WSSN Stories

Clarksburg, MD — Three-time Olympian Dominique Dawes still maintains her focus and dedication to what’s important in life — including laughter.

During her performances, Dawes says she rarely smiled. But today, as a wife, mother of four young children and owner of a gymnastics academy, she encourages the girls she trains to express emotions that would not have been acceptable during her career.

It’s part of a shift in the cutthroat culture of American gymnastics that was brought to the fore at the Tokyo Olympics by the decision of Simone Biles — considered the “Greatest of All Time” in the sport — to pull out of the team event final due to mental exhaustion.

“She needs to do what is best for Simone,” Dawes told Zenger in an interview.

“At the end of the day she is the one who has to live her life. Just like [Japanese world tennis No. 1] Naomi Osaka, who made the decision to not partake in a press conference because she was concerned about her mental health, athletes need to be able to say no,” she said.

“If they feel that it’s unhealthy for them, they need to be able to step away.”

Dawes was a member of the “Magnificent Seven” team that won gold at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. She was also the first black person — male or female — of any nationality to win an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics, and the first African American to win an individual Olympic medal in the floor exercise.

A lot has changed since then, she said, with her Olympic successors like Biles more empowered to stand up for their own interests.

“When I think about the Olympic Games, it brings me back to the level of sacrifice and commitment and what it took to earn a spot on that Olympic stage,” Dawes said. “We did what was told of us. Back in the ’90s, gymnasts were literally trained to be to robots.”

“It is very much a breath of fresh air to be a 44-year-old mom and to listen to my inner voice now.”

A different focus

Dawes said her views on gymnastics changed after she became a mother.

“I think it is important for our kids to enjoy their childhood,” said Dawes, who started in gymnastics when she was 6 years old.

In the 2020 documentary “Art of the Athlete,” Dawes talks about moving away from her parents and siblings when she was 10 to pursue her dream of being a world-class champion. While she later would be nicknamed “Awesome Dawesome,” her journey was not easy.

“Everything that came out in 2016 regarding [former USA Gymnastics national team doctor and convicted sex offender] Larry Nassar … it was the culture that allowed that to go on,” Dawes said. “He abused so many young girls, and now we are shining a light on a culture that has some horrible, physical and psychological abuse.

“I want to make sure that we are focusing on building and not tearing kids down, building them up to be champions in life.”

Dawes said she doesn’t have a competitive team at the Dominique Dawes Gymnastics and Ninja Academy in Clarksburg, Maryland, and that is by choice.

Her academy “is all about creating a healthy environment and being honest about the journey that I had, back in my career. While I love sports, it can be a very grueling environment. What I am offering is quite different. I want people to have a healthy introduction to the sport of gymnastics. It is not about building champions. It is more about happy and healthy kids growing up to be healthy adults.

“As a mom of four, I see life differently,” she said. “Everyone has different strengths and abilities. I see every kid there as gifted and talented. That’s how my facilities run, as opposed to a highly competitive facility.

“It can be a very grueling environment, but I want people to have a healthy place. We are planting positive seeds, and it is really about building the self-esteem and the emotional psychology of smiling and laughing and caring about [children] as people.”

Changing the “spirit of gymnastics”

“We are really striving to change the spirit of gymnastics. It was the culture that allowed the abuse of so many young girls,” she said.

Dawes, who spoke with Zenger before Team USA began their performances in Tokyo on Sunday, said she and her family would be watching.

“I feel like everyone in the globe is going to be watching, being what we have been through over the last year and a half,” she said. “We are cheering for them.”

Dawes married Jeff Thompson, a teacher in Potomac, Maryland, in 2013, and today they are parents of a 7-year-old, a 5-year-old and 3-year-old twins.

When she was asked what name she goes by, she said: “It is still Dawes. But my husband gets on me to change it to Dominique Thompson.”

Her husband, a former professional basketball player, said of Dawes: “She is amazing. I want to elevate her as a mother, wife and businesswoman.

“I see the business as a calling. I look at her all the time, and as a man, I have to put the ego aside because she is so well-loved, and let her be the mother and the wife. It is often a complicated road to navigate,” he said.

A trailblazer

Milton Kent, a professor at Morgan State University, said Dawes was clearly a trailblazer for modern athletes because at the time she was competing, the Eastern Europeans set the standards in gymnastics and the Americans were not serious contenders.

“They were controlled by Béla Károlyi, the Hungarian [coach] who had a big influence in the U.S.,” Kent said. “Dominique had her own private coach, Kelli Hill.”

Kent said Biles and other present-day Olympic gymnasts owe much to Dawes. But now Dawes wants to chart a new course for her students.

“In terms of some parents, they don’t really [understand] the journey and the level of sacrifice it takes for a young child,” she said.

