February’s Black History Month coverage looks at the life and thoughts of a youth advocate in the community. Reverend Alonzo Samuel of the James Street Baptist Church said he’s worked as a coach for 28 years in the community. Coach Sam, as many know him, guides youth in city league basketball. Being in the same field for so long, Samuel said he’s now coaching the children of the same people who came through the city’s program when they were young.
“It used to be the Santa Rosa Athletic Association,” Samuel said, before the city took over running the sports programs. During this time, Samuel said the teams practiced all over, behind United Methodist Church, the former court on Ferris Hill St (now a parking lot), the Mary Street court, and the area high schools.
Before the city took over sports, he said he would travel around the city and take underprivileged youth to and from practice. “When I first started with the SRAA, my truck stayed loaded,” he said.
Now, Samuel said, “The community center is allowing us to have an umbrella.” He said the city has evolved to allow more youth into the association by localizing the teams there. “We don’t travel as much. It cuts down on expenses.”
Samuel said a big difference he’s seen in youth thirty years ago compared to now is access to technology. He said children used to play outside but now they stay indoors. “To me, you can tell the ones playing (video games) all the time…You have to work hard to bring them up to speed. They’re not as agile as they used to be.”
“As a pastor of a church, I deal with the same thing,” Samuel said. Youth can bring in Bibles in different forms he said. “If used wisely, it’s a great tool. If used unwisely it can destroy all your time. If you carry a cell phone you’re always in connection, always checking.”
Milton is evolving, Samuel said. Because of the mixture of races through marriage, more children are blended. He recalled the words of Dr. Martin Luther King imagining a world of little black boys and girls joining hands with little white boys and girls. “They are brothers and sisters,” he said.
Samuel said in his own experience coaching, he’s seen sports bring youth of varied backgrounds together. “Once kids start playing ball together, they become great friends and travel together off season, spending the night with one another. They strike up new friendships. They don’t even look at each other’s skin color.” He said the children have even influenced their parents. “If you allow the kid into your home, the parents have to be involved. The kids have drawn the parents in.”
Meanwhile, Samuel continues to coach an ever growing city youth league. He said even if middle school sports takes hold, there will be those who aren’t good enough to play school sports but want to learn. “Retention will be higher at the city. No matter what goes on, you will play if you sign up…It takes a lot of pressure to make a diamond. It starts out as coal. There’s a lot of coal around here but it will diamond before it’s over with.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Black History Month Part 3