 A coach is a job to train or organize a sports team. I coached basketball for 20 years. My objective was always to use the attraction of the game to develop my players, my boys, character so that I could transition them successfully into manhood. If during that process you could develop players into superior student athletes, that's the icing on the cake. Which brings me to Thier Tart Spencer, aka Thier Tart. I first met Thier, aka the Bayer, in 2011. I'm headed to the gym, my players are shooting around prior to basketball practice, high school basketball at the Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School in North Philadelphia. And I see this huge kid, I mean he's huge, massive, about 6'4", 6'5", hands like a bear. He's shooting them up, shooting them up. I don't recognize him from school because he's not in our school. I said, hey kid, what's your name? My name's Thier. I said, listen man, I don't mind shooting around with the guys but right now we're about to start practice and I'm going to have to ask you to leave the gym because I can only have students from the school in the gym. So he walks off, leaves the gym. Following day, guess who's there again? There's Thier, now the guys are running up down the floor before practice. I walk in, I'm like, it's a kid again. I said, listen, no offense but I can only allow kids in the gym who go to our school. He's like, well, technically I do go to the school and he stops away from me. He grabs the basketball, stands under the court, slams the basketball on the ground, jumps up and tries to rip the door rim off the court, dunking the ball and turns to my players and says, you're all garbage. And he runs out of the gym. I'm like, what just happened, right? What's going on here? Does anyone know this kid? Ironically, most of the kids say, yeah, that's Thier. He used to go to Palmer and elementary school with us but we don't know whatever happened to him. Something clicked. The following day after practice, I go and ask the athletic director. I said, hey, this is a huge kid in the gym yesterday named Thier. And before I could go on here, oh no, don't even ask me. I'm like, don't ask you what? I just want to, the kid, Thier, and he's playing ball. Don't ask Ashanti, don't ask. I'm like, what's going on? Yeah, he's one of our kids but he doesn't go here. He's, we pay for him to go to another school to provide some services that our school can't provide but technically he's on a roll with us but he goes to this other school. I'm like, wait a minute. So he's on our roll but he attends another school which means technically he's our student. Don't ask. He is a fireball. He used to do this in elementary school and that in elementary school. And I'm like, I don't know about elementary school but I know what I saw yesterday. A ninth grader at about 240 pounds, 6'5", who stood under the basketball court and jumped up in the air and slammed the ball with two hands with aggression. Man, I went to the system, found his name, called his parents, hey listen, the kid's been coming to the gym. You know, by right he's entitled to play for the school's teams if he's interested in playing. And if he comes back out tomorrow, I'm going to let him play but I need you to do something. I just need you to make a call to the principal and let him know that your kid is interested in playing sports. They won't be able to deny him. They do it. Two, three days later, in walks Tiaire. Now let me fast forward this real quick. We begin the practice and I'm a different person when it comes to coaching basketball. It's just a whole different mindset, different guy. It's not your, you know, it's not your, you're a YouTube academic. Different mindset when I coach. We're on the main stage, the main time, I'm here right here, I see her. All right? On the main floor. Everyone is here to see your game. Do not embarrass yourselves. All right? Review the game. Focus. Catch the ball. Jump stop. Triple grip position. Play hard, play smart. Get the ball up the floor. You got to be more in front of you. Stand up the floor. All those passes in the room. Catch the ball. All right? Catch the ball. Okay. Catch the ball. Stand up. Stand up. Stand up. You got to end the first 40 times. Get that room in. If not, you sit next to me. You are already doing it. I don't need you to tell me. Get up hard. Have a seat. That's what you need. Stand on one, three. Stand on one, three. One, two, three, family. And so, we're early on. We're still into conditioning and tear is just lightly jogging when we're running sprints. Needless to say, it took a while to get this kid to get acclimated to the level of intensity that we would bring to practice. And he would always come last. Come last in suicides. Come last in sprints. But he had a heck of a lot of talent and he was the ninth grader. So I began to push him and push him and push him. And I used peer pressure to motivate him. And so my rule was every time T-year comes in last, we're running another sprint. And you better not be the guy that he beats because you're going to run another sprint. That force both ends. That force him to have to run faster and it made sure that they didn't purposely allow him to beat them because they were going to have to run the other sprint. Well, by the time we got to the end of his ninth grade year, T-year was coming second in sprints routinely. And I'm like, oh, my. This kid is 6'5", about 240. And he's coming second in wind sprints on a basketball team. The following year, T-year develops a nice touch. You can shoot the ball from the outside. But I'm teaching him old school basketball techniques, getting yourself on the block. Forget about those long jays. We're not doing that here. Only once in a blue moon, if you've got a wide open look and it makes good basketball to shoot it. Other than that, you're going to live on this block in the paint. And that he did. He was a ballerina bear, footwork, but turn around and stuff it on you. And I'm just watching him develop, and develop, and develop. And it's hurting my heart because I want to see our program successful. And he was the future of the program. But Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School did not have a football team. And my conscience would not allow me to keep that kid in our program knowing that he would go on probably to be a college level basketball player. But his hands were so big. His arms were so strong. His shoulders were getting so broad. And his speed was just not what you get for a guy that size. So the season came to an end. I asked him if he would be interested in playing football. He said yes. I said, I'm going to call your parents and encourage them to transfer you to a school that has a football team. So when it's junior year, he transfers to West Philadelphia High School. He continues to play basketball for them. But then he joins the football team. And that kid began to shine. He played nose tackle for West Philly, started as a junior, went all public, eventually went to Florida International, played football there. He did not get drafted into the NFL. But today, Thierre Tart, Thierre the Bear, is the starting defensive lineman for the Tennessee Titans. Thierre the Bear. And so coaches out there, listen, man, don't steal from your children, your players' gifts and be selfish with it. If you see something special in them, cultivate it, develop it, and if you have to let them go to a place where they can do even better than what you can provide, let them go, baby. Let them go. Let them go, baby. Let them go. So we can see more Thierre the Bear Tarts.