Calling the right plays

Lawrence Middle School fifth- and sixth- graders, along with the student council officers packed the gymnasium on Dec. 9 to listen to former New York Giant Keith Davis and his colleague, Dominic Miller, a former defensive lineman for the University of Houston.
This was the second visit to Lawrence for Davis and the first visit for Miller. A teacher at the middle school heard Davis speak at an anti-bullying conference, and was so inspired by him that he was invited to come speak to the middle school students for the first time back in 2012, shortly after Hurricane Sandy.
Davis and Miller, both motivational speakers from Davis’s organization Winners, Inc., imparted the message that even if there are obstacles in the students’ lives, they have the power within themselves to push past them. “Readers become leaders,” Davis told the students. “Ask yourselves, what is your big dream?”
Davis recounted his childhood. Born in Los Angeles, his father was a drug addict who died when Davis was 4. By 10th grade, David had attended 19 different schools, his reading skills were lacking, but his teachers encouraged him not to quit.
“I started dreaming, started working and began studying,” he said. “When I went to the University of Southern California to play football, I came in at the bottom. By the time I graduated, I was the number one student on my team.”

He explained to the kids that losing at one time doesn’t mean having to surrender and not accomplish a goal. “We played the first half of the game, and we were losing,” he said. “Our coach pulled us together and had a discussion with us. He reminded us that even if we weren’t winning in the first half, we could still pull it together for the second half, and we did it. We didn’t win our game in the first half, but we won it in the second half. If you’re not doing well now, you can still turn it around. You, too, can have a winning second half.”
Growing up in Houston, Miller’s childhood was also not pleasant as his parents were incarcerated while he was a child. He had a learning disability that impeded his reading progress. As a teen, he smoked, drank and sold drugs. But he turned his life around to play football, studying four hours every day, he said. Earlier this year, he became the first in his family to earn a college degree. His bachelor’s is from the University of Houston. “I have six words for you,” he said. “Keep your eyes on the prize.”
Aziah Santizo, a fifth-grader from Inwood, got to put on Davis’s Giants jersey and put on his Rose Bowl championship rings. “This is so exciting,” she said. “I even got an autograph. I will listen to their message to follow my dreams.”