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Program begun at Wingfield

Written by Rick Cleveland - The Clarion-Ledger

Jenkins, once Keys' coach at Callaway, directing 15 young men in 'Gentlemen's Quest'

Wingfield's Odell Jenkins, a 39-year veteran of high school coaching, has a message for all young coaches.

"What too many young coaches forget is that it's not all about wins and losses," Jenkins says. "We as coaches and teachers owe these kids something. Kids today need more direction than ever before. We owe it to them to point out the right path. Sometimes they won't take it, but we owe it to them to show them the right path."

Coach Jenkins ImageJenkins, who coached Tyrone Keys at Callaway three decades ago, has been chosen by Keys to start a program for high school students in Jackson patterned after Keys' highly successful All Sports program in Tampa. All Sports, in its 13th year as a combination college prep and community service program, has helped more than 700 inner city Tampa youth get to college.

Why did Keys choose Jenkins to start a pilot program in Jackson?

"Because Coach Jenkins has always been an inspiration to me since the first time I showed up for foootball practice at Callaway," Keys answers. "He is one of those coaches who really cared about you as a person and who saw the big picture. He saw something in me and inspired me. He still inspires me."

Fifteen WIngfield High students were selected or volunteered to join Gentlemen's Quest, which, says Jenkins, "will do everything we can to enrich these kids' lives."

Gentlemen's Quest, like All Sports in Tampa, not only will help students prepare for college and seek financial aid, but it will require those students give back in the form of community service.

"The emphasis is college prep," Jenkins says, "but we won't stop there. This will be a program all about making the right choices. We are starting small, but we hope we will grow into something like what Tyrone has done in Tampa. We need this in Jackson."

Keys believes that any city, including Jackson, would benefit from a program similar to All Sports. And Keys, who visits Jackson often, plans to be involved in Gentleman's Quest as much as possible.

"I'll help anyway I can," Keys says. "Coach Jenkins and I never go more than a few days without talking."

Jenkins says that every time he sees or talks to Keys, he thinks back to a tall, polite 14-year-old 10th grader.

"You know," says Jenkins, "they never grow up to me."

Eighteen-year-old Alry Williams, one of the Wingfield youths involved in Gentlemen's Quest, went to Washington, D.C., with Keys and Jenkins last summer as part of a leadership conference sponsored by Oklahoma congressman J. C. Watts.

"We're just getting started but our group is excited," Williams says. "Over the holdidays we volunteered and helped over at the VFW. This is going to be good for us and good for the community."