“I want to be part of the change by creating a healthy environment. I see life different now that I am a mother of four kids. I now see things in terms of my children and as a protective parent. … I am going to be part of the parents who really care.”

Edited by Judith Isacoff and Fern Siegel,  Visuals Edited by Claire Swift, John Diaz and Brian Coen,  Director of Photography, Adrian Muys

The post VIDEO: Former Olympic Star Dominique Dawes Brings A New Spirit To Gymnastics appeared first on Zenger News.

TARRANT, Ala. — As a white city councilman in an Alabama town faces outrage for directing a racial slur at a black city councilwoman, the town’s mayor says the episode was a calculated political stunt meant to harm him.

Video footage of the July 19 town meeting in Tarrant, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham, rocketed across the U.S. at the speed of Twitter, drawing demands for John “Tommy” Bryant’s resignation.

Interviews and Internet messages reviewed by Zenger reveal a power struggle with Bryant and his wife, who are white, battling black first-term mayor Wayman A. Newton, who has become a disruptive force in one corner of the Deep South. The fight in this majority-black town of about 6,200 has an unusual complication: Newton says Bryant and Veronica Bandy Freeman, the councilwoman he smeared, often work together to thwart his proposals.

Bryant was caught on video during a hearing Monday night, pointing to a black councilwoman and asking, “Do we have a house n*****r in here?” He later said he was trying to draw attention to Newton’s use of the phrase, which typically refers to a black American who chooses to be subservient to white people.

Newton denies using the phrase but says he was targeted for being critical of a fellow black politician who has fought him on vote after vote. Newton and Bryant are both Republicans. City council elections in Tarrant are non-partisan and party affiliation is not required, according to Newton.

Bryant’s wife Nancy Mahler Bryant claimed in a Facebook post before Monday’s hearing that Newton started the racial fireworks by using the slur to berate Freeman. Mrs. Bryant said Freeman sided with the white city council faction and opposed Newton’s move to fire a private garbage collection firm and bring that work under the town’s control.

“He [Newton] called another council member a house n*****r because she did not want to vote with him,” Mrs. Bryant wrote on Facebook. She initially wrote the word “bigger” but later corrected her typo, spelling out the two-word racial slur, the post’s version history shows. Mrs. Bryant later deleted her comment, but Newton read it aloud during Monday’s town meeting.

“He hollered ‘f-you’ multiple times to all the council members when they did not agree with him for independent garbage service,” Mrs. Bryant wrote. “He has demeaned, harassed and slandered two council members to the point of having the police called on him and police reports filed.”

Newton told Zenger he hasn’t verbally abused anyone. “It’s not true,” he told Zenger. “The one time I actually made a point of being verbal was when he [Mr. Bryant] called me ‘boy.’”

Freeman called Bryant’s words “unconscionable racial discrimination and harassment,” in a statement issued through her attorney. She is one of two black members of the Tarrant City Council. The other, Tracie B. Threadford, sent Zenger a screen capture of Mrs. Bryant’s Facebook post.

“He’s got to go,” Threadford said of Bryant. She said, too, that Mrs. Bryant is openly racist, “calling us ‘the blacks’ and using the n-word.” She declined to reveal her party affiliation.

Bryant is defiant, denying he’s a bigot and telling local reporters that he may run for mayor against Newton.

Democrats and their allies are calling for Bryant to step down. “He is a racist and unfit to serve,” Alabama Democrats Executive Director Wade F. Perry said in a statement that called him and two other Republicans “embarrassments to Alabama.”

“THIS MAN HAS TO GO!” the Alabama state conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said in a statement. “We are fed up with the way he feels emboldened to spew his racist hate in the public.”

In a statement, Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl did not say whether Bryant should resign, but called his language a “racially charged outburst” that “is completely unacceptable in any setting.”

Wahl praised Newton as a member of the GOP and said the party “deeply appreciate[s] his commitment to serving his constituents honorably, even in the face of adversity.”

The Republican National Committee did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Newton accused Freeman and Bryant of coordinating a clumsy political attack against him that was rooted in politics, not race. “I’ve had ongoing battles with Bryant that have also included Freeman,” he said. “Together, they’ve undermined everything I’ve tried to do. They’ve been hand-in-hand for some time, voting together on practically everything.”

He said he received written notification on July 15, four days before Bryant used the racial slur in public, that Freeman would file an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against him and the city for racial discrimination.

“The timing is peculiar. I believe it was all orchestrated,” Newton said. “It was a political strategy poorly executed.”

Newton is seated next to Freeman in the video. He questioned the sincerity of her tearful exit from the council chambers, saying that she wasn’t crying when Bryant used the racial slur.

“She didn’t even start crying until I started reading the Facebook post from Bryant’s wife,” he said.

