Nineteen years ago, a Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreations employee and coach Anthony James made an investment into what was, at the time, an untapped market.
James realized there was a great deal of inner city youth with dead time on their hands.
“I noticed a bunch of kids with nothing to do but chase each other around all day,” he said.
Even in what some would call horseplay, James, a former college football player and track athlete, saw talent. Therefore, he decided to look into youth programs that could harness these talents and develop them.
From there, the Charlotte Flights track program was born.
The Flights are a traveling team that is open to all and competes throughout the summer, even after the Parks and Recreation season is over. Though it is a separate entity, it ties in with Parks and Rec through James, who also coaches track for the county.
Kids who run through Parks and Recreation programs are free to come over to the traveling team after their season ends.
No one is turned away from the Flights.
“We don’t make cuts. There is no one too fast or too slow for this team,” said James. “A lot of kids have God-given talent but we have no superstars.”
When the program first started in 1991, there were about 50 participants. Since then it has multiplied in size several times, peaking at over 400. There are currently over 270 participants in the program.
“This is the largest track club in Mecklenburg County, if not in North Carolina,” said James.
Through James’ expertise and intense teaching style the program has produced 44 national champions and set seven national records. It has been named national program of the year and national parks and recreation program of the year.
But James cannot take all the credit.
The coaching staff is a big family with most of them volunteers with the team at least 10 years. A few are former runners who have come back to help James with the program.
Each coach is classified as a semi-expert and works with specific age groups.
The program also has its own executive board which organizes meets and, among other things, comes up with fundraisers for the program.
Jesse Lowery has been with the program since the beginning and is a member of the executive board. “We’ve done just about everything to raise money,” he said.
“We’ve done car washes, everything.”
Fund raising is vital to the program due to the high cost of traveling to and from meets, so it takes a lot of work to keep the program going.
But the board and the coaching staff don’t go unassisted. They receive a huge helping hand from the parents who do everything from running booths to helping in events.
“The parents are very much involved,” Lowery.
“When we have our Jim Law Meet the parents volunteer. When we have our developmental meets they volunteer. We are like one big family and we need that to survive.”
Another key to the program’s survival and success is its practice location. The team practices at the Irwin Belk Complex on the campus of Johnson C. Smith. The track is Olympic caliber and designed specifically for maximum production.
As the kids enter for practice on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays they can see the JCSU track team working out on the other end of the track. Not only does this work as a motivator, but having the students around also increases the amount of helping hands.
Smith student athletes often volunteer to help James, running events during meets and showing youngsters techniques.
But what James is pleased with the most is the fact that his kids are in a college setting around college students. He wants his kids to see up close the importance of education and where college could take them. In fact education is emphasized far more than athletic ability.
James summates that over 300 students from the program have gone to college on an academic or athletic scholarship.
To ensure academic success the program keeps track of each athlete’s grade point average and in school production. When James talks about statistics these are the ones he is usually referring to.
The program also creates college profiles for all its high school participants. The profiles include a picture of the athlete, his or her height, weight, fastest times, and GPA. This is updated before every meet.
Jolanda Howard, 32, first started working with James at age 12. She went through the program and went on to run at St. Augustine’s. Looking back, Howard recognizes how the program benefitted her peers and how much of an asset to the city it has become.
Howard, like many other former Flight athletes, is again training with James, preparing for adult competitions.
Because James has so many former athletes, he has realized yet another need and is working to develop an adult track program through Parks and Recreation.
As successful as his youth program has been, there is no reason to think that an adult program won’t do just as well.
Well, there may be one difference—the kids will probably have better grades.
Khayla Dawson, a Greenway Park Elementary fifth-grader, is the new 2008 USA Track & Field (USATF) National Junior Olympics shot-put champion. 