In downtown Kansas City, Missouri, there’s a high school football team that has lived a life of tragedy and triumph, from players who waste the circle of relatives to gun violence in one of the country’s most damaging zip codes, to a tragic car accident. , to the Four-Match Division I football team.
The story of Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, good fortune on the floor with its off-field drama, has even attracted the interest of a documentary director. Think of “Friday Night Lights” encountering “Last Chance U”.
Not so long ago, the Blue Tigers had to gather enough players to complete a list, but after completing last season 11-1, coach William Lowe needs to discover that his team is more than a truly convincing spectacle.
“We know we’re a valid program,” Lowe told USA TODAY Sports. “We’re just a wellness story about the kids in town who have had some smart football seasons. “
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Lowe arrived in Lincoln in 2015 as an offensive assistant and was promoted to head coach in 2017, his paintings were cut off.
“I think for my first workout, a boy showed up without a blouse or jeans,” Lowe said. “Children were used to a smart program because expectations were never set for them. “
That temporarily changed. For starters, if he didn’t practice, he didn’t play on Fridays, and until the end of the season, Lincoln’s roster was narrowed to 32 players, according to Lowe.
The Blue Tigers finished the year 3-7, the fieldwork was ready. The team was 6-4 in 2018 and 11-1 in 2019, wasting Platte County in the playoffs.
This good fortune is rare for a downtown team because players are recruited into the best schools in the suburbs where more Division I scouts are looking for players. This is rare in a school like Lincoln, which is better known to its academics than to its athletics.
According to Kristian Foster, the school’s principal, students want scores in the 60th percentile in math and reading on a national check to enter Lincoln, as well as an average of 2. 5 GPA and 90% attendance. Lincoln, a traditionally black school, did not disintionrated until 1978 and now sees his athletics stand up to his mythical academics.
Lincoln’s supporter, Jermaine Hamilton-Jordan, quickly highlighted the school’s overall success and said the study rooms are full of more than just academics and teachers.
“It’s a circle of relatives inside this building, ” said Hamilton-Jordan.
Outside this building, however, is one of the most damaging cities in America.
Kansas City had one of the country’s homicide rates in 2019, nearly 30, consisting of 100,000 people. In total, there were 148 murders. More than just the new year, with the city already overshadowing its record for one-year murders after reaching 156 in October, according to the Kansas City Star.
“You have to take care of your head when you pass out, ” said Hamilton-Jordan.
Hamilton-Jordan, who joined Arkansas, is one of four Lincoln players involved in Division I programs. Quarterback Howard Brown will go to the State of Iowa as a defensive tackle, Marcus Bass will head to the Army and Tobechi Okoli commits to Auburn.
Like many of his teammates, those players have had to deal with riots through gun violence.
Brown and Hamilton-Jordan said they had shot several members of the family circle and talked about the risks of developing east of Troost Avenue, one of Kansas City’s most damaging areas.
Bass said he was lucky he didn’t suffer any kind of gun violence, but said he was a component of his daily life. He suspects summers are more damaging because in winter he hears fewer gunshots.
“I’ve grown up with these things, I didn’t really take them into consideration out of the ordinary,” Bass said.
The consensus among Lincoln’s star players is that they don’t need to be known just for the violence around them. Hamilton-Jordan said the east side of Troost is home to many other talented individuals who are overshadowed by the community’s reputation. .
Students, like their coaches, don’t need their team or city to be judged just for their tragedies, but a local documentary team still hasn’t been able to explore this team and everything around them.
Jacob Handy is the founder of Generational Wealth Sports Group, a sports firm that represents athletes, artists and has its own film department. He first heard about Lincoln, his brother, a Kansas State football player, who trained with Blue Tigers defensive coordinator Michael Rose-Ivey.
Handy knew the commitments of 4th Division I and their individual stories and came up with the concept of creating a documentary.
Handy recruited a college friend, Nico Wiggins, who founded Nico Giles Media and is guilty of producing the work that has been nicknamed “For the City. “
The documentary series will remain in the Blue Tigers for the 2020 season, and Handy said he was looking for a dealer to pick up the assignment for release in the fall of 2021.
Lowe was reluctant to allow hereras on the team’s mythical blue turf, because when Handy arrived with the assignment he said it would look a lot like “Last Chance U”, the award-winning series that followed several U. S. football groups. network universities.
Lowe recalled that these groups were given worse after the cameras gave the impression and were reluctant to give the project soft green.
“Whether other people need to admit it or not, the cameras will succeed in you unless you’re smart and that won’t let you convince yourself how you act in front of them,” Lowe said.
Despite his reservations, his players’ exposure prospect is too smart to stay out. A feeling not lost to Lincoln’s sporting director, Ryan Glasgow.
“As a downtown team, surrounded by the largest suburbs in our region, many of these groups and meetings are much more identified than our young people, even though our young people are equally talented,” Glasgow said. tactics to show them off. “
It is true that the team is rich in talent, but perhaps none more talented than the offensive part Israel Gentry, another character in Lincoln’s history, whose career in the game was interrupted.
Lowe named the player for Gentry Lincoln when the Blue Tigers were undefeated before the playoffs in 2019, but all were replaced on the morning of October 31, 2019.
Gentry’s mother, Toinette Freeman, woke up but was not in a position to get out of bed. The circle of relatives regularly began their days with a prayer, and Gentry was the first to get up and prepare everyone for the morning routine.
By the time Freeman got out of bed, Gentry was on his way to school. Freeman went to the paintings where he won the phone call that all moms fear.
Gentry, worried about a car accident at fate and in the hospital with fatal injuries, Freeman rushed past Gentry.
According to the police report, the driver of the balloon presented was the passenger with a friend on the way to school when the driving force was lost and off the road and crashed into a tree, according to the police report. a fracture of the neck, spine, arm, shoulder blade and elbow, according to Freeman.
Although Gentry survived, he was tetraplegic.
The next day, the Blue Tigers won their playoff game 38-10 with a bunch of Kansas City citizens who provided Lincoln and Gentry.
“I appreciate everything about my circle of relatives and friends,” Gentry said of the network that gathers around his circle of relatives.
Freeman said his son enjoys life now and seeks to get used to his new way of life. The mother of seven recalled a time of Gentry’s rehabilitation that made her feel grateful and excited.
“I’m very grateful when he started talking again,” Freeman said. “He said, ‘Mom, thank you for saving my life. ‘ And at that moment, I felt very revered to be her mother. “
Gentry’s short-term reminiscence still belongs to him. He can’t, in particular, the accident, but everything that happened before is intact, even the moments when he was out with Lowe.
“He told me to bring him the helmet and pads,” Lowe recalls in an interaction with Gentry, who was still looking to get dressed after the accident.
Despite the cameras and drama, the Blue Tigers have been set up for another playoff race.
After a hard-hitting 62-27 win over Van Horn, Lincoln (7-2) is expected to face Grandview (6-5) on Friday to keep his season alive in the District.
“Last year, when we were 11-0, we were a Cinderella team. Everyone was still doubting our quality,” Lowe said. “This year, he likes to talk about us. “
Who can blame them? Lincoln only remodeled his football program, but also replaced the lives of his coaches and players.