Newton’s first-term agenda includes initiatives to attract businesses to a city known mainly for producing foundry coke, a coal byproduct that’s burned to melt iron. He said Bryant and Freeman, along with two other council members, have thwarted him at every turn.

“I once tried to hire a consultant with extensive experience helping small municipalities identify economic development and brownfield development opportunities,” he said. “They refused to even listen to him.”

Newton did win a battle of wills by introducing and passing an anti-nepotism bill.

“We had a case where a father was the direct supervisor of two sons, and I wanted to ensure that city hiring and promotion practices were based on merit,” he said. “But, every time I introduced the bill, it was DOA [dead on arrival] with Freeman and Bryant and the rest of the council. It wasn’t until I threatened to add the bill to every council agenda did they finally vote for its approval.”

Threadford said Newton is right about the other council members’ obstructionism. But she blames racism, not politics, for a series of impasses.

“The fact is that Tarrant wants to change, but not through a black man,” she said. “This is buffoonery at its finest.”

Edited by David Martosko and Andre Johnson

The post VIDEO: Ala. Councilman’s Racial Slur Was ‘Orchestrated’ Plot To Harm Him, Says Mayor appeared first on Zenger News.

Chris Chambers played for several winning coaches during the course of his collegiate pro-football career. Now he’s working to put what he learned to work in his first head-coaching job at the University of Fort Lauderdale in Florida.

His playing days were productive: Following a successful career as a wide receiver at the University of Wisconsin, where he ranks in the top 10 in several statistical categories, the Miami Dolphins selected Chambers in the second round of the 2001 NFL draft. His best season was in 2005 when he led the Dolphins in receptions and was named to the AFC Pro Bowl. He would also play for the San Diego Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs before wrapping up a 10-year pro career.

Next, he opened a training facility, The Chamber, and coached high school before earning the nod this year from the University of Fort Lauderdale as its first head football coach since the school joined the NCCAA [National Christian College Athletic Association].

Chambers is excited to be able to help students academically, athletically and spiritually at the commuter college. He hopes to implement some teachings of legendary coaching figures throughout his career, and plans to surround himself with an experienced coaching staff.

Zenger caught up with Chambers, who talks about the difficulty of being a first-year coach following COVID, explains the type of athletes he’s looking for, and much more.

Percy Crawford interviewed Chris Chambers for Zenger.

Zenger: Congratulations on being named head football coach of the University of Fort Lauderdale. How is everything going?

Chambers: It’s going well, man. I absolutely love the opportunity. I thought it goes well with everything I have done up to this point with my pro career and post-career in sports performance the last 10 years. Just being around the high school kids, the college kids and the pro prospects.

I was already immersed in that scene. Just to be able to take that and become the head coach of a university is big, and I didn’t want to take it for granted. I’ve been coaching high school the last couple of years, so I had gotten that itch to really start coaching, and then this opportunity literally just fell in my lap over a weekend.

Zenger: Obviously, the biggest difference from high school to college is recruiting. What has that process been like?

Chambers: That’s the most challenging part right now. I had to start my recruiting process in May, if you could imagine, to get ready for a 2021 season. There was a lot of interest from freshman from the previous coach, but if he’s not here, he’s not going to be trying to help them guys get here. He would be re-recruiting them to other places. That was an uphill battle in the beginning. I didn’t even count on the people that he recruited before me. I just focused on the people who saw me become the head coach and then inquired about being on our team.

I have really been digging through some past recruits that are interested and some leads I had, then transfer portal, then JUCO [Junior College], and now I’m getting with some influencers in the area; head coaches or prep school coaches sending me lists. Private coaches are sending me stuff, so I’m just gathering as much information as possible, putting it in my database and calling guys.

At first, Percy, I was getting a lead, and I was emailing that player. I was like, “You know what, these kids are not looking at emails like we look at them.” It took me a week to figure that out because I wasn’t getting any response until I started calling people. I was calling the leads, I was texting them, and then the communication picked up, and we got a bit more social as far as the marketing side.

People started seeing this as a real opportunity, so I used that to my advantage. I’m just using a combination of influencers, social media, past relationships with coaches, and now I’m hiring coaches to help me on the recruiting side as well.

Zenger: Times have changed and things are a lot different from when you were being recruited. What other adjustments have you made in your own recruiting process?

Chambers: Because we had COVID-19 last year, we all spent a lot of time on Zoom and finding different ways to communicate, different ways to evaluate people. At the same time, there are not too many of them I have seen in person. We hosted three showcases. The showcases were really to give them an orientation of the school, give them information of admissions and enrollments, talk about scholarship opportunities, and the next day was to see them in person. Get them to run around, put them through combine-type drills and evaluate them. That’s been picking up. The first time I think we had 19, the second time we had 31 and this past weekend we had almost 40. So, the word is definitely getting out, but at the same time, we’re a commuter school.

