Professional football players typically break through boundaries created by their opponent’s formation on the field, but the inaugural “Rams Blitz: Youth Working Together to Break through Boundaries” program attacked social boundaries in the St. Louis metropolitan region.
“We are slowly becoming a society that is more diverse, yet there are still constant struggles,” Rams defensive tackle and director of player engagement La’Roi Glover said.
He was addressing student athletes of various backgrounds from Parkway North and Seckman Senior high schools. More than 90 students attended the event recently held at Rams Park in Earth City.
The program, designed to promote diversity and inclusion among St. Louis-area youth, was sponsored by Ameren Missouri and conducted by Diversity Awareness Partnership and CHARACTERplus.
Students were selected because they are seen as leaders at their schools – both on and off the field – who, organizers hope, will help foster tolerance among their peers.
The event included four different diversity training clinics as well as a conversation with Glover.
The “struggles” Glover mentioned include stereotypes about class, race, sexual orientation, gender and disability. He said he is optimistic that students who participate in the program will learn how to effectively break through these boundaries.
Initially, the program focused on creating camaraderie between each school’s football team, borrowing an idea from the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds’ Coldwell Banker West Shell Match Program aims to bring youth baseball teams from the suburbs and the inner city together to foster diversity, positive interaction and friendly competition.
Parkway North is located in a diverse area of St. Louis County, whereas Seckman is located in the town of Imperial in Jefferson County. Imperial and Jefferson County were both 97.5 percent white at the time of the 2010 Census.
“We felt like we were in a unique position to use the game of football to first establish some commonalities among the two schools and then build from there and tackle the differences,” said Molly Higgins, vice president of corporate communications and civic affairs for the St. Louis Rams.
“The successful outcome of the program was establishing a greater respect for each other in the short term, while providing them with the skills and mindset to build relationships beyond high school.”
Last September, each football team met at Rams Park for Ram Blitz’s Character Development Day held shortly after the program’s launch. Both teams then attended a Rams game at the Edward Jones Dome. During the 2012 high school football season, Rams running back Isaiah Pead rooted for both teams during their October 12 matchup.
Kris Kellams, athletic director at Parkway North High School, said she volunteered to be one of the first schools to participate in the program after Parkway North students attended a previous diversity awareness event co-sponsored by the Rams and Edward Jones.
“It was such a powerful program, we thought it would be a good idea to bring teams together to do more in-depth diversity awareness,” Kellams said.
She hopes that more teams will participate in the program, should it be continued. This is especially crucial, she said, since the St. Louis Suburban Public High School Athletic and Activities Association announced the new conference alignment of its member schools effective at the start of the 2014-2015 school year.
“Teams will be playing other teams that they are not familiar with,” Kellams said. “So, it would be a great chance for two schools to come together and get to know each other off the field. We’re hoping it improves sportsmanship and tolerance.”
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