Antonio Coleman gives back

[RunInRed 16,407]

Auburn is about so much more than football. It's about watching athletes, students and members of the Auburn Family grow up and become men and women...

Coleman's camp gives kids on probation positive feedback

Mike Herndon, Press-Register

In shorts and sneakers they streaked down the field Saturday, battling each other for position as the ball spiraled toward them.

Coaches looked on, shouting occasional words of encouragement or instruction.

It might have been any high school or middle school summer camp, but it wasn't. The field was at the Strickland Youth Center, and the athletes were probationers in the Mobile County Juvenile Court system.

When former Williamson High and Auburn defensive end Antonio Coleman decided he wanted to do something to give back to his hometown, it was here that he felt he could do the most good. So on Saturday, about 40 boys gathered in a field behind Mobile's juvenile detention facility for Coleman's Second Chance camp, battling each other on pass routes and taking in some sound advice.

"I just wanted to switch it up and not focus on high school 7-on-7 camps and things of that nature, but give back to the community and try to get out here and show guys there's a different way to channel your anger than getting in trouble -- channeling it to football," Coleman said.

"Growing up, I saw the same things and did some of the same things. These kids, they still have a shot; they're not down at Metro. They still have a shot to make something out of their lives. I want to be that positive role model to help them better themselves."

Read more...

Antonio Coleman, a true Auburn man. Here's to wishing him all the best in the NFL and beyond.

[auburndan_18 0]

GREAT article!! It's what AUBURN stands for, "I believe that this is a practical world and that I can count only on what I earn. Therefore, I believe in work, hard work.I believe in honesty and truthfulness, without which I cannot win the respect and confidence of my fellow men." MANY schools,coaches,and players neglect the second part. I'm proud of the way coach Tuberville ran the program and now coach Chizik is doing a GREAT job too!!!.. It's not just football though, you can see the "Auburn" trade mark throught the sports. Thanks for posting that!

[RunInRed 16,407]

Welcome to AUF Dan!

[auburndan_18 0]

Welcome to AUF Dan!

Thanks!!! I haven't been logged on here in a long time. The site has come a long way and looks great! Now if football season would hurry up and get here!

[RunInRed 16,407]

Right choices for Coleman have led to successful path

Mike Herndon, Press-Register

We see him as a football hero, chasing a quarterback in Jordan-Hare Stadium, a name at the top of the SEC stats for sacks and tackles for loss.

We see him as a name on the Buffalo Bills' preseason depth chart -- one of the thousands of kids who grew up dreaming of making it to the NFL, and one of the few who actually have a chance to make it happen.

What we don't see is how easily Antonio Coleman's life could have turned out differently.

It is a message Coleman shared with probationers and detainees at the Strickland Youth Center last weekend, when he held his Second Chance football camp at the facility. It's a message about making decisions, and how they can shape and ultimately define your life.

The first decision Coleman made on a day he calls the turning point in his life was to go to church.

"I was a loner," said Coleman, then a freshman at Williamson High. "I'd go work out, play football and hang out in the streets. I didn't get in any trouble, but I could have gotten in a lot of trouble hanging out in the street with guys I didn't have any business hanging out with. One Sunday, I said it's time to take a turn and I decided to go to church."

The day Coleman decided to get his life into order was the same day it could have easily fallen apart.

His older brother had just been released from a short jail sentence and returned to find that his ex-fiancée had taken up with another man, and he suspected that man of abusing his children. When Coleman returned from church that Sunday, he found his mother crying and learned that his brother had shot and killed his ex-fiancée and her boyfriend before taking own life.

A brother that had cheered Coleman at each of his football games from park league to high school was gone, and that brother's five children were orphaned. Coleman's family took them in with the help of an aunt, but with his father working construction and his mother on disability, having five more mouths to feed was tough.

It would have been easy then to go down a different path. Coleman was angry, hurt, and money was tight. He had every excuse to turn back to the streets. Instead, he turned to football.