We’re going to have to rely heavily on local guys who don’t need housing. When the kids come from out of town, we still find housing opportunities for them, but that’s not something that the school takes care of. We only take care of tuition and fees when it comes to scholarships, but when it comes to housing, that’s more on the parents and kids. I’m trying to find a way to at least give them some options in the area so they feel safe, and make sure things work out.

Zenger: Tell me more about how COVID-19 impacted what you are trying to do.

Chambers: Yeah. I dealt with the whole COVID thing as far as what we needed to do last year with limited practices, limited time and stuff like that. So, it does feel like a COVID year for me, even though it’s not anymore for a lot of other programs. They had a chance to do winter, they had a chance to do spring ball, they had a chance to do summer workouts. So everybody is completely ready for the 2021 season, as opposed to last year. I’m dealing with COVID because I didn’t get a spring, I didn’t get a winter, all I got was a little bit of the summer. Not a lot of practice, not a lot of conditioning, not a lot of things you would need to build up for a football season. That’s going to be the challenging part.

The good thing is, I have been working on hiring the right coaches and people. Even though this is an urgent situation, I’ve been very slow and patient with it. I didn’t want to hire just anybody. I needed to hire experienced people who understood the situation as far as growth potential, and people who know how to develop athletes very fast. I’m closing in on some guys right now. I have a few coaches hired already.

That’s another challenge in itself, because if you don’t have relationships with certain people, you just don’t want to be hiring anybody just to be hiring them just because they have a resume. You want to have some sort of relationship and continuity, because if you don’t, it can go the other way real fast. I’ve seen that happen before on the professional level. When the upstairs and the coaching staff weren’t in sync, it trickled down to the players and it just gets ugly from there. That’s where I’m at with that.

Zenger: What made the University of Fort Lauderdale the place for you?

Chambers: I would say the name was the biggest thing. I felt like from being in the business world the last 10 years, I saw it as a great startup business opportunity. It’s something that I can grow. I can put my imprint on and potentially leave a legacy, being one of the first head coaches of the school, and hopefully taking it to NCAA Division I one day. That’s obviously not going to happen overnight, but the fact that I was an influencer in the area already, a celebrity, professional football player, all of those things will help bring out the exposure for the school, which I love doing.

I’ve always been in media, I’m good at handling that, I’ve owned my own training facility for several years, so as far as working with people, hiring people, firing people (laughing), all of those responsibilities that comes with owning a business, I have that in my back pocket already. I’m confident when it comes to some of the things I need to do as a coach, but at the same time, we are a faith-based school, and I absolutely love that. The fact that I can tell a parent that we are going to develop you academically, athletically and spiritually is big, and it resonates a lot with people.

Zenger: Is this a high-pressure job for you?

Chambers: Yes! (laughing). The school wants admissions. We know in every program, every high school and the majority of college programs, the football team is the leader of the program, unless you’re a basketball school. What that means is, we’re the ones that’s going to go out there and hopefully have money games, the money games are going to seep into the athletic department, the athletic department is going to be able to use some of them funds to support other sports and activities.

I see that as a big responsibility, and I enjoy the fact that we get to be the leaders when I come to that. That’s what we have to do, we have to build this up through the football department. We build from the nine sports that we have right now, to 14 sports, to 20 sports, and that’s when you talk about entering other conferences, or having opportunities to do special things in the future.

Zenger: What do you look for in an athlete?

Chambers: Heart is big, but I love smart football players, and I love tough football players. Those are things that you can’t really measure from talent. Obviously, if they have the talent, that’s even better, but tough football players is what I’m looking for. Guys who want to handle responsibilities. I’m going to make sure they know how to communicate. I want to make sure they are very transparent, because I’m going to do the things that I would want a coach to do. I want a coach to be straight up with me, good, bad or ugly. Just tell me what it is. That’s the coach that I want to have.

When I was at the University of Wisconsin, I would run through a wall for [then-head coach] Barry Alvarez. I have to figure out, how do I get these kids to run through a wall for me? That’s going to be the challenge. I will be able to draw from a place like Wisconsin, and the many coaches I had with the Miami Dolphins. I even had coach [Nick] Saban for a year or two. I’m taking all of these different teachings and seeing if I can develop something for myself. At the same time, I will rely on my coaching staff who may have even more experience than me on this level that can be able to help out in that area.

Zenger: I wish you the best of luck and I know you will enjoy success at the University of Fort Lauderdale. Anything before I let you go?

Chambers: I appreciate it. I think it would be good if we circle back at some point mid-season or post-season and do another one and see how things are going and talk about future plans from there.

