08-05-10
What equals success?
15 years in any venture; business, charity or otherwise, is quite an achievement. For CIA’s Director and Head Coach Tony Brown this achievement came and still comes at a price. It’s not often we get a chance to drag him away from his daily coaching and counseling duties so when that opportunity presented itself we spoke in-depth about his personal journey and why he’ll never regret the sacrifice he’s made.
From an early age it was evident that Tony possessed both a gift and a passion for working with people and this quickly permeated his professional life, starting in direct sales before being promoted to regional sales manager. All the while Tony’s passion for basketball remained an integral part of his life.
Through that passion, much of Tony’s time became dedicated to mentoring the younger players around him. “I found that I was spending more and more of my time on the court coaching the younger players. As I did that it became clear that there was a desperate need for mentors and role models in our community and often the parents benefited from that relationship as much as the players,” Tony remembers.
However, whilst the inception of the project was clearly necessary it certainly came at a cost.
“I had just been offered a promotion and would have been earning upwards of 50k a year, so starting the club meant risking getting nothing. Our aim wasn’t to make money but a neutral environment where players could trust their coaches and where they’d learn to love their community.”
“A lot of young people want to take but aren’t prepared to give. Through the hard work and discipline that’s inherent in the way we coach, we teach them to give something back to their community and set them up for life away from the court too.”
Tony took a true leap of faith, going from a stable, regular income to earning just £30 per month coaching in a single school.
“We started in one school in Merton and were immediately given those labelled as ‘problem kids’. These were young boys and girls on the brink of expolsion from Primary School. When parents and teachers saw a transformation in the way they behaved and in their school work we were quickly recommended to other schools and the coaching program grew from there.”
With little over a month to go before the launch of HOOPS, a national grassroots coaching and mentoring program developed by the club and it’s partners, Tony is prepared to do it all over again regardless of the sacrifice.
“Even if we were to spend another 15 years without being funded we’d continue to do what we do.”
In a society that considers wealth, both corporate and individual, as a key indicator of success, Tony believes CIA has, and always will, go against the grain.
“For us success isn’t measured by finances. Seeing the project make a genuine difference to the kids we coach and their families is more important. We see it in how our kids interact with each other and their passion to make a difference. We see it in the recognised and respected players that give up their time to support our annual Family Festival each year.”
“If we continue to change lives through the project, then it will have been a success.”
Note: CIA Basketball was established in the Summer of 1995 by Tony Brown and Freddie Roberson and now celebrates 15 years of coaching and mentoring in the local community.
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