Curtis with his family at City Athletics’ Juneteeth Celebration 2021.
Great mentors have often had great mentors and role models of their own. Up2Us Sports alum, founder of City Athletics Philly, and president of the youth development nonprofit City Athletics Community Partners, Curtis DeVeaux observed the power of a caring, community-oriented presence early in his life.
“My grandmother would organize street games and little contests. She was the one who painted the hopscotch in the middle of the street.” Witnessing his grandmother’s involvement in the well-being of youth in his tight-knit community, Coach Curtis says, is what planted the seed of his interest in giving back. “I saw that, as a responsible person in your neighborhood, this is what you do.”
The trajectory of Coach Curtis’ life seems to have led him naturally into his current position of mentor and community pillar. Curtis experienced a lack of sports opportunities and youth-oriented programs while he was growing up. Despite his interest in football as a high school student, he didn’t begin playing organized sports until he got into the Army; at the time, public high schools in Philly had cut JV sports. “At different times there was big talk…’Oh, we’re gonna have a football team!’ Or, ‘We’re gonna have a baseball team!’ But [there were no] resources to carry that out…[no] pillars in the community that were about organizing and making sure people could be included.”
“A lot of what I do and what I want to do is modeled from the time I spent with Steve. He’s been such a tremendous influence.”
Once in the Army, Coach Curtis had the opportunity not only to play sports, but to coach. One of his sergeants coached a basketball team, and Coach Curtis began first to assist, then to fill in for him. It was good preparation for what was to come: Curtis went on to serve as an Up2Us Sports AmeriCorps coach in Philadelphia. He also encountered another important mentor, Steve Bandura, founder and program director of the Anderson Monarchs, a sports-based youth development (SBYD) organization based in South Philadelphia. Coach Curtis was moved by Bandura’s commitment to the youth he serves, and his dedication to building relationships. “A lot of what I do and what I want to do is modeled from the time I spent with Steve. He’s been such a tremendous influence.”
It was during Coach Curtis’ time with the Anderson Monarchs that he began exploring opportunities to move beyond traditional coaching, and was introduced to Up2Us Sports’ SBYD curriculum. Initially, he was hesitant to participate, unsure of what the curriculum could offer; he felt he was already connecting well with the kids he coached. “I was pleasantly surprised,” he admits, “particularly with the science behind the information, and how to apply that science. The understanding of how kids work and what they go through, and the different tools. Not everything needs a hammer.”
“I was pleasantly surprised,” he admits, “particularly with the science behind the information, and how to apply that science. The understanding of how kids work and what they go through, and the different tools. Not everything needs a hammer.”
One major tool that Coach Curtis was able to apply right away: understanding stress and how it affects a child’s nervous system. Curtis was coaching baseball at the time, and witnessing kids struggling under the pressure to perform.
“When the pitcher is on the mound and everything is going awry, you just want this kid to hold it together. As a coach you want to help them hold it together, but most of what you see [coaches do] actually produces the opposite.”
The experiences and tools Coach Curtis has gained through mentoring and being mentored, through sports, SBYD, community-building, and service, have all gone into the making of City Athletics Philly, the recreation center he created by repurposing a vacant church in the Nicetown-Tiga neighborhood of Philadelphia. Coach Curtis saw a void that needed to be filled: when he met with members of the community, he learned that there was no youth programming available, period: “It was like a desert.” Curtis was also aware of the pay-to-play model often adopted in team sports and youth sports programming, which prohibits many kids from participating, frequently “inner city, underserved, Black and Hispanic kids that don’t have the resources but deserve the same opportunity.”
Curtis’ mission is to serve as many youth as possible, to provide kids with quality interactions, connections, and training at an affordable cost, and to be a resource and advocate for the community. Coach Curtis is highly conscious of the effects of gentrification, of “people coming into neighborhoods and saying one thing and doing something else,” and he is mindful of the space he occupies within Nicetown-Tiga. “We don’t want to just take up space, we want to be a part of the space.” That means connecting with the community through targeted efforts and community events, such as this coming August’s planned uniform drive, in which Coach Curtis hopes to provide free uniforms to 300 students of elementary schools in the area. Past events include a coat drive, a sports toy drive, and a free community Juneteenth event, complete with barbecue, face painting, and pony rides.
Coach Curtis has brought together the leadership and care for youth and community demonstrated to him by his grandmother and Steve Bandura, with the extraordinary mentorship skills he built upon through Up2Us Sports’ SBYD curriculum. For Coach Curtis, at the end of the day, it’s about improving the quality of life for kids—to “meet kids at their level, and then take them further.”
Curtis served as an Up2Us Sports coach from August 2017 through August 2018 with the Anderson Monarchs thanks to support from AmeriCorps.
