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High School Football

Girls Volleyball Showcase

PCA Awards. Athletics Leadership Council. Assistant Director of Athletics & Programs.

PERSPECTIVESATHLETICS

High School Cheer

CHICAGO | VOLUME 5, ISSUE 1, DEC 2014 | @pcs_athletics

a seasonal review of the Perspectives Charter Schools Sports Program

The Per-spec-

tives Char-ter Schools football team fin-ished 3-6 this season but still had plenty to cele-brate. The Warriors finished 2-3 in their

second season in the highly competi-tive Chicago Public League Illini Prairie State Conference. The victories, 27-24 over Harlan and 32-6 over Bogan, came in the last two regular-season games and boosted PCS into the Public League playoffs for the second straight year and second time ever.

Senior linemen/linebackers Mar-quan Brown and Reginald Bradfield,

senior wide receiv-er/defensive back Nehemiah Israel, senior lineman Reagan Cowley, senior fullbacks/linebackers JaMi-chael Nevers and Javontae Gibson and junior quar-terback/defensive back Hakeem Adebimpe led the way for head coach Terry Jones, whose team is made up of players from all four Perspectives high schools.

Perspectives’ sophomore team finished 4-4 under coach Randle Wil-liams.

Coach Jason Wise’s freshman team was 3-4, in-

cluding an impres-sive 42-0 victory over Hubbard. Top players included quarterback

Raekwon Roberts, running back/tight end/linebacker Charles Johnson, lineman/linebacker Omarjaye Thorpe and cornerback/wide receiver Mike

Dorsey.

“We had a great group of student-athletes,” Wise said.

“I can’t wait to see them next year at the sophomore level.”

By Barry Temkin

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Coach Jones leads the Warriors Football team out on the field for Homecoming 2014 against Hubbard.

Perspectives Athletics

CHICAGO

P3 Volleyball is on the rise at Per-spectives/IIT Math & Science Acad-emy. Head coach William Yadron’s team improved from 1-6 in 2013 to 5-6 this fall and also played in and played host to its first state tourna-ment regional, which took place at Perspective’s Auburn Gresham campus.

The Wolves prospered off the court as well. The team’s captains—

seniors Kamaria Rasul, Kam-eron Sanders and Janeya Cun-ningham—were finalists for the prestigious POS-SE Scholarship. Cunningham also helped develop an anti-violence doc-umentary film,

“I Am for Peace,” which showcased students living A Disciplined Life as a way to combat the violence they face in Chicago.

Rasul, the team’s Most Valuable Player, also was its assist leader. Cunningham led the team in kills, and sophomore Nikia Smith was its top server. Oth-er top performers included sen-iors Gloria Scott, Dawn Rayford and Brie Miner,

sophomore Ja-zlynn Williams and freshman Jocelyn Haynes.

“Our players bought into our team mantra, ‘1 Team, 1 Dream,’ ” Yadron said.

Among the

team’s goals for next season, his third as its coach, is to qualify for the state section-als despite los-ing six seniors from the current squad.

“Our goal is to maintain our competitive edge,” Yadron said.

The Perspec-tives Leadership Academy/High School of Tech-nology team had an excellent 15-5 record, and its

9-2 mark in the Chicago Public Schools Blue 2 conference was good for sec-ond place. Head coach Savannah Wright’s team also won the PCS Warrior Invita-tional.

Top contributors included three seniors—captain and MVP Crystal Lackey, Destiny Williams and Ahnicia Griffin.

Joslin finished 2-6 but sported a positive attitude throughout the season.

“The girls really improved and really played as a team,” head coach Michelle Ander-son said. “Even if we didn’t come out with a win,

everyone had fun and were always in great spirits.”

Top contribu-tors included two sophomores, captain Destiny Garner and MVP Paige Purtel, jun-ior Chantell Lopez and senior Jenia

Cooper.

“The team be-came its own little family,” Anderson added. “Everyone enjoyed being around each oth-er, they worked hard, supported one another and always had smiles on their faces.”

By Barry Temkin

Mr. Temkin retired in 2008 from the Chicago Tribune and volunteers in the Perspectives Charter Schools athletic depart-ment. He spent his last 20 years at the Tribune writing a high school sports column that cov-ered hundreds of schools, including Perspectives.

@pcs_athletics

Perspec-tives’ foot-

ball team had a true homecom-ing during the recently completed season.

The team is made up of student-ath-letes from all four PCS high schools, and for the first time cheerleaders

from the Auburn Gresham, Joslin and MSA campus-es came together for the homecom-ing game, which took place against Hubbard at Stagg Stadium.

Besides the 60 cheerleaders, the game also fea-tured a band and majorettes.

“There was a great building of school spirit,” Director of Athlet-

ics and Programs Vinay Mullick said. “The cheerleaders did a great job of being one collec-tive unit repre-senting all the high schools.

“There was just really good par-ticipation by fans, parents, staff and the community.”

GET INVOLVED.at PERSPECTIVESCONTACT VINAY MULLICK

e: VMULLICK@PCSEDU.ORGp: 312-604-2116www.pcsedu.orgtwitter: @PCS_ATHLETICS

STUDENT LEADERSHIP.

