Athletics offers stability, support and in the case of Elijah Qualls, a new life

Elijah Qualls teetered on the edge. He almost quit school. He seemed destined for jail or some place worse and more permanent. 

He lived in one of the roughest neighborhoods of Sacramento - Oak Park - milling around “unimaginable” things according to his stepdad Dejuan Miggins.

“You name it,” Miggins told Santa Rosa Press-Democrat columnist Bob Padecky. “It had everything.”

Qualls saw one of his best friends die in the street. He witnessed drive-bys, drug deals and prostitution. He was virtually on a first-name basis with police officers and SWAT team members. He was being sucked in and he knew it and he couldn’t control it. That made him angry and tense. He constantly looked over his shoulder. He was heading down a dead-end street.



He was kicked out of Cordova High School (Rancho Cordova, Calif.) near the end of his freshman year. His grade point average hovered at just more than 1.5 and his aspirations were meager: Somehow finish high school and play junior college football.

But last summer his stepdad moved Qualls 80 miles west to where he grew up in Petaluma, a slow bedroom community of almost 60,000 residents. It borders the wine country and is known for its chickens, cows and arm wrestling.

Miggins enrolled Qualls, a 6-foot-2, 260-pound fullback/defensive lineman/athlete at Casa Grande (Petaluma, Calif.), where he immediately immersed himself in the football lifestyle. Without outside pressures, he was able to focus strictly on weight training, the intricacies of the game and most important, teammates.

Friendships flourished. His game blossomed. Dreams began to sprout.

“He’s an awesome kid on and off the field. He's personable, polite and respectful. His personality is infectious. Everyone loved him immediately," said Casa Grande coach Trent Herzog. "He just needed a place to find home, a place he could channel his energy into a healthy endeavor. We provided the structure and framework. He provided the hard work and natural talent. Plus he then had to make the right decisions.”

He worked as hard in the classroom as he did on the football field. He upped his GPA to 2.7 and is aiming for 3.0 or better.



And now – only a year removed from teetering into darkness - virtually every college in the country is after this 17-year-old who will be a senior in the fall.

He’s worked his body to 285 pounds. But with superior speed, flexibility and athleticism for a lad his size, Qualls is considered the biggest football recruit in the Redwood Empire region in almost three decades.

Last weekend he attended a Top 100 recruiting camp in Georgia. On Monday, he'll take a visit to the University of Washington. In the next two weeks, he’s expected to make his college pick between the Huskies, USC, Oregon State, Cal or Michigan. He currently has 29 offers from BCS schools.

He told Padecky “I don’t want to go somewhere and be treated like a piece of meat. I want relationships, a support system, people who care, people who have my back.”

Those are all the things that Casa Grande’s football program has provided. Those are all the things that high school sports programs largely provide and why studies support the notion that organized athletics lays a strong and sturdy foundation for life. It also leads to better grades, discipline and general school attendance.   

Asked Friday where he would be today if there were no high school sports - and specifically Casa Grande football - Qualls said: "To be honest, I'd probably be in jail. A year ago I wasn't going anywhere except trouble. I always wanted to accomplish great things. I wanted to do go the right direction, but I didn't quite have the support. Not the support I've found here."



Studies and research show that though Qualls' obstacles were great and his accomplishments now are exceptional, his transformation and improvement are on par with national trends.

Countless studies support participation/performance

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, the governing body for high school sports nationally, more than 7.6 million students participated in athletics during the 2010-11 school year. (Statistics for the just-completed school year are not yet available).

The number of athletes participating has increased nationally every year since the 1989-90 school year, and that's a good thing on a variety of levels.

First, of course, that means the mere opportunity to participate in athletics has never been greater. Simply, there has to be teams to support that growth.

Additionally, spend a few minutes searching the Internet and it's easy to find study after study that supports a link between high school participation in athletics/activities and academic performance. Also, watch any NCAA game on TV these days and you will see an oft-played commercial touting the academic accomplishments of college student-athletes.



It shouldn't be a surprise the issue is coming to the forefront as education budgets, particularly high school athletic/activities funding, continue to take hits across the country.

"The purpose of our existence is based around educational opportunities as they pertain to athletics," said Elliot Hopkins, the director of educational services for the NFHS. "For all involved, athletics are just another form of a classroom that happens to be outside of the building. So it stands to reason that kids who participate in sports typically get better grades than those who don't.

"That's a simple fact. We've known that little secret for decades."

