Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
Toll Free: 800-234-6575
|
|
 |
|
|
Keith Gatlin, former University of Maryland basketball player, addressed youth at a conference Saturday. |
| More Photos |
Monday, March 15, 2010
At the West Piedmont Workforce Investment Board’s fourth Annual Youth Conference at Martinsville High School on Saturday, former University of Maryland basketball standout Keith Gatlin urged students to be positive and focused.
“Find your brand, a positive brand,” to keep you focused on your goals in life, Gatlin said.
Gatlin used that philosophy to keep himself focused at a time when he became bitter after the death of his good friend, roommate and teammate, Len Bias, who died of a cocaine overdose after being drafted by the Boston Celtics in 1986.
On June 17, 1986, Gatlin recalled his mother calling him in the early morning asking if he was OK. He thought it was odd, but he appreciated his mother’s concern. He said his mother was sensing something was wrong.
It was not until Gatlin walked out of the bedroom and into the common area of his dorm that it became apparent his mother’s instincts were correct.
Gatlin saw Bias lying on the floor on his back in a white T-shirt and blue jeans with cocaine on the tables and empty beer bottles around the room. “He was dead in the dorm room,” Gatlin said, and others who had been partying with Bias that night were cleaning up and panicking.
“We were very bitter,” Gatlin said of himself and some of his teammates from the University of Maryland, because people associated them with the death of Bias yet they were not part of the events of that evening, he said.
“You can be guilty by association … that is just how it is in our society,” he said to the nearly 50 youth, ages 14 to 21, in attendance from Martinsville, Henry County, Danville, Pittsylvania County and Patrick County.
Gatlin’s goal was not to do what everyone else had done in his hometown of Greenville, N.C., which was to move to the big city of Raleigh, N.C. He wanted more and used basketball as a way to get it.
“Basketball is just a conversation to get your foot in the door,” he said.
When asked, “What is your brand?” Gatlin replied he would work as hard as he could so he could experience more than the small town living and thinking of his hometown.
Rayna DuBose had a similar message. In 2001, she was a highly recruited student who was awarded a full athletic scholarship to play basketball at Virginia Tech. By 2002, DuBose was struck with a bacterial disease, meningococcal meningitis, which led to her fighting for her life.
This illness resulted in having all of her limbs amputated. She became a bi-lateral amputee.
“I watched my entire extremities die,” she said.
DuBose quoted Frederick Douglass, who once said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
“It wasn’t easy. Basketball was my life,” she said.
But with a strong family unit and cutting her ties with “folks” who were holding her back, she has persevered and is independent, she said.
“It is all about decisions. Everything you do has consequences,” she said.
The WPWIB’s Youth Conference was intended to expose youth to meaningful advice on the importance of education, career development and making positive choices, said Sammy Redd, the WPWIB’s chairman of the Youth Council.
The conference also recognizes participants in the WPWIB’s youth programs who have done the extraordinary, he said.
This year, there were 15 recipients of the achieving excellence award: Rashawn Valentine, Donovan Logan, Daniel Roberson, Elshia Suggs, Kim Richardson, Kim Daniels, Mallory Lawrence, Daniel Branch, Kiana Craighead, Marteaus Wilson, Tyvon Barton, Delando Miller, Sean Carter, Laconde Allen and Flortrell Cardwell.
In addition to the guest speakers and presentation of awards, sessions were held on health and wellness, teen parenting, consequences of making poor decisions and respecting your body.
The day-long conference was sponsored by Carter Bank & Trust, Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce and Danville-Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce.
This year, nearly 1,000 youth ages 14 to 21, both in school and out of school, participated in WPWIB-funded programs in this service region. |
| |
|
|
.jpg)
.jpg)