[h2]Stephenson's measure of success[/h2]
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By Matt Winkeljohn
Special to ESPN.com
Archive
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. -- In a world ofmisplaced priorities and snap judgments, it's easy to dismissStephenson High School as the program that can't win a statechampionship.
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Bruce James/Unforgettable MomentsMyles Ashmon, headed to Fort Valley State, is one of 29 Stephenson players to sign letters of intent.
But coach Ron Gartrell and his staff prefer to see a bigger picture,one that includes bringing focus, purpose and meaning to the lives ofmany young men.
You don't have 29 seniors signing letters of intent toplay college football, as the Jaguars did last week, because you'redoing it all wrong, nor because those young men are all world-classathletes. Clearly, there is a promotional machine and a well-oiledacademic support system in place.
Stephenson, located in apredominantly African-American community 18 miles east of Atlanta, hasroutinely churned out college players since opening 14 years ago,including 60 or so in the past three years. But the Jaguars ramped upthis year, as volunteer assistants Corey Johnson and Rodrick Clark tookover most recruiting duties and went into hyperdrive promoting playersto college coaches.
Johnson, a private businessman, andClark played for Gartrell years ago and refuse to focus on statechampionships. "We haven't won a state championship, but at the end ofthe day … you can't pay tuition with state championship rings."
Perhapsmore important than the quantity of student-athletes Stephenson issending to college are the testimonies of the players whose lives havebeen set on a different, more positive, course.
Take MylesAshmon, who signed with Fort Valley State, a Division II school inmiddle Georgia. The defensive end earned a full scholarship at thehistorically black university, which is quite a feat for somebody who afew years ago seemed all but doomed.
"I was robbing,smoking weed, selling weed, all kinds of stuff that I really wasn'tsupposed to do," he said. "Ninth grade, they told me I couldn't try outbecause I ended up coming out too late. Tenth grade, I tried out but Iwas ineligible because my grades were messed up from 9th grade. Thatreally hurt my self-esteem. I thought it was over for me."
Ashmon's life had turned down the wrong road when a couple of things helped turn him back.
First, a very rude awakening that had nothing to do with Gartrell, Johnson or Clark.
"Andafter a while, I'd seen how a lot of my friends and my brothers'friends were going, and one of my brothers [Wimberly Baker] had passedaway. It was a robbery that went wrong," said Ashmon, the youngest ofthree boys in his family. "He was selling drugs, and the dude that wasrobbing him thought he had a gun when he was pulling the drugs out ofhis pocket, and he got shot three times in the chest."
That was in 2007, the pivotal year in Ashmon's listing young life.
"Thatright there was pretty much enough for me to open my eyes and see thatthis life is … either going to take me to jail or the grave," he said."That's not nowhere I want to be, especially when I found out I had adaughter on the way."
About this time Clark, who works as a deputy in the nearby Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department, entered the picture.
Heand Johnson played in the late 1980s and early '90s under Gartrell,when Gartrell coached at another DeKalb County high school, Shamrock.
"Iwas driving down the road, and I always saw him walking," said Clark,who was a walk-on running back at Tennessee-Chattanooga. "One day … Itold him to hop in and asked if his parents were home. I broke it downfor them. I said, 'I don't know what your son is doing, but the word onthe street is that he's going the wrong way, so we need to get thistogether. '
"I explained that I'm in law enforcement, andI see this all the time, and we don't want to see people on TV saying,'If somebody could have saved my son … ' And I didn't want to one daybe saying, 'Hey, I saw the kid walking down the street, and I couldhave helped.' It's better to be told early than to be told whensomebody comes knocking on your door with bad news."
[h4]Stephenson prospects[/h4]
Stephenson (Stone Mountain, Ga.) had 29 players sign letters of intenton national signing day. The players signed with schools ranging fromSEC and ACC powers to NAIA schools.
| |
| Michael Thornton | University of Georgia |
| Tyrone Cornelius | University of Miami |
| Kenneth Ladler | Vanderbilt University |
| Raymond Sanders | University of Kentucky |
| Jabari Johnson | University of Kentucky |
| Ronnie Shields | University of Kentucky |
| Malcolm Strong | Marshall University |
| Chris Sharpe | Middle Tennessee State |
| Doral White | Valdosta State |
| Denzell Hartley | Johnson C. Smith |
| Quintin Spencer | Johnson C. Smith |
| Kevin Billups | Johnson C. Smith |
| Franchot West | Southern University |
| Joshua Polk | Presbyterian College |
| Martin Adebowale | Presbyterian College |
| Blake Rennals | Belhaven University |
| Armond Mitchell | Belhaven University |
| Brandon Smith | Miles College |
| Myles Ashmon | Fort Valley St. |
| Thomas Hubbard | St. Francis University |
| Jordan Rhinehart | Tusculum |
| Jacob Johnson | Tusculum |
| Steven Thomas | Tusculum |
| James Farmer | Tusculum |
| Gary McIndoe | Lagrange College |
| Idris French | Lagrange College |
| Jeremiah Mahoney | Concordia |
| Edward Passmore | Concordia |
| Ephesian Tisdale | Concordia |
[th=""]Player[/th][th=""]School[/th]
In the spring of Ashmon's sophomore year, in 2008, he went out forfootball again, and made the junior varsity, where he would spend hisjunior season in a probationary period.