Perspectives High School of Technology student-athletes Reginald Bradfield and Lee Langham were recently recognized at the Positive Coaching Alliance-Chicago’s 5th Annual Scholarship and Awards Dinner.

Although they were not among the 10 winners of $2,000 college scholarships, they were among 30 finalists from high schools across the Chicago metropolitan area who attended the gala event at the Marriott hotel in downtown Chicago.

Chicago Blackhawks Vice President and General Manager Stan Bowman received the Excellence in Sports Leadership Award, and the Jackie Robinson West Little League got the Honor the Game Award for its performance in last summer’s Little League World Series.

The Positive Coaching Alliance is a highly respected national not-for-profit organization committed to providing all young athletes a positive, character-building sports experience. Cont. on P4

P4@pcs_athletics

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Perspectives Charter Schools made a good thing better at its recent ADL Lead-ership Council event.

For the first time, the mem-

bers of the indi-vidual councils at the four PCS high Schools came together for such an event, which took place at the Auburn Gresham campus. More than 50 student-

athletes took part in leadership activities, focusing on the principles of A Disciplined Life.

National Football League player representa-

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Bradfield and Langham are both four-year multi-sport athletes.

“They made it as finalists because they demonstrated the principles of the Positive Coaching Alliance and are striving to live A Disciplined Life as student-athletes

for Perspectives,” Perspectives Director of Athletics and Programs Vinay Mullick said.

“It’s great to see them both recognized, especially for such a prestigious award. It’s a great representation of their work and

Tiray Jackson facilitates a lesson in leadership skills with the A Disciplined Life Athletics Leadership Council.

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their families’ influence and the influence of their coaches and teachers as well.”

tive Sean Stel-lato spoke to the council members about leader-ship, controlling one’s own destiny and overcom-ing obstacles. He drew on his experiences as a Massachusetts high school foot-ball star, whose team won a state championship de-spite controversy stemming from a teachers strike.

“It was a great afternoon,” PCS Director of Ath-letics and Pro-grams Vinay Mullick said. “Sean definitely motivated the student-athletes to reach higher and become bet-ter people and do some goal-setting.

“The event helped them reflect on what it means to be leaders on their teams and in their communi-ties and schools and how better to incorporate the principles of A Disciplined Life.”

adds capacity to the network’s ini-tiatives to expand our after-school program options, especially in the area of academic enrichment.”

Jackson’s duties will include over-seeing eligibility, game management and transportation.

“Through my various roles here, I feel it’s really seasoned me to the type of leadership and responsibility associated with this position,” he said.

“I’m always push-ing myself to do great things, and I want to continually focus on ways to do just that for the Perspectives net-work, our students and our neighbor-ing communities.”

Jackson stressed that his goal is to ensure that stu-dents have access to high-quality after-school pro-grams, including athletics.

“Successful programs teach our kids so many

valuable life skills: leadership, com-munication, team-work, social skills and so much more,” he said. “It’s very important for our students to have a healthy balance between academics and programs.

“I understood how important they were for me growing up and how it helped me form a more posi-tive and productive mindset about my-self and about my direction in life.”

athletic coordina-tor there, has been named Perspec-tives’ first assistant director of athletics and programs. He will work with all five network schools.

“We’re excited to have Tiray,” Direc-tor of Athletics and Programs Vinay Mullick said. “This

P6BYNicholas Ullamper

After-school offerings are

continuing to grow at Perspectives Charter Schools, and Tiray Jack-son’s contribution is growing with them.

Jackson, who has coached several sports at Joslin and also been a teacher, ADL adviser and

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Perspectives Mid-dle Academy won the PCS Middle School Flag Football League champion-ship, finishing 3-3 in league play and 2-6 in Chicago Pub-lic Schools competi-tion.

Top perform-ers included 8th-graders Robert

Murdock, Damani Purham, TyShun Cornell and Trevon Walker.

“It was a great season, head coach Eldridge A. Brown Jr. said, attributing much of the suc-cess to his players’ perseverance.

The Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy team finished 3-2 and reached the league championship game under head coach Jesse Hardy.

Joslin’s flag foot-ball team was 1-5 under head coach Jonathan Daniels, whose top per-formers included

8th-graders Mar-lon Young, Ottro Guibero, Antwan Thomas and Ed-ward Smith and 7th-grader Mark Lewis.

The Chicago Youth Sports Alliance one again provided support for the PCS league.

Volleyball

The Perspectives MSA Middle School

6th- and 7th- grade volleyball team achieved perfec-tion, finishing with a 4-0 record. The 8th-grade team was 2-2.

Top contributors included 8th-grad-er LaHanna Giles and 7th-graders Key’Andra Coleman and Keariyon Chap-pell.

“The ladies learned to come together as a team and support one another even when they were down,” head coach Emily Farr said.

The Perspectives Middle Academy volleyball team finished 2-5 under

co-head coaches Stephanie Madziar and Bridget Bren-nan. Courtney Jones, an 8th-grad-er, was the team captain.

Lanette Glover, an 8th-grader, led

the way for the PMA cross country team, advancing to the city champion-ship meet under head coach Megan Plante.