Coach Patrick Brown, the president of the Southside Hornets Athletic Association, views his program from a village standpoint — every member of the village has a role in the development of the youth.
“Because nobody is getting together, that kid is being treated differently in those four different aspects of life,” he said. “If we present more opportunities in these communities, you’ll change the outcome of the youth. Sometimes parents aren’t educated enough to teach their children, or there’s certain things they didn’t get in their education that they can’t pass down to their children.”
The athletic association tries to provide mentorship to children to help them become successful within their communities, Brown said.
With the athletic association’s UNITY program, or Understanding Needs In Today’s Youth, Brown implements the “Four Cs” — the cop, the clergyman, the counselor and the coach — into the child’s life.
“These kids are prone for something bad to happen to them, but we have to prevent the situation before it happens, not after it happens,” he said. “When a kid goes out of his house, he’s going to deal with one of those people.”
At the end of the day, Brown said, he didn’t want to be the person who took on the all-encompassing work, but saw the need for it.
“I love to coach. I am great at it and I love it, but I find it very difficult to coach when you don’t deal with some of those other issues,” Brown said.
Slider gives back to his village as a coach and mentor within the Southside Hornet Athletic Association — hoping to have the same kind of impact Brown had on him 25 years ago.
“I took those principles that I learned playing and coaching football and they just became an instinct in my life,” Brown said. “When I’m around the children, I study them. I look at how they move, what they do, the words they say and how they treat their parents, all of it, then I think of how I affect Fort Worth.”
Cristian ArguetaSoto is the community engagement journalist at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him by email or via Twitter. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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