Page 10 - Florida Sentinel 12-25-18

Local
All Sports Community Service Reaches 25 Years
BY GWEN HAYES Sentinel Editor
All Sports Community Service (ASCS) has been serving the community for 25 years, and according to its founder “the love and support” has kept it going.
ASCS was founded in 1992 by Tyrone Keys, a former professional football player with the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buc- caneers. He was inspired to start the organization by the death of a star running back, Albert Perry, a former Leto High School student athlete. Keys had seen Perry a couple of weeks before his death.
Perry, 19 years old at the time, was shot to death after an altercation.
Perry had been accepted to Texas Southern Univer- sity on a football scholar- ship. However, unbe- knownst to Keys, Perry lacked the funds necessary to travel to college, and was still in Tampa.
“It all began with a desire to help awaken the social consciousness of student- athletes. And now, 25 years later, hundreds are continu- ing to pay it forward through services,” Keys said.
"My main thing is to get them in school," Keys said, "to get them in a new envi- ronment and get them away from their old environ- ment."
Keys turned to Jerry Ulm, a man who owned a Dodge dealership on Dale
Eric Hayes, left, and T. J. Lewis, right, with Jerry Ulm, owner of Jerry Ulm Dodge. Hayes and Lewis were just starting their first semester in college when they learned that Mr. Ulm had passed away, September 13, 1993.
Keys with a group of others at a Bucs’ game. Wearing #55, AJ Ponds, was one of Eric Hayes’ students at the Boys and Girls Club, and a member of Derrick Brooks Bunch. After graduation from college he decided he loved to repair cars and returned back to school to get a certification in Auto Body Mechanic. He too, began his career at Jerry Ulm Dodge.
Scott Ulm, center, with T. J. Lewis and sons, Tyrone Keys, founder of ASCS), Eric Hayes, right, and other students.
Scott Ulm with Ms. Cheryl McCarter, mother of Albert Perry. It was the death of Perry that led to the founding of All Sports Community Service.
Mabry Highway, not far from where Keys once played football, first with the visiting Chicago Bears and then for the Tampa Bay Buc- caneers.
He told Ulm Albert's story and how he needed
someone to lend a hand for the kids he sought to help.
Ulm wrote a check and agreed to hire two of Keys' young protégés — Eric Hayes and T. J. Lewis — to wash cars and do odd jobs at the dealership.
"Dealerships get a lot of requests," said Ulm's son, Scott, a sales consultant for the company that still bears his father's name. "For (Ty- rone) not to have anything established, (my dad) must have seen something."
Ulm would never know the impact of his blind faith. Three months after meeting Keys, he died.
The four students who were part of the initiative were ASCS: T. J. Lewis, Eric Hayes, Jerald Mack and Jasmine Trammel. All four went on to college and successful careers. Jer- ald Mack is coaching at Jef- ferson High School and Jasmine Trammel is a teacher and coach at Straw- berry Crest High School.
Today, Hayes is the PE Teacher at Robles Elemen- tary and head basketball
coach at Jefferson High; Lewis, who is married, the father of 3 and coaches his sons’ youth teams, is a VP with PNC Bank; and Jas- mine Trammel, the mother of 2, is Athletic Di- rector at Strawberry Crest High School.
These four students, along with 22 other ASCS alumni, returned in 2008 to give $500 for book and travel stipends for other high school seniors.
Since 1992 ASCS has as- sisted over 1,000 students obtain over $22 million in academic, community serv- ice and athletic scholarships, grants and aid.
Keys explained the workings of ASCS:
“The staff has established itself as a leader in its field with a network of collegiate partners representing col- leges and universities from coast to coast. It is com- prised of former college and pro athletes who have worked with Hillsborough County Schools, Hillsbor- ough County Juvenile Jus- tice and Hillsborough County Children Services.
“The ASCS staff also acts
as a liaison between coaches and students, which creates a winning experience for the college coaches and high school student athletes and parents. The lasting positive relationship cultivated from this experience is the foun- dation of the ASCS Sports Program. Today, young peo- ple are still paying it for- ward,” he said.
In conclusion, Keys said: “At All Sports we are truly fortunate to have in place for the first time a network of successful young mentors such as Eric Hayes, T. J. Lewis, and Jasmine Tramel, who all began with Jerry Ulm Dodge. They have been impeccable with their words and actions, and have come full circle from recipi- ents to providers of much- needed guidance.
“These former students are All Sports alumni who have finished college and are working at jobs that allow them to strengthen the next generation. They are now graduate mentors who, hav- ing walked the same path as the students, are testimoni- als to perseverance and hard work.”
PAGE 10 ORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2018