A Co-Founder's Vision

by Cliff Parks

Scholar-Baller Image

As a high school counselor, I spend countless hours

speaking to athletes about the importance of college.

However, my words tend to fall on deaf ears because

many of these individuals perceive playing for

professional sports teams as one of the few viable paths

to upward mobility, School is rarely an option as most

of the students I converse with are victims of the external environment. They either fall prey

to the streets or solely emphasize athletics. What they tend to forget is that athletes and

academics work together.

Stigmatizing mass media messages reinforce a "dumb minority jock image" and perpetuate

prevalent accepted norms relating to the institutional notion of black intellectual inferiority. It

is difficult working with students that have this myth embedded in their minds, and

unrealistically dream of someday playing professional sports. For this reason Scholar Baller

IMAGE (Intellectual Messages in Athletics that Garner Excellence) curriculum intervention

program has been introduced.

The Scholar-Baller IMAGE curriculum has been designed as a resource tool for high school

administrators, athletic directors, and coaches. The program targets inner-city youth and

athletes abroad in a challenging manner that gives "scholar-ballers" the ability to create

powerful visions for the future by fusing academics with athletics. The curriculum focuses on

topics such as: Who Am I? Goal Setting/Vision, Academic Success ("Scholar-Baller") and

Race Relations.

The goal of Scholar-Baller IMAGE is to produce scholar athletes that have the ability to

become productive citizens in society. It is my hope that this curriculum will challenge inner-

city student athletes to place a higher emphasis on academics and use athletics as the vehicle

to prepare them for life. Lastly, this curriculum will Give Athletes a Mentality of Excellence.

It's GAME time!