To that end, the NFHS publishes a brochure entitled "The Case for High School Activities" that cites numerous reports supporting the cause.

Skeptics might argue that statistics can be used to substantiate whatever outcome is desired, but it's hard to argue with some of the stark facts and findings detailed in the NFHS brochure. Among them:

- A 2001 study commissioned by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association found that the mean grade-point average for student-athletes was 0.81 points higher than those of non-participants. Athletes also missed significantly less school days.



- Also, citing a U.S. Department of Education report as part of the No Child Left Behind initiative, students who don't participate in athletics/activities are "49 percent more likely to use drugs and 37 percent more likely to become teen parents" than those who do.

- The benefits extend beyond high school, as well. According to a 2006 study by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, it was determined that among adults ages 18-25, those who participated in sports while in high school were more apt to vote and volunteer than non-participants.

{PAGEBREAK}
Last bastion of amateurism 

While some might debate the correlation between athletic/activity participation and academic performance, there is a more basic layer in play: participants stay in school at a much greater rate than those who don't.

"I always encourage young people to get involved with something in high school, whether it's sports or government or being a stagehand for the play," Hopkins said. "Engaging in an activity makes for a better overall high school experience. It keeps kids involved, and that's a good thing."

According to the study commissioned by the NCHSAA, the mean dropout rate of student-athletes was 0.6 percent, compared to 10.32 for non-participants. That corresponded to a mean graduation rate of 99.4 percent for athletes as opposed to 93.5 percent for their non-athlete counterparts.



Those figures are not lost on the business community, as a more-educated population translates into a more attractive workforce. On-the-field participation equates to production and a healthy bottom line for all involved.

So, major corporations, with the help of top professional athletes, also are communicating the message about the importance of high school overall.

For instance, State Farm recently announced a new initiative, 26Seconds (Facebook.com/26seconds). The company also is a sponsor of Grad Nation, which is part of America's Promise Alliance, a movement to end the dropout crisis.

The 26Seconds program is named after a sobering statistic: in the United States a kid drops out of high school every 26 seconds, for more than 1 million dropouts a year. The spokesperson for the campaign in the promotional video is none other than NBA superstar LeBron James.



That the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player believes enough in the issue to be involved highlights the importance of it.

"I'm glad (LeBron) did it," Hopkins said. "He's one of ours. We can claim him. That's one thing we can say he did really well is high school participation. He didn't go to college."



Hopkins also applauded the efforts by major companies to get involved with the high school experience.

"We are the last bastion of amateurism; this is untapped territory," Hopkins said. "Corporate America is starting to figure that out. If you can crack the code on how to get into the high school market, you can make an impact in a lot of areas. It's an investment in our kids."

Schools also tout advantages

School districts continue to link athletic participation and academic performance, and the findings are similar to those of the North Carolina study more than 10 years ago.

Most recently, the Los Angeles Unified School District generated a report that indicates athletes missed less school and had higher grade-point averages than non-athletes. As reported by the Los Angeles Times on June 9, the LAUSD has nearly 35,000 students participating in athletics. The new findings showed that athletes attended school 21 more days and had up to a .74 higher GPA than their non-athlete counterparts.

The Times reported that Barbara Fiege, the commissioner of athletics for the LAUSD, reasoned in a memo that the findings "prove what has generally been assumed, that participation in high school athletics, on average, positively enhances the student's academic progress in comparison with the rest of the student body."



Fiege went a step farther with her conclusion, highlighting another factor that always has figured into the final equation between the studied participation and performance combination – the role of the coach.

"I believe that a large part of this is due to the intervention and guidance provided daily by qualified coaches, who understand the relationship between academic and athletic success."

In the case of Qualls at Casa Grande, he sure received that with Herzog. The two have grown quite close in a single season.

"I can tell him anything and I pretty much have," Qualls said. "He's always there for me. So have a lot of people for me."

To reach and succeed at the next level, Qualls needs to continue to improve in the classroom, though he recently scored just less than 1,000 on his SAT. His versatility on the field is not surpassed at this level for a player his size. Most see him as a defensive lineman though many are recruiting him as a fullback.

Those position uncertainties matter little to Qualls. He's come too far, too fast to sweat the little stuff.



"No matter what, it's going to be a tough road," Qualls said. "But considering how far I've come and where I came from, I'm not afraid. I'm looking forward to every challenge."

Senior writer Gerry Valerio contributed to this report.