(Edited by Matthew B. Hall and Judith Isacoff)

The post Ex-Miami Dolphins Pro Bowler Draws On Deep Football Experience In First Head-Coach Role  appeared first on Zenger News.

Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano aim to knock each other out on Saturday in a clash that could produce the first four-belt unification champion in the history of the 154-pound division.

“It’s dangerous to walk into my shots,” said “Iron Man” Charlo. “Most opponents I’ve faced who’ve done that, I’ve put them out.”

As for “El Boxi” Castano, the Argentinian said: “I’m ready for war. If Charlo wants to brawl, then by all means I will welcome that.”

Charlo, of Houston, Texas, fights for family and legacy. Castano, of Buenos Aires, is in it for glory and country.

The 31-year-olds will battle for Charlo’s IBF, WBA and WBC crowns and the Castano’s WBO title in a Premier Boxing Champions headliner from San Antonio, Texas. It will air on Showtime at 9 p.m. EDT.

The winner will join former middleweight champions Bernard Hopkins and Jermain Taylor, ex-junior welterweight champ Terence Crawford, junior welterweight title-holder Josh Taylor and former cruiserweight champ Oleksandr Usyk as a four-belt division king.

“What’s on my mind is the legacy,” said Charlo. “This could be the fight … that puts me in the Hall of Fame.”

Charlo’s story

Charlo (34–1, 18 KOs) retained his WBC crown in September over IBF/WBA title-holder Jeison Rosario in a three-knockdown, eighth-round stoppage. The finishing blow was a final-round gut jab that left the hard-punching Dominican flat on his back.

On the same night, Charlo’s twin, Jermall, dominated Sergiy Derevyanchenko of the Ukraine by unanimous decision. Those wins come on the heels of the siblings establishing a milestone by sharing a card in May 2016 in Las Vegas two days after they turned 26.

That night, Jermell — the younger sibling by a minute — came from behind for a title-winning eighth-round stoppage of John Jackson. The history-making feat preceded Jermall’s unanimous decision over left-handed former champion Austin Trout in “The Hit Man’s” second of three IBF 154-pound title defenses. In winning the vacated world title, Jermell joined Jermall as a junior middleweight champion.

“I won a world title at the same weight division with my brother,” said Jermell, whose twin is a WBC 160-pound champ. “This fight is going to solidify the Charloses in people’s minds. I’ve wanted to be undisputed since I was a child.”

“You’re going to see a top pound-for-pound fighter,” said Charlo, who is after his third straight stoppage. “I’ve knocked people out in just about every round.”

In 2017 as Charlo halted Charles Hatley and southpaw Erickson Lubin in consecutive bouts.

Following a two-knockdown majority decision over Trout in June 2018, Charlo was dethroned as WBC champion in a disputed unanimous decision loss to Tony Harrison that December.

Charlo bounced back with a third-round stoppage of Jorge Cota in June 2019, highlighted by separate right hands that twice left the loser flat on his back. Cota was a late replacement for Harrison, whose ankle injury scuttled their rematch before Charlo brutally dropped him twice in the 11th and final round of their return title bout in December 2019.

Charlo will have a healthy trainer this time in Derrick James, who developed a hernia the first week of the Rosario camp. James endured through December as Errol Spence defended his IBF and WBC welterweight titles by unanimous decision over Danny Garcia after being hospitalized in critical condition as a result of a car accident in October 2019.

James is also prepping Spence (27–0, 21 KOs) for eight-division title winner Manny Pacquiao (62–7–2, 39 KOs) on Aug. 21 in Las Vegas.

Castano’s story

Castano (17–0–1, 12 KOs) began assisting his father, Carlos, a street sweeper and former pro boxer, in removing debris and litter from the roads of La Matanza or “The Slaughter,” a violent area in Buenos Aires.

“I was ashamed at first to be seen sweeping streets,” said Castano. “I used to cover my head with a jacket. In time, I became proud that I was helping my family.”

Castano grew up surrounded by boxers, which helped him resist the lure of the streets and follow in the footsteps of Argentine legends such as ex-champions Carlos Monzon, Sergio Martinez, Marcos Maidana and Lucas Matthysse.

“The glory of a win would be equal to a potential Argentina World Cup title,” he said, but noted: “Soccer is different because you have 10 other people to rely on. I’m on my own in the ring.”

Castano went 181–5–5 as an amateur, earning a South American Games gold medal along the way, defeating Spence, 2012 Olympic silver medalist Esquiva Falcao and, in the World Series of Boxing, Sergiy Derevyanchenko.

Castano survived being dropped in the second round of an interim title-winning two-knockdown, sixth-round KO of Emmanuel de Jesus in November 2016, won a split-decision for the WBA’s crown over Michel Soro in July 2017, and, after being elevated to the status of WBA regular champion, stopped left-handed Cedric Vitu by 12th-round TKO in March 2018.

