JJ Davis, head coach for the women’s basketball team at Neosho Community College, held up a dollar bill in front of Iola Middle School students on Friday morning.
“How much is this worth?” he asked them, before wadding it into a ball and throwing it on the ground.
“How ‘bout now?”
JJ Davis, head coach for the women’s basketball team at Neosho Community College, held up a dollar bill in front of Iola Middle School students on Friday morning.
“How much is this worth?” he asked them, before wadding it into a ball and throwing it on the ground.
“How ‘bout now?”
He ripped it in half and threw it on the ground. The students gasped.
“How ‘bout now?”
“Tape it,” one of the students yelled.
Davis laughed and nodded, point made. Fix it, and it would still be worth $1. The value doesn’t change, no matter how challenging the circumstances.
Davis, a motivational speaker, came to IMS to celebrate Red Ribbon Week, an effort aimed at encouraging students to avoid drugs and alcohol. The event was sponsored by the Allen County Multi-Agency Team (ACMAT) and Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center’s Drug Free Communities Grant, along with Aevidum, a national group that helps students cope with issues such as suicide, depression and more.
IMS students also signed a pledge to not do drugs and to “be the change you want to see in the world.”
DAVIS told students about the challenges he faced in his life, and talked about the bad choices he had made and the lessons he learned along the way.
He was just 5 when he entered the foster care system and met a woman he called “grandma,” and the older brothers who were involved in gangs.
Little Davis dreamed of one day playing in the NBA.
“Anybody ever had a dream so big people laughed at you?” he asked the IMS students.
But Grandma didn’t laugh. Instead, she told him, “You’ve got to work at it,” and woke him up at 5 a.m. every morning to practice sports and do chores. She even made him chop wood.
“We lived in the hood. We didn’t have a fireplace. I didn’t even know where we got the wood or why I was doing it. But I learned my worth.”
He encouraged the students to “go do everything.” Try it, and maybe you’ll like it. Maybe you’ll be good at it. Or maybe you won’t.
“If you suck at something, it makes you better.”
