GIVING BACK TO THE KIDS
Howard up for Youth Coach Award
Coach Paul.
To the kids, to the parents, to the community leaders in the tough and troubled neighbourhoods nestled in Ottawa South, he is something of a hero.
Chances are if you have anything to do with football in this difficult district, Paul Howard is a recognizable face and friend.
On an elementary level, he is the coach of the South Ottawa Mustangs tyke football team. But his story goes quite a bit further than that.
Ask 10-year-old Ryan Byers, bouncing around the Midway Family Fun Park with a big smile at the team's season-end party, and his smile gets even larger when asked about his coach: “He's just a really nice guy, and he goes out of his way to take us to places like these. I can't even respond. He's an amazing guy,” said Ryan, a two-year 'vet' of the Mustangs.
Coach Paul worked out a deal with Midway to minimize costs for the day. It's a day many of these kids would otherwise not get to enjoy.
He's a volunteer, and a lot of the time Coach Paul throws his own money into pizza parties and getting enough proper equipment for his players.
“Paul Howard is a role model first, then a coach,” says Jerrett DeFazio, program director at the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa. “The community is so lucky to have Coach Paul in their lives.”
As coach of the tyke team, Paul Howard doesn't just limit his teachings to sketching out plays and blowing the odd whistle. His teachings include life lessons; the importance of steering clear of gang activity (prevalent in the area), drugs and crime.
He is a motivator and a life coach first and foremost.
And now Paul Howard has landed recognition for his work with disadvantaged youth. He has been named as one of 10 finalists for the 2014 NFL Youth Coach of the Year Award. The NFL will donate $5,000 of new football equipment to the winning coach's program. The two runners-up schools each receive $2,000 in equipment. The winner is announced on Dec. 2.
“I was flabbergasted,” says Howard when asked about hearing he was a finalist. “I was humbled. There are a lot of great football coaches out there. Do I think I'm a better coach than them? No way. But if the award is about reaching out and being an influence for kids who need it, again, that's what is important.”
To reiterate, his efforts and time are not limited to practice and games — as detailed in this nomination letter from Wadih Tannous, whose son plays with the Mustangs.
“Coach Paul did not have the heart to deny these kids the right to play the game of football; instead, he acted as a parent, a friend and a chauffeur picking them up and dropping them off daily … On two occasions when his car broke down, he used a taxi service and paid for it from his own pocket to ensure that the players get to practice,” wrote Tannous — one of many grateful parents with children enlisted in the Mustangs' program.
“Everything I wrote in the (nomination) letter I really meant,” Tannous went on to say in a phone interview. “I've seen him work with kids who are impossible to work with — disrespectful, never saw their parents, just terrible situations, but he never gave up on them. And now, you know what, those kids are (eventually) some of the best players on the team.”
Coach Paul is quick to point out he's not doing it alone.
“That's the important thing, you have to know that there are six or seven other coaches out there every night working alongside me.”
The football program has been around for about 50 years. Only in the last decade or so has it taken on extra significance, as the region's crime issue escalated.
“I grew up in that neighbourhood, and that's a big part of it. When I grew up it was a blue-collar, family-oriented place. (Now it's) basically community housing in every respect but the name and there's absolutely no support for the kids. It's big, and it's wild and it's a very tough area,” said Howard.
“I always say about Sandalwood Park, if we don't go there, who else will?”
The struggle for the coach is finding balance. His combination of football and learning about life sometimes hits the mark, sometimes not.
"The only thing you can do is show them right and wrong ways to do things, and believe in them and be encouraging.
“Here's what I've learned: some of these kids are so troubled. Yelling at them does nothing. You could yell at them till you're blue in the face and you're just one more guy yelling at them. But if you can talk to them and tell them about boundaries and that you believe in them. If you can praise a child for something they've actually done, that kid comes back the next day and it's like they're walking on air, six feet off the ground, and you've got them then.”
Paul Howard also emphasizes the program is not a charity: “Everybody pays something. If someone's a little short we find a way to work it out so they can play. Just like today, Midway donated the wrist bands for the kids.”
“Football's in my blood, always has been. This is a way to help, it's about the kids for sure. Football's just the means to an end.”