Former football players provide leadership training at middle school

At 9:30 a.m. on a Tuesday, the bell rings, and students at Central Middle School in Cape Girardeau file in to a room with couches and chairs instead of desks and tables.

Bright teal walls peek out from between tall cabinets and stacked boxes holding binders, tissues and other classroom supplies.

Cantrell Andrews is posted by the door in dark dress slacks and a gray jacket. He shakes the hand of each sixth-grade student who walks in and greets them each with a "Good morning, sir," and they repeat it to him. Most are smiling.

Those already inside are adjusting each other's shirt collars and neckties while they wait for the Honorable Young Men's Club session to begin.

Not quite 30 boys are packed into the room, and there's a sense of excitement, anticipation. They're not in a classroom. This isn't a study hall. This is HYMC.

Keynote Jolliff, 11, right, talks to Lemuel Gilbert, 11, after a Honorable Young Men's Club meeting Tuesday at Central Middle School in Cape Girardeau.BEN MATTHEWS

The club started at Central Middle School in fall 2016, when Andrews volunteered with the two other group mentors, Wyky Jean and Kweku Arkorful.

All three men have a background working with "kids," as they say, and all three played football for Southeast Missouri State University. It's how they met, and now they work together in a shared passion for showing these students what's possible if they learn discipline and responsibility.

The club is dedicated to creating a community of empowerment for young men, "in an effort to help shape the direction of their lives," according to the group's Facebook page.

Core values include accountability and integrity, self-determination, critical thinking, commitment to excellence -- all to be achieved through the presence and guidance of strong mentors.

This year, Andrews, Jean and Arkorful are staff members at Central Middle School. HYMC is a regular, weekly program held during the school day, for fifth- and sixth-grade boys chosen by faculty and staff members who think the students might benefit.

Eric Hogan, 11, left, and Jaideon Reed, 11, laugh as they support their half of a "human table" during a Honorable Young Men's Club team building activity Tuesday at Central Middle School in Cape Girardeau.BEN MATTHEWS

On this particular Tuesday, Jean and Arkorful aren't present. They're heading back from a mission trip to Ecuador, leaving Andrews by himself. Normally, there would be a group session to start, then they'd break out into small group sessions, each led by one of the mentors.

But not today. Today, after a group pledge is recited together and three minutes of silence "to get our minds right before the activity," Andrews says, the entire group watches a video demonstrating the "human table," an activity where each team of four has to hold each other up using only their strength and teamwork. The team who holds it together the longest will win.

"Do you understand?" Andrews asks.

Some nod, some say "Yes sir," and he directs them into their self-chosen groups.

"One man," Andrews calls out.

Honorable Young Men's Club leader Cantrell Andrews, left, teaches Lemuel Gilbert, 11, to keep his desk tidy Tuesday at Central Middle School in Cape Girardeau.BEN MATTHEWS

"One voice!" they shout back, in unison.

As the first group gets situated, the rest of the club leans forward, intent on seeing the process. They laugh, talk excitedly but quietly among themselves, waiting their turns but eager to cheer each other.

When one section starts to chant "Fall! Fall! Fall! Fall!" Andrews darts over.

"If you're not cheering them on, don't say nothing at all," he says, and they stop immediately.

Afterward, Andrews brings them all back together.

"What was the purpose?" he asks.

Hands went up.

"Trust one another?" one student offers.

Andrews nods. "What else?"

Teamwork. Strength.

"Perfect," Andrews says.

"Trust in each other," he says. "It's no longer about just yourself. It's about communication. Hold a brother up."

Then it's dismissal, after a reminder to bring collared shirts and ties next week.

"It's surreal to think about," Andrews says after the students had gone on to their other classes. "My job is to come in and build relationships with kids."

Andrews said he previously worked for a juvenile detention center in Kentucky as a transporter.

Between that and growing up in his neighborhood, knowing the younger siblings of people his age, he said he sees a lot of need for boys to have a strong male mentor in their lives.

He went to Southeast, played football and after graduation worked in Kentucky until moving back to Cape Girardeau.

He wanted to find a way to get involved, he said, and he found out about the Christian Boxing Academy at the Salvation Army.

He, Jean and Arkorful all volunteered with the group.

"We were always volunteering, doing this and that," Arkorful said by phone Wednesday afternoon. "We asked, 'What can we do together?'"

Arkorful said he's always been passionate about helping those less fortunate. He was born in Ghana, and said his goal is to go back to Ghana and build orphanages.

He studied recreation at Southeast and was a cornerback on the football team, but he said he always was thinking of ways he could help.

"I thought, 'Recreation is fun,' but I wanted to have an impact on kids, so I started volunteering," Arkorful said.

He said that led him to the Salvation Army's Christian Boxing Academy, where "we were talking about Christ while we were beating each other up."

All kidding aside, Arkorful said he knew they were having a positive influence, and they knew the schools needed something such as this but obviously couldn't bring boxing into a school setting.

It was about that time in early 2016 that Arkorful said he heard about a school in South Carolina where a teacher had created a club to teach young men how to dress for success and become young gentlemen.

Arkorful said Andrews' mother worked at Central Middle School, and Andrews asked her about it. She was agreeable, and they went to the administration.

It was one day a week, two 45-minute sessions, to start, Arkorful said.

"After the statistics and data came back, we were asked if we'd be willing to do this full time, and we said, 'Yes,'" Arkorful said.

The three mentors also visit club members in their other classes and watch for behavior issues or other areas of concern that can be addressed, Andrews said.

Wyky Jean said he feels blessed the three of them can work together and bring this club about.

Jean said he was working for the 32nd Judicial Circuit Court in Missouri and said he was seeing children too late to affect them.

"To me, working there, it hurt, just seeing that, a young teenager that was just making poor decisions, and I asked myself, 'Why are they making those decisions? Why are they in here?'"

Jean said he thought they had been misled or just needed some guidance.

"All they needed was somebody to talk to, support them, show them the right way," Jean said.

As the idea for HYMC came together, Jean said, the central point was, "We need to show these kids love will lead us to where we need to be to move forward.

"We try to create leaders overall," he said. "We want the kids to come back, year after year. They are the reason HYMC exists. They put in the work, they want to be better. Whatever the goal is, they want to improve."

Jean paused, as much to gather his thoughts as to take a breath.

"We want them back because they are our future leaders. Later on, they can mentor kids, their peers, maybe even at home," he said.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent address:

1900 Thilenius St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.