When Austin Holman signed his contract to teach physical education and fitness at Raritan High School, he asked, “What do you think of being the only black worker in Hazlet?”
Holman did not have many black teachers developing at Randolph, but he replied, “How is it possible?”
Austin and his older brother, Tarig Holman, oppose this trend. Both are teachers (Austin now in Elizabeth and Tarig in English at JFKennedy in Iselin) and head football coaches. Track and box trainer.
When Tarig Holman taught English and was a football coach at Randolph, he was the only black instructor in high school.
The New Jersey Football Coaches Association estimates that there are only 35 black football coaches among the top 300 school programs in the state. The number of teachers in Black New Jersey is also low, just 6. 2%.
“In downtown schools, the disparity is huge,” said Tarig Holman, who was head football coach in South Brunswick, Trenton Central, Randolph and Neptune before arriving at Kennedy this year.
“It’s doing these young men from some suburban schools so bad by not allowing them to see a black man in a position of authority. This will impair your educational process. Your link is left to what you see on social media or on TV, because you’ve never had that interaction and it’s pretty sad. “
Derryk Sellers has challenged the stereotypes of his career in education.
Sellers, Lindenwold’s sporting director for 20 years, became the first black president of the NJFCA in 2007, but when Sellers, a Newark local, coached football in Hillside, “I didn’t have anyone to say to me, ‘What do you want to do?do. ‘”
As a result, Sellers helps keep an eye on promising coaches as president of the West Jersey Football League, which includes 95 schools from Trenton to Cape May, and focuses primarily on young men and women, guiding them on educational pathways suitable for education. Vendors noted that New Jersey coaches want 60 school credits and a replacement certificate to begin the application process.
Sellers is an active member of the New Jersey Association of Minority Coaches, co-founded in September through Tarig Holman, a member of the state meeting and coach of Hackensack Football, Benjie Wimberly, Newark West Side. football coach Marion Bell and former Willingboro football assistant Luther M. Johnson.
”Do I even belong here?”: Black football players in Morris County express their experiences
Increased scarcity: Pandemic and social unrest increase the need for colored therapists
Vendors have recommended a change in the “Rooney Rule” to hire the best school apprentices in New Jersey. Established in 2003 and named after Dan Rooney, a former Pittsburgh Steelers owner and chairman of the National Football League Diversity Committee, the rule requires groups to interview minority candidates for head coaching positions and senior football operations positions.
The Rooney rule has no hiring requirements. But Sellers said it opens a new street “to locate some of the shiny new stars we can move to a position and stay there for 20 years. “
The vendors added, “It would be wonderful if those boys knew we were serious (minority apprentices) for those jobs. If you can train, you can train anywhere. I don’t think the color of your skin counts. But many other people think that if they take a chance, they will take a chance with someone who would be a safer option. “
Parsippany’s new football coach, Derrick Eatman, is one of the youngsters facing another challenge. Eatman grew up as a field marshal for his older brother Lindsey Nicholson at William C High School. South Plainfield in 2006.
For Eatman, the coaches were the father figures and mentors he needed. When the Red Hawks nevertheless opened the season opposed to Mountain Lakes, Nicholson, now a grandfather in his fifties, was in the stands to see Eatman’s debut.
“I didn’t need to feel that because they had less, they were less,” said Eatman, former offensive coordinator at Colts Neck and offensive coordinator under Tarig Holman at Neptune.
“Coaches helped me, why can’t I do this somewhere else?”
Eatman training is one of the most varied in Morris County in terms of race, age and origin. Even before coaches met their student-athletes in person, they had organized open online listening sessions to create a virtual community.
The back of Parsippany’s shirt reads, “A team, a family,” which Eatman translates as “accepting others for who they are and what they are, and protecting what is right. “
Dear Raider family through jmjr30
After George Floyd murdered through a Minneapolis police officer, Austin Holman thought about Rodney King’s beating in Los Angeles and what his father, former NCAA Division I track and box coach Lansing Holman, told Tarig. He recalled that his father had pointed out how different they were from his friends Randolph.
Austin Holman tried to teach similar classes on a card to his players, their families and the entire Scotch Plains network this summer. The student-athletes on the Raiders’ varied list shared “what it’s like to be you in this city” after practice.
“It was nothing they needed to hear,” he said. That’s all I was looking for them to hear, and I was looking for them to hear it from me. With everything that’s going on, we’re going to take care of ourselves first. We’ll use it, as a domino effect to have an effect on the world. It starts in the locker room. The changing rooms can enlarge your homes and your community, as well as your city and state. “
In South Jersey, schools held their own protests for social justice. The soccer groups formed a circle with the coaches tying their arms to the national anthem. The individual players knelt. For marketers, such public displays through student-athletes, such as hiring black coaches, are steps toward dramatic change.
“Brick by brick, we’re looking to build and create momentum to bring about change,” he said. “Hate is bad. It’s just bad. We just want to do better. We all have to do better. “
Jane Havsy is a sports reporter at DailyRecord. com. For complete live scores, news and analysis, sign up today.
Email: JHavsy@gannettnj. com Twitter: @dailyrecordspts