How Leonard Fournette’s football camp can serve as a model in mitigating New Orleans' juvenile delinquency problem
Now obviously football camps aren’t the end all be all in reforming juvenile justice, but on Saturday, June 26th, Superbowl Champion and former LSU Tiger, Leonard Fournette took a step in the right direction by hosting his third annual football camp at Joe Brown Park in the once affluent New Orleans East Area of New Orleans. The East was once a section of New Orleans booming with commerce, middle-class homes, and the very attractive Plaza Shopping Center. In the years leading up to Hurricane Katrina, as crime began to pick up, residents began to move out, and businesses began to flee. Then in 2005, Katrina’s wrath put the final nail in The East’s proverbial coffin.
As we fast forward nearly sixteen years after the storm, crime in The East has intensified, most notably with carjackings, carried out not exclusively, but primarily by young black teenage boys. Now, this is not to cast aspersions against this group in particular, as the New Orleans East that they’ve inherited offers them one of the poorest educations in the entire nation, food deserts and underfunded and oftentimes ineffective youth programming. And it's no secret that crime in America, especially crime in predominantly black neighborhoods, is almost always birthed out of a dire need for economic advancement.
For better or worse the camp provided an opportunity for these kids to make a safer investment in their economic future. Which is still a gamble, but a much safer one than the alternatives that they’re currently presented with. More immediately, and probably most importantly, the group was able to invest in the potential for a better education.
We spoke with Scooter, a star football player, and rising senior at St. Augustine High School about his recent visit to Purdue University. One of the main takeaways from our conversation was his willingness to do whatever it takes to “get away”. Which in black teenage boy language simply means that he’s ready to be in a safer, more fruitful environment. Scooter is also a member of Son of a Saint, a non-profit organization in New Orleans serving boys who have lost their fathers to death by violence or long-term incarceration. And although Scooter didn’t have his father at the camp cheering him on, he had several coaches, mentors, and peers supporting, while also providing mentorship to younger campers.
This was a common theme on Saturday as the sidelines were filled with spectators, moms, guardians, dads, uncles, friends, mentors & everything in between offering up support. The black boy joy was on full display each time any of the camp goers made a great play and were able to run towards the sidelines to receive praise. As we begin exploring ways to reform many of our broken systems in America, we must pay close attention to the way that we affirm black kids and the way that we see and process their emotions. We must constantly remind them that it’s okay to be overcome with joy, or to be sad, angry, disappointed, and everything else. Kids that are taught to turn off their emotions eventually turn into adults who are subpar communicators and who react unfavorably when faced with adverse situations.
There was no such shortage of emotion and positive reinforcement at Fournette’s camp. Top-performing attendees received rewards like autographed memorabilia and official NFL gear. Additionally, each camper walked away with a cool Leonard Fournette Camp t-shirt which they each had the opportunity to get signed by the hometown hero. At multiple points throughout the day, dozens of campers at a time clambered to get to Leonard, all trying to leave with a piece of a young man who has been famous since before some of them were even born.
We don’t often look at him this way, but Leonard Fournette was a bonafide child star from the time that he hit the gridiron. Although born in New Orleans’ 7th Ward neighborhood, as a youth Leonard made the trek to New Orleans East to play park ball for the legendary Goretti Saints, where he began to make a name for himself far before entering high school. But from the moment that he stepped foot onto St. Aug’s campus the now Super Bowl champ assumed the role of starting running back and high school football rockstar. Over four years Fournette was able to rack up several accolades including 7,619 rushing yards and 88 rushing touchdowns for his career, including 2,500 yards and 30 touchdowns in his freshman season, earning him a scholarship to Louisiana State University. Leonard was also named a Class 4A First-Team All-State honoree, Louisiana’s 2013 Mr. Football, High School All-American, USA Today Offensive Player of the Year, Under Armour All-American Game participant, and he capped off his career as ESPN’s number 1 ranked recruit in the class of 2014 making him one of the most highly recruited players to ever come out of Louisiana.
Leonard’s sustained success in college, and now the NFL has been well documented and directly tied to his ability to dodge any and all off-the-field hiccups. Exposure to someone with this reality, who looks like them, and who grew up where they grew up is pivotal to this particular group of young men in their formative years. Fournette handled this responsibility with a startling amount of grace. The giant of a man towered over admirers as he tried his hardest to snap photographs with everyone, and offer words of encouragement. Most importantly Leonard made sure that each camp goer benefited from a full NFL player-led camp experience by being super hands-on during each drill offering up the full extent of his expertise.
Now, how can this successful one-off program turn into consistent year-round programming? For starters, there should now be a really strong alliance formed between all parties involved. With entities like the NFL, Roc Nation Sports, New Orleans Recreation Development, Son of a Saint, and Boys & Girls Club in collaboration, resources should be plentiful. These resources should be used to add elements like data & analytics programming into camps as a way to promote career development outside of being in athletics as an athlete exclusively. Resources should also be used to bring mental health specialists into camps for group and 1-on-1 sessions. In the same way that it’s a requirement to have a doctor on-site in case of physical injury, there should also always be a mental health professional present in the case that a child runs into an emotional disturbance during the camp. Loss and perceived failure can be triggers for some kids depending on their upbringing, and in an environment steeped in high levels of competition, it will be important for the camp to be setup for success in responding to any breakdowns.
Son of a Saint recently completed a 5-part mental health series called Life After Sports: Mental Health Roundtable, led by one of their mental health specialists, Tara Lark, where they gave a group of mentees access to panelists like former LSU Tiger and New England Patriot Eric Alexander, former New Orleans Saint and now the owner of SLAG Tile and Countertops, Glenn Foster, former Georgetown Hoya and St. Augustine High School star Blaise Brown, former NBA Lottery Pick, Wesley Johnson and starting center for the New Orleans Saints, Erik McCoy. Throughout the program the group discussed topics like body image in sports, losing and loss of opportunity, change of community, and using transferable skills from sports. If done consistently, and integrated into the natural flow of a camp, this kind of programming could be crucial in getting to the root of New Orleans’ juvenile delinquency issue.
I know. This sounds like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. But it’s not as far-fetched as you may think. There are more parks in New Orleans, there’s a lot more money, there are more partners, more kids, there’s other sports and other interests entirely. It doesn’t have to be a sports camp. Roc Nation was built on music first, and if executed with as much intention, and with as much organization and structure, this same kind of model can be used for kids who are interested in being in the music industry. Which in case you haven’t heard is a large number of kids. No matter the camp’s area of focus, as long as the elements of consistency, reliability, intentionality, mentorship and enrichment are there, the model can work. Preventative youth programs must continue to get the funding that they need to create consistent and sustainable programming. As I mentioned in the opening, this isn’t some waving of the magic wand easy fix. Reforming a system so deeply systemic will require an all hands on deck approach, and on a micro level this is exactly what Fournette provided on Saturday.