He had made itin, part of a program that has been ranked in the top 10 in Georgia atone point or another in each of the past 10 seasons, and in the finaltop 10 seven times in that span. Seven times in the past decadeStephenson has won region titles, and the Jaguars have produced dozensof college players, though never at a rate like this senior class.
Staying in the program, which has created its own gravity, would be another matter.
"Ourprogram has been so successful that everybody wants to be a part of itbecause you're taking a chance of being part of a huge victory over[Martin Luther King High] or another big school, playing on nationalTV, getting all the ink in the paper, maybe getting your picture on thefront page … they don't want to miss out on that," Gartrell said.
Gartrell also reminds his students of the responsibility that comes with being a part of the program.
"Thismorning [in a 6:30 a.m. workout] I spoke about academics and seniorleadership. I told them: 'You're the ones who are going to make surethey're not walking around with their pants hanging down, you're theones who've got to make sure that your teammates are not in the hallwaywhen they're supposed to be in class, you're the ones who at partieshave to make sure your teammates are acting like you're supposed toact, because we take the idea that you're Stephenson football whereveryou go.'"
[h2]The man with the plan[/h2]Once you're in, and often even if you're not, Stephenson coaches,teachers and administrators are very much there. This structure hasbeen good for Ashmon; good for hundreds of young men.
Gartrellis a 50-year-old barrel of a man with a little salt in his hair andbeard. He's been at Stephenson since it opened 14 years ago and has arecord of 117-45 at the school (152-91 in 22 seasons overall). His mixof urgency and patience seems a perfect fit in the community.
Thelittle slice of Stone Mountain that sends its children to Stephenson ismiddle to lower-middle class. These are working-class people. Gartrellis all about a blue-collar approach.
He's quick to creditthose in his background, and will for hours -- if you let him -- singthe praises of his hometown and alma mater, old Washington-Wilkes High.Washington is a small-town school about 90 miles east of Atlanta, wherecoach Butch Brooks gave Gartrell and his longtime defensivecoordinator, Donald Sellers Sr., their first shot at coaching.
"That'swhere I played, and coached, and learned a lot about what I do," hesaid. "The plan [Brooks] put in place, when I got this job, we put inthe same type of plan. Where did Butch Brooks get his plan? From thelate Nick Hyder at Valdosta."
Brooks, who is retired,coached at Valdosta under the legendary Hyder, who won seven statetitles and three mythical national titles with a record of 249-36-2from 1974-95 at Valdosta -- the nation's winningest high school program.
The Jaguars sent five players to SEC schools last week, including safety
Kenneth Ladler, who enrolled early at Vanderbilt, as did linebacker
Tyrone Cornelius at Miami in the ACC.
ThreeStephenson players signed with Kentucky; four with Division IITusculum, in Tennessee; and three with Concordia, an NAIA school.
They come well-prepared, physically and otherwise.
"Theone thing that Stephenson has going for them that most of the greatprograms have, whether you're talking about St. Aquinas in Florida orByrnes in South Carolina or Mater Dei in California -- aside from agreat coaching staff -- is a track record," said Middle Tennessee Stateassistant Willie Simmons, who recruited cornerback Chris Sharpe to playfor MTSU.
"When you have alumni that come back, and yousee guys from Stephenson in starting lineups across the country,there's a foundation for those guys to follow."
TheJaguars have sent many players to major colleges, including Reggie BallJr., the starting quarterback at Georgia Tech from 2003-06; formerGeorgia defensive back DeMario Minter, who was drafted by the Browns;former Tulane linebacker Anthony Cannon, who was drafted by the Lions;and Florida senior defensive end Jermaine Cunningham, who was a memberof two national championship teams.
Perry Riley and Kelvin Sheppard went from Stephenson to LSU, where they won a national title in 2007.
