NORFOLK, Va. – As LaMareon James and six of his Old Dominion University football teammates walk up the steps at Blair Middle School, a voice beckons from a few dozen yards away.
"You're just going to walk right past me and not say anything?" says a Blair teacher, as she smiles at James, a junior cornerback.
"I didn't see you," he says and walks over and hugs her. Their embrace is warm because they've known each other a long time.
James says he met her when he was a troubled underclassman at Lake Taylor High School. Years later, James hopes to impart some of the lessons he learned when he starred at Indian River High School, and in his first two seasons at ODU, to some young Norfolk teenagers.
"I've been where these kids are now," he said. "I've walked in their steps.
"I want to do everything I can to help them."
As does the entire ODU football program.
ODU's football team began a mentoring program at Blair in 2020, Ricky Rahne's first season as head coach. That was the year the pandemic virtually shut down the nation, and for a year, the Monarchs had to make do with reading to Blair students over Zoom calls.
"But they weren't satisfied with just reading to the kids," Rahne said. "They wanted to do more."
So, ODU hooked up with Joshua Brooks Jr., a seventh-grade English teacher at Blair who works after school with students, and began a mentoring program. Ever since, as many as 15 football players visit Blair weekly during the fall and every few weeks throughout the rest of the school year.
LaMarion James playing basketball with Blair Middle School students.
Dozens of young Blair students, including many raised in poverty and in broken homes, have developed relationships with ODU football players. Devin Brandt-Epps, a defensive tackle from Oklahoma, tries to go every week if he can.
"There are a couple of kids who've reached out to me regularly when I'm not here," he said. "They've asked me to help them with problems. I've done my best to try to help them."
Not only do the Monarchs go to Blair, many of the athletes they mentor have attended ODU football games. For some, who have no family members who've ever gone to college, going to S.B. Ballard Stadium, and seeing ODU's sprawling campus, exposed them to the dream of a college education in a practical way for perhaps the first time.
Dr. Patrick Doyle, the Blair principal, said the partnership with ODU has been invaluable to the many athletes whose lives the Monarchs have touched.
"So many kids here need mentors," he said. "You see the improvement they've made because of the relationships they've built with ODU football players.
"At the end of the day, they are middle school students, and middle school is about making mistakes and learning from them. They still have some struggles, but so many of them are in a much better place now because of this program.
Brock Walters discusses academics with two Blair students.
"One of the best things that has happened is getting these kids on ODU's campus for football games. We want them to understand that college is attainable, if you work hard and do the right things. Getting those kids early, in the seventh or eighth grade, to show them what college is like, to show them it's something they can do, that can change lives."
On this hot June day, James and Brandt-Epps and teammates Curtis Nixon II, Isiah Paige, Monterio Smith, Brock Walters and Isaiah Spencer embrace their roles as mentors with gusto.
It begins with the Monarchs meeting about 25 male athletes, nearly all of them football or basketball players, in a computer room.
Brooks tries to keep the young guys under control as he leads a group discussion, a task about as easy as herding 25 cats. They're excited to see the players from ODU and the chattering gets out of control a few times.
Later, they will all engage in a full-court basketball game that for a brief time incudes Doyle.
The session begins with Blair players breaking into group to discuss their grades with ODU players. You can see the awe in the eyes of the young guys as they talk about their grades, relationships with teachers and problems they're having in school.
Smith said that when he was their age, he remembers looking up to athletes even moreso than teachers.
"They look up to us because they all want to be like us," he said. "They want to be Division I athletes."
Walters, a freshman long snapper from Kailua Kona, Hawaii, listens patiently as one young guy voices his frustrations about a teacher.
Javione Thomas and Markus Daniel say they have benefitted from being mentored.
"I gave him some advice about talking to his teachers instead of arguing with them," Walters said. "The guys I've been working with, they've taken my advice and are improving academically. That means so much to me."
I picked two players out of the Blair athletes to interview and Markus Daniel, a football tight end, and Javione Thomas, a linebacker, have a lot in common.
Neither has a father figure in their family and both say they weren't headed in the right direction until they hooked up with the ODU football players.
"This mentorship brought all of us closer together," Daniel says. "They taught me to stay out of trouble, to be on time, to stay on track in school.
"Most of the kids here, they don't have fathers in their family to guide them in the right way. The ODU football players, they support us and give us that big brother bond that we need."
Thomas said his favorite ODU player is James, but that he looks up to all of them.
"They've come to some of our games and that meant a lot to us," he said. "LaMareon told me to tune out the negative stuff in my life. Block out all the negativity and work to be positive.
"I've followed his advice and am doing better in school."
Jonathan Ceh, the assistant director of football operations who drove the group to Blair on this day, said the mentoring program has had a positive impact on ODU players, too.
"They realize, as college football players, they're in a unique position to influence the lives of the kids at Blair," he said. "They know they're making a difference."
Contact Minium at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
Minium: ODU Football Team Has "Changed Lives" With Its Mentoring Program at Blair Middle School
