The new league offers kids like Desmond Toole the opportunity to play organized sports for the first time. Anthony Toole-Anthony, Desmond's mother, hopes he learns more than the meaning of a blitz, playing for the Bull City Lions.
"Discipline, a little bit of toughness and friendship," she says.
The league is not limited to guys. The girls will be cheering the team on from the sidelines. It was started in the community to give kids something to do.
"When a child comes home from school, and his only option is to go to the corner and hang out with the drug dealers and the folks who are doing negative things, then that's what he's going to do because he's bored at home," says Doug Hoggs, president of the Bull City Lions. "He doesn't have anything to gravitate to."
Another part of the program is for adults to teach kids how to be successful in the game of life.
"We're trying to instill confidence, discipline and most of all, they need to understand authority figures are somebody to be respected," Hoggs says.
The same qualities that Angela wanted for her son.
"Usually it's the women, the mothers, who are involved in the children," Toole-Anthony says. "The men are out here working with them so they see the men care, so they see a lot of positive role models out here."
The Bull City Lions will still be signing up players and cheerleaders for the next two weeks. If your child is interested, you can call919-489-1392to sign them up.
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