dream.

After my football career, I'll probably become a coach.

And when I graduate, to say I did it. I made it.

You know, we want our kids to succeed on and off the field

so they can go off and be successful in life.

My kids come home with me in my heart.

Really makes me realize that there's no other school for me

and no other kids for me.

I love my kids.

Coach Jackson talks to them all the time.

He tells them over and over again

it's one game at a time, one play at a time

and we get back up, dust ourselves off

and prepare for the next feat.

That's not just sports. That's life.