“El Boxi” held the WBA crown until being stripped in June 2019 for declining to face mandatory challenger Michel Soro in France. But in 2019 Castano had a draw with left-handed former champion Erislandy Lara (March) and a one-sided fifth-round stoppage over veteran Wale Omotoso (November), who retired on his stool with a damaged left shoulder

February’s unanimous decision dethroned Brazil’s Patrick Teixeira (31–2, 22 KOs) as WBO title holder, ending a 15-month ring absence for Castano and earning his shot at Charlo.

“I have more variety in my arsenal than anybody Charlo’s fought,” said Castano, who nearly stopped Teixeira in the 12th with a right to the body and a left uppercut.

“If I have to go for more power instead of finesse, rest assured that I can knock Charlo down. I want to be the first in history to be undisputed champion at 154 pounds in the four-belt era and one of the best Argentinian and Latin American boxers who ever lived.”

(Edited by Matthew B. Hall and Judith Isacoff)

The post Undisputed Super-Welterweight Title Up For Grabs In Saturday Night Fight appeared first on Zenger News.

COVID-19 continues to have an impact on big get-togethers. Just ask Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame President Michelle Corrales-Lewis, who recently made the tough decision to postpone this year’s Hall of Fame induction weekend and gala.

Due to COVID, the 2020 class will now be inducted with the 2021 class in 2022. Combining the classes is a first for the nonprofit and Corrales-Lewis says it’s not the only impact of the pandemic: The 2021 class is expected to be fewer in number.

Nevertheless, Corrales-Lewis promises to deliver a great event for these legendary boxing figures in 2022. In 2019, the last time the event was held, the inductees were: Bernard Hopkins, Juan Manuel Marquez, Ronald “Winky” Wright, Terry Norris and Vinny Pazienza.

Corrales-Lewis, ex-wife of the late, great lightweight champion Diego Corrales, explains the ins and outs of the operation, what led to the decision to postpone the event, and much more.

Percy Crawford interviewed Michelle Corrales-Lewis for Zenger.

Zenger: Unfortunately, due to COVID you were forced to cancel the pending induction of the class of 2020 and 2021 Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame. I’m sure that was a difficult decision for you.

Corrales-Lewis: The epic weekend that we deliver around the gala takes more than just a couple of months to prepare. Yes, Vegas is starting to open, but it’s already summer. So, to truly prepare adequately for an event of the magnitude of ours, it takes a year of getting the right sponsorships, the right partners, the right venues, preparing the inductees to be flown in, working with their schedules, ordering their induction rings, the custom-made trophies and a lot more.

When we present that gala on that weekend, it’s important for us to deliver it at that same level that we’ve done in the past. Could we have tried to rush and done a scaled-down version of what we normally deliver? Absolutely. But would that be fair to our inductees or to the fans that are used to a certain standard? No. And you can’t deliver that in the matter of a couple of months of preparation.

Zenger: Clearly, a lot of hard work goes into planning these weekends.

Corrales-Lewis: Absolutely. We’re working long before we announce the class, long before we even tell the inductees who they are. Also, everyone knows our custom desserts are a huge deal. You have no idea just how much energy goes into picking that (laughing). It seems trivial to most, but it’s so important to us. Our team pays attention to every detail. Our lighting, our centerpieces are all custom-made. It’s just a handful of us that work personally to make those. We are making everything for a 100-plus tables. We have our own little mini-Hall of Fame chop shop going on in our garages. You’d be amazed.

We would’ve had to secure our venue months ago when there was so much uncertainty in the world. We just didn’t know where to go. Unfortunately, when you’re putting up these deposits and things for these hotels, they’re not as forgiving to just hand out refunds. It’s a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that people just don’t understand about the event.

Zenger: I’m sure there is a lesson learned with this whole ordeal in terms of factoring in the unknown. COVID made us all vulnerable to that.

Corrales-Lewis: It showed that even though the world is opening back up, COVID is still here and could slap us in the face at any moment and bring us back to reality. Which is why I said, “OK, we can’t hold this. Let’s stop torturing ourselves. Let’s just go ahead and make the official announcement to postpone.” Summer is usually our time to shine and induct our legends, but when that happened, that solidified the fact that I needed to make the announcement and get over that last-minute idea of possibly doing our weekend in October. That actually brought it home for me.

Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame President Michelle Corrales-Lewis says fans can look forward to something spectacular in 2022, when the classes of 2020 and 2021 will be inducted together. (Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame)

Zenger: As a silver lining in all of this is, it sounds like you’re planning a spectacular event for the 2020-2021 classes.