"That was the turning point in my life, whether I was going to turn to the streets -- 'I've got to take care of five kids and my mom doesn't have a job, she's on disability ... so I'm going to go out and I'm going to sell drugs,'" he said. "All of that anger and everything I had built up inside of me because of the situation and what happened, I channeled it into football.

"You can go back to my days at Williamson and every time I stepped on that field, I was thinking about my brother. From that point on, I took it in my mind that I would never play on a field that I hadn't prayed on first. ... I'm praying for my brother; I know he's looking down on me. I'm praying for my family."

Because of those prayers and the decisions he made, Coleman now has a chance to turn his NFL dreams into reality. Like other local NFL players such as Captain Munnerlyn, Wallace Gilberry and Anthony Madison, he's sharing his story with youngsters facing their own life decisions, from the Second Chance camp to a youth football league in Buffalo where he's already begun volunteering.

The moral of that story: There's light at the end of the tunnel if you keep working your way toward it.

"They're doing great," Coleman said of his family, including his nieces and nephews. "They're happy I'm in the NFL doing something I love. It's about to pay off now."

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/07/herndon_right_choices_for_cole.html

[RunInRed 16,407]

Right choices for Coleman have led to successful path

Mike Herndon, Press-Register

We see him as a football hero, chasing a quarterback in Jordan-Hare Stadium, a name at the top of the SEC stats for sacks and tackles for loss.

We see him as a name on the Buffalo Bills' preseason depth chart -- one of the thousands of kids who grew up dreaming of making it to the NFL, and one of the few who actually have a chance to make it happen.

What we don't see is how easily Antonio Coleman's life could have turned out differently.

It is a message Coleman shared with probationers and detainees at the Strickland Youth Center last weekend, when he held his Second Chance football camp at the facility. It's a message about making decisions, and how they can shape and ultimately define your life.

The first decision Coleman made on a day he calls the turning point in his life was to go to church.

"I was a loner," said Coleman, then a freshman at Williamson High. "I'd go work out, play football and hang out in the streets. I didn't get in any trouble, but I could have gotten in a lot of trouble hanging out in the street with guys I didn't have any business hanging out with. One Sunday, I said it's time to take a turn and I decided to go to church."

The day Coleman decided to get his life into order was the same day it could have easily fallen apart.

His older brother had just been released from a short jail sentence and returned to find that his ex-fiancée had taken up with another man, and he suspected that man of abusing his children. When Coleman returned from church that Sunday, he found his mother crying and learned that his brother had shot and killed his ex-fiancée and her boyfriend before taking own life.

A brother that had cheered Coleman at each of his football games from park league to high school was gone, and that brother's five children were orphaned. Coleman's family took them in with the help of an aunt, but with his father working construction and his mother on disability, having five more mouths to feed was tough.

It would have been easy then to go down a different path. Coleman was angry, hurt, and money was tight. He had every excuse to turn back to the streets. Instead, he turned to football.

"That was the turning point in my life, whether I was going to turn to the streets -- 'I've got to take care of five kids and my mom doesn't have a job, she's on disability ... so I'm going to go out and I'm going to sell drugs,'" he said. "All of that anger and everything I had built up inside of me because of the situation and what happened, I channeled it into football.

"You can go back to my days at Williamson and every time I stepped on that field, I was thinking about my brother. From that point on, I took it in my mind that I would never play on a field that I hadn't prayed on first. ... I'm praying for my brother; I know he's looking down on me. I'm praying for my family."

Because of those prayers and the decisions he made, Coleman now has a chance to turn his NFL dreams into reality. Like other local NFL players such as Captain Munnerlyn, Wallace Gilberry and Anthony Madison, he's sharing his story with youngsters facing their own life decisions, from the Second Chance camp to a youth football league in Buffalo where he's already begun volunteering.

The moral of that story: There's light at the end of the tunnel if you keep working your way toward it.

"They're doing great," Coleman said of his family, including his nieces and nephews. "They're happy I'm in the NFL doing something I love. It's about to pay off now."

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/07/herndon_right_choices_for_cole.html