Pee Dee Flyers winning on and off the court

FLORENCE - As a South Carolina state trooper, Darryl Kelly has seen his share of young people get in trouble with the law, whether it’s through drugs, alcohol, gang-related activities or just about anything else.

Four years ago, he and a few other men who coached recreational youth basketball in the Pee Dee came up with an idea. Why not use their sport to deter that behavior and make a difference in the lives of kids who are often faced with possibly choosing those destructive paths?

The Pee Dee Flyers were born. Today, two teams — one 13-and-under, the other 14-and-under — travel around the Carolinas and play other teams affiliated with the United States Specialty Sports Association, a nationwide youth athletic organization similar to AAU. Next year, Kelly said, it will increase to four teams, including a girls’ squad.

To the outsider looking in, it might appear to be just another couple of youth basketball teams.

To its founders, coaches and players, it’s so much more.

“It’s about more than basketball,” said Kenneth James, the organization’s director and coach of the 13-and-under team.

“It’s about academics. It’s about keeping them off the streets, out of gangs and getting them into a structured environment. We just use basketball as our vehicle.”

Father figures

The team started when a handful of fathers were standing around talking about their idea. They realized that if each of them took their sons and put them together, they’d have enough for a team.

“We are fathers coaching sons,” James said.

In a very short period of time, it became fathers coaching other sons, as well.

And many of those sons are in need of just that. Kelly estimates that about a third of the players that make up the two teams are from single female parent homes.

That fact particularly strikes a cord with Craig Walker, a Florence native who said he grew up knowing only his mom.

“I wanted to find a way to give back to the kids,” said Walker, an assistant for the 13-and-under team. “There are so many kids here that come from single-parent homes that don’t have a father figure or a big brother to help lead them in the right way.

“I was one that was raised in a great family, but I took a side road and ended up falling behind and it took me a little while to realize what was good and what was bad.”

That’s exactly what Walker, James and their peers are hoping to help their players avoid. And they don’t wait until a kid is in trouble to start helping.
Their aim is to keep it from happening at all.

“This is a preventive measure,” James said. “You don’t wait until something happens. You give them alternatives to try to steer their behavior in a better way and their attitudes in a better way. This is proactive instead of reactive.”

For example, Walker, Kelly said, acts as the teams’ watchman in Florence. Walker goes into schools, talks to teachers, principals and guidance counselors.
“If they’re having any disciplinary problems, Craig addresses them,” Kelly said.

This year, according to Kelly, there has been only one player with whom discipline has been an issue.

Success story

In all aspects, the Pee Dee Flyers have been a success.

They win plenty of basketball games. Two years ago, the 12-and-under team finished fourth out of 300 at the national tournament in Fort Wayne, Ind.
But in the eyes of the teams’ coaches, there are better stories than that to illustrate what the Flyers are about.

Greg Daniels, another assistant, has worked closely with Dre Gordon, a rising ninth-grader at Hannah-Pamplico.

A year ago, Daniels said, Gordon’s middle school coach came to him asking for help.

“Dre was at the point of failing,” Daniels said. “His coach came to me to tell me he was about to be put out of school and off the team if he didn’t get his behavior together.”

Gordon admitted he needed help. He wasn’t doing his work and routinely misbehaved and disrupted class.

“The teacher would tell me to stop and I’d just keep doing whatever I was doing,” Gordon said. “I’d get on their nerves and they’d just write me up.”

When Daniels asked Gordon if he wanted to get into the Flyers organization, Gordon said he knew it was the wise thing to do.

“I knew the people around me, my mom, my family, would be proud of me,” Gordon said. “And I wanted it for myself, too.”

Just a couple of weeks ago, Gordon said he received an award at Hannah-Pamplico Elementary/Middle School for being the most improved eighth-grader.

“I think it’s a direct result of him interacting with this organization,” Daniels said. “That’s the kind of commitment we have to this team. We don’t just want them to play ball. We want to see their attitudes change, their grades change so they can be productive on the outside when it comes to citizenship.”

The ultimate goal, Kelly said, is for each player to have the opportunity to go to college.

“We want to make sure they’ve got a vision, a future, an idea, a thought they can prepare for every day,” he said.

Whatever the need, whoever needs it

The coaches’ interaction with their players doesn’t take place only in the gym or occasionally at a school.

The players’ parents know that there’s an adult male just a phone call away for whatever the need. Between coaches, a scorekeeper and conditioning coach, there are at least four male role models available per team.

“They need something, we’re there,” Kelly said. “We’re at their doorstep if they need a good, strong talking to, if they need a ride, even finances.
“And it’s simple stuff — pull up your pants, how you talk to people, say yes sir, no sir, yes ma’am, no ma’am, be on time, how you present yourself, things like that.”

It can be challenging, but it’s almost always rewarding, the coaches said.

“The easiest part for me is just giving all the love I can to try to support those kids who aren’t fortunate enough to have that pair of sneakers or who aren’t fortunate enough to go to Myrtle Beach or outside the state of South Carolina,” Walker said.

James likens his mission to the New Testament parable of the shepherd who left the 99 sheep to go after the one that was lost.

“It’s just like that to us. Any one of these kids, we will stop and help,” James said. “We want to keep them together.

“It is satisfying and it is challenging. It’s about how to live in today’s society. You’ve got to grow up and you’ve got to live here. It’s giving life lessons.”