Corrales-Lewis: Again, absolutely! I’m looking for the best venue, I’m looking for the best event, the best organic touches, from the dessert to the centerpieces. Something we haven’t seen before. We have an epic class of 2020, we are going to announce 2021, and 2022 will be around the corner. I want the fans to hang in there with us, and we will definitely deliver something spectacular in 2022.

Zenger: Is this the first time you have had to rearrange this event and combine classes?

Corrales-Lewis: Yes. I think we all would say that this has been a time of firsts. COVID did a number on us. Even our class of 2021 — I’ll give a teaser on that — it’s going to be a lot smaller. We’re going to address some of the icons who should be recognized and inducted that we have held out because of their fight careers. I think everything suffered because of COVID.

Zenger: Your inability to do fundraisers and events leading up to the big event played a big part. So, people have to understand, things seem normal now, but the lead-up was disturbed, and you couldn’t get that time back.

Corrales-Lewis: That’s correct. When you don’t have someone come along to sponsor the entire event, it falls on myself, our vice president and our founder to pay for it personally. That’s the reality of it. The fundraisers are critically important. And that’s what some people don’t understand, being a smaller nonprofit, if no one comes along with a huge donation or a big sponsorship, this is a family-oriented, blood, sweat and tears hall of fame.

Our organization is about the love of our core team. We put in the work and quite frankly our own finances to help get by. When you’re talking about an event of that magnitude, it’s a lot to bite off, especially coming off of COVID with our own personal household suffering as well. The reality check is, we need those fundraisers, we need those smaller events, we need those alliances. I’m glad you realize that because most people don’t. They see these events and figure we have millions and millions of dollars. We stretch a dollar and what we can’t afford to buy, we make.

Zenger: What are the qualifications for being inducted into the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame?

Corrales-Lewis: For fighters, you need to be retired for at least two years and have fought in Nevada. For our non-fighters, we look for someone who has had huge ties to the Las Vegas community. Because we are the fight capital of the world, Percy, that really opens our panel to several people. We have that landscape to say, if you’ve made a name for yourself, and you are a legend in boxing, chances are you are on our radar. If you were a champion, you’re on our ballot. So many greats had their legacies built and cemented here in Las Vegas.

Zenger: You honor a lot of great people within the fight game, but you deserve to be honored, as well — you’ve done an amazing job of keeping this thing going. I know it will be huge when it returns. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Corrales-Lewis: Thank you so much for supporting the hall of fame. We appreciate that. Look out for our teasers and announcements on Aug. 20, the night before the Errol Spence Jr.-Manny Pacquiao bout. I also want to encourage people to keep donating to the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame through our website.

(Edited by Matthew B. Hall and Judith Isacoff)

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Grammy-winning rapper Drake is the latest among a group of celebrities — including actors Robert Downey Jr., Leonardo DiCaprio and Orlando Bloom — teaming up with California-based Aspiration to find ways to reduce the large carbon footprint that comes with being an international superstar.

The environmentally friendly financial services company will audit Drake’s schedule, events and travel to calculate his carbon footprint. Part of Aspiration’s approach includes a reforestation program that plants millions of trees around the country to offset carbon overload.

For Drake, who had 31 concert dates in 2019 spanning Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro and London to Paris, his private jet — dubbed “Air Drake”— the impact of his carbon footprint takes some calculating.

“Drake’s carbon footprint is bigger than yours or mine,” said Andrei Cherny, CEO of Aspiration. “If Aspiration is able to help [him] cut out his negative impact on the planet, we can help everyone.”

He commends Drake for leading what he describes as “a cultural movement to inspire people to take easy, automated, personalized actions to fight the climate crisis.”

Data on the actual calculation of Drake’s carbon footprint was unavailable, but a proprietary algorithm makes it easy to establish carbon neutrality, according to Aspiration. The firm will also engage a third-party auditor to validate Drake’s activities as carbon-neutral.

“We have software that takes the input of an individual or corporation in all parts of their activities: transportation, production of products, and the carbon footprint of the consumers that are consuming those products,” said Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg. “Based on the data we get from our clients, including Drake, we’re able to calculate the carbon emissions of all those activities, and then we’re able to calculate how many trees through our reforestation program we need to plant and for what period of time.”

A reforestation program is one way the financial services firm helps offset clients’ carbon footprint. (Brian Garrity/Unsplash)

It takes a little over 1,000 trees planted to offset the average person’s emissions, with each absorbing about 31 pounds of carbon dioxide, according to the nonprofit conservation group Saving Nature.

“It’s exciting to partner with a company that’s found an easy way to offer everyone the ability to reduce their carbon footprint,” Drake said in a statement. “Aspiration’s innovative approach to combating climate change is really inspiring, and I hope together we can help to motivate and create awareness.”

