By James Zug
At the 2013 Delaware Investments U.S. Open held last month at Drexel University, a dedicated and determined group of young men and women were present: team members of SquashSmarts, Philadelphia’s after school urban youth program.
SquashSmarts, like more than fifteen programs across the country that are part of the National Urban Squash & Education Association, is helping inner-city public school students achieve their academic and athletic potential through squash.
One student is Sakora Miller. Born in Brooklyn, NY, Miller went into foster care at age five for two years. Then her family reunited and moved to the Mantua neighborhood of West Philadelphia. Dubbed “Da Bottom” by residents due to crime, unemployment and urban blight, Mantua is a dangerous place to grow up: an intersection near Miller’s house is called “Murderer’s Corner.”
As a student at Charles Drew Elementary (a school since closed), she heard about SquashSmarts which took students from Drew. Her cousin, Jasmine Wingate, joined the program, and Miller would tag-along to her practice sometimes. Two years later as a sixth grader, she made it through the tryouts and was asked to join. “In the beginning some people in the neighborhood spurned the whole idea; they didn’t know about squash,” Miller said. “So it made me want to gain a whole new family around SquashSmarts.”
“Miller is an example of our fundamental mission: to keep kids in shape, in school and on track for graduation,” said Stephen Gregg, SquashSmarts executive director for the past decade. “Miller was a rebellious sixth grader when she arrived here, a girl who the statistics said would probably not earn her high school diploma.”
Seven years, 1,300 practices and 6,000 hours of academic and squash instruction later, Miller beat the odds and graduated from high school. She thrived as a SquashSmarts member. Her grades improved. Her confidence soared. She even was able to have a long talk with Michelle Obama when the First Lady came to visit the program in July 2012.
Since graduating from high school, Miller has begun attending Penn State University online. She also got engaged with Andrew Knox and had a baby boy, Andrew, Jr., who is now two years old. She also followed a path that NUSEA has planned for: bringing alumni team members back to the program. “The goal is for every urban squash team member to become a productive member of society,” Gregg said. “That includes some of them becoming future squash directors, academic directors and executive directors of urban squash.”
He’s not kidding. Gregg, along with his staff and board of directors, know that deep, meaningful change happens gradually: one school, neighborhood and student at a time. Miller, Mithun Das, Devonte Harris and Kareem Price—all seven-year SquashSmarts program graduates—were hired by SquashSmarts last April to come back as coaches-mentors through the Up2Us Coach Across America (CAA) program. The coaches help recruit new students, organize practices and pass the shared values and squash skills, that they themselves learned at SquashSmarts, on to a new set of young people who live in their neighborhoods.
“When a class of sixth grade recruits makes it through seven years of our program and graduates from high school with our guidance, it’s a huge feat,” said program director Katie Bicknese. “And it’s natural that many of those students will have deep bonds to the program, to our staff and to the game of squash.”
“The CAA is an incredibly unique learning opportunity,” said squash director Christopher Wert. “The coaches receive extensive training from the CAA as well as from local squash professionals, then they hone their coaching skills each day at SquashSmarts.”
Being a coach also means playing a visible role in the community. In September, Miller was honored by the Mayor of Philadelphia as one of eight Young Ambassadors for the city during the 2013 Beyond Sport Summit & Awards, a global gathering of international leaders that are focused on using sport for social change.
As part of the summit, Miller inter- viewed former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, met with NBA commissioner David Stern, swapped stories with basketball legend Dikembe Mutombo and helped SquashSmarts host a day of learning for thirty delegates from around the globe. “Next spring I fly to London to meet with an international group of young ambassadors, and then I will be representing urban squash at the 2014 BeyondSport summit in Cape Town, South Africa. In the end, I plan on doing for the program what it did for me.”