Simmonsgave special credit to Ball's father, Reggie Sr., another volunteerassistant who is the Jaguars' strength and conditioning coach and arespected trainer in Atlanta.
The Stephenson coaches place great value in taking stock of players, or, "breaking them down," as Clark likes to say.
"Youassess every kid, break it down and tell them where they need to be,not saying that they can't get better through working out over thesummer and doing this camp. You're not going to tell a kid what hecan't do," he said. "We have to break them down with grades, andeverything off the field, and once you tell a kid what you see … thereality is, they tend to accept that.
"Kenny Ladler, forexample, always had the academics, but we told him he needed to reallyhit the weights because one day he was going to have to pass the 'eyetest' with D-I coaches."
Coaches give players and parents their view on what types of schools to target, from Division I to NAIA.
Withhelp from the booster club and fundraisers, the Jaguars raise money tosend players to summer camps that generally match their projected rangeof ability and academic prowess. Some kids last summer went to camp atAlabama, Georgia, Louisville and Troy, while others went to camps atGeorgia Southern, Elon, Furman and even Division III Shorter College.
"Atthe end of the day, these kids have to be able to start their life, goto college, get an education, work in the real world," Clark said.
That involves attention to details, like class work. Often, players go to extended study hall after school.
"Ithink we've had a group of kids that we use to influence each otheracademically," Gartrell said. "We have a nice study table … we cut intoour practice time by making a commitment to academics. They also usethat time to go to their teachers … which in the long run really hashelped our kids.
"We use the old cliché that a lot ofparents use: finish your homework and then you can go out and play.Finish your work … before you go to practice."
All this forms a sense of camaraderie that creates kinetic motion, an energy that pushes itself.
"Nobodywants to be set apart," Johnson said of the tendency for marginalstudents to be incentivized by their peers to pick up their academicpace. "If you've got a heavy group of kids doing their work and gettinggood grades and test scores, other kids are not going to want to beseparated."
[h2]The scholarship machine[/h2]Finally, there is promotion.
Johnsonand Clark spearhead that effort, investing thousands of hours in thepast year not only contacting college coaches, but staying in touchwith players and parents about academics.
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Bruce James/Unforgettable MomentsLinebacker Tyrone Cornelius signed with the University of Miami.
"The most convincing thing was probably Coach Johnson," said FortValley assistant Glen Holmes, who offered scholarships to fourStephenson players before landing Ashmon. "That guy was instrumental.He was extremely persistent in making sure he got his kids' names andtapes and transcripts out … more than any coach I've ever seen. He wasthe motor that moved that thing."
MTSU's Simmons echoed the thought.
"Therewasn't a day that went by where myself and hundreds of coaches acrossthe country didn't get an e-mail or text or a call about theaccomplishments of those players," he said.
The endresult is an easier life for Gartrell, many more opportunities foryoung men, and a program whose success feeds itself by attractingothers to it.
"They've [Johnson and Clark] changed mylife," Gartrell said. "My stress level during January and earlyFebruary was so high [in years past] that it was hard. Now, I justpoint [college coaches] to these guys and say, 'Whatever you want toknow, those guys got it.' "
All of this fits nicely withthe vision of Stephenson principal Brian Bolden, an unabashedly proudeducator who hung a banner in the lobby of the 1,800-student schoolthat reads, "Welcome to the No. 1 high school in America."
"RickPitino once said he had the hardest-working team in America. Whetherthat was true or not wasn't the point; they believed it. We believewe're No. 1," Bolden said. "I want to lead the nation in scholarshipopportunities, academic, athletic and in the arts. I'm proud of thesecoaches. You talk about seeing a vision, and believing …"
Here,Bolden pointed to a framed poster in a hallway between the schoolcafeteria and auditorium. In it was a barren field, a man in a suit inthe middle and a hazy photo of the Magic Kingdom overlaid on it.
"That'smy idol," Bolden said. "Walt Disney. Where others saw dirt, he saw acastle. Where others saw dirt, these coaches see castles."
MylesAshmon and the Jaguars are building their own castles, withfoundational help from not just the coaches and staff, but also fromeach other.
"My parents knew I was going down the wrongroad… my mom [Machell Ashmon], especially, she had been through so muchwith my two older brothers," he said. "She couldn't really disciplineme the way she needed to because she was tired. It was like shecouldn't take it no more. When Coach Clark came to my house, it reallyhelped.
"I hated to see my mom hurt. None of her othersons graduated from high school, and now look at her baby, graduatingfrom high school with a scholarship. And I'm going to graduate fromcollege, too."
Matt Winkeljohn left the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after spending21 years there. He can be reached at [email protected].