Sustainability built in

Cherny, an economic policy expert and former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, and Sanberg, a progressive entrepreneur and investor, co-founded Aspiration in 2013 and opened for business in 2015. Since the launch, the company has gained 4 million customers and $250 million in backing from investors, including Downey Jr., DiCaprio and Bloom.

Though the company provides everyday banking products, Sanberg describes Aspiration as a “sustainability services provider,” rather than a conventional bank.

“We provide financial products like banking accounts, investment products and a credit card,” he said. “All of these products are made special by the automated sustainability features they have attached to them. So you can turn those everyday financial products into more than where you deposit your paycheck or what to use to buy your groceries.”

In the past year, the company’s individual and business customers have funded the planting of more than 15 million trees in the United States, Sanberg said, adding that there are plans to plant more than 5 billion over the next 20 years.

Aspiration’s efforts include the “Plant Your Change” program, which allows customers to round up any transaction to the nearest dollar to plant a tree through the company’s reforestation program. The Aspiration Redwood Fund is a sustainable mutual fund that invests only in eco-friendly companies. The Planet Protection Program tallies up drivers’ carbon output and then buys carbon offsets to counter the climate impact.

The company also offers a mobile application — Aspiration Impact Measurement, or AIM — that uses more than 75,000 data points to gauge a company’s sustainability.

“It’s like a FitBit for your sustainability that shows how the places you use your Aspiration card treats their workers and the environment,” said Sanberg.

AIM’s “people” scores reflects company metrics like employee pay, access to health care and workforce diversity. “Planet” scores measure greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency and renewable energy use.

“The cold hard truth is that most people are depositing their money in the big financial institutions, which use that money to fund loans to oil, gas, coal, firearms and private prison companies,” Sanberg said. “When they find out that their money is being used to violate their values, they want to switch, and they know that at Aspiration, their money is never lent for those kinds of activities.

“When you deposit your money at Aspiration, we place it at one of the commercial banks in our commercial bank network that makes loans to individuals who are buying homes or starting small businesses.”

Future product offerings, Sanberg said, will include carbon-neutral insurance and “green” mortgages.

Sustainability trending upward in banking

Aspiration’s leaders believe that the market for sustainability services will grow dramatically over time.

“There’s not a year in the foreseeable future in which fewer people are going to want to take personal action to fight the climate crisis,” Cherny said. “Aspiration is unique because what we’re delivering is sustainability itself — helping people and companies easily and automatically integrate sustainable actions into daily life.”

“Corporations are going from not paying for sustainability services to paying for them in a short period of time,” said Sanberg. “I think about it like the adoption of websites 25 years ago. In a short period of time, every company went from not having a website to having a website.”

Zilvinas Bareisis, head of retail banking at Celent, a Boston-based advisory firm, states in a research paper that the banking industry is taking significant steps to reverse the effects of climate change.

“As the Paris Agreement aiming to limit global warming came into force in 2016, banks were becoming increasingly aware of the risks climate change was posing to their business,” Bareisis said. “While risk management still matters, the banks’ focus now is shifting to proactive efforts and what they can do to positively influence change.”

Bareisis’ paper also highlights a set of industry-developed guidelines for the future.

The Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB), announced during the UN General Assembly in September 2019, “provide framework for a sustainable banking system and help the industry to demonstrate how it makes a positive contribution to society.”

The PRB’s 235 signatory banks — with total assets of more than $60 trillion and coming from 69 countries — typically engage in lending to green initiatives, financing energy-efficient properties and issuing so-called green bonds tied to sustainability goals, much like Aspiration.

As a financial firm, not a chartered bank, Aspiration is not a PRB signatory institution. But its leaders view the company as singularly positioned to take on the climate change challenge through its traditional bank products.

“One of our opportunities is that we’re creating a brand-new category; there really isn’t a set of competitors out there,” said Sanberg. “We’re a unique one of one provider of sustainability services that are branded and technology-driven. There’s only one Aspiration brand, and that puts us in an interesting and privileged position, but also one where we have a lot of responsibility on our shoulders.”

(Edited by Judith Isacoff and Matthew B. Hall)

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FREEHOLD, N.J. — They pulled weeds on a June Saturday. They cleared fallen trees and scooped up debris. They revealed a nondescript burial ground where Civil War veterans have rested for 156 years. The honored dead, who fought to end the enslavement of black Americans, were black themselves.

The June 26 cleanup at the Squirrel Town Historical Cemetery in the town of Freehold drew a multiracial crowd of more than 50 people, intent on making the rundown burial ground a landmark instead of an afterthought lost to time. Nearly three dozen men lay underground, forgotten.

Bethel AME Church in Freehold owns the property, which dates back to a Union victory in May 1865.

“It’s history for not only the church, but also for the town, for people of color, and the United States,” said Rev. Ronald Sparks, the church’s pastor. “It’s important for the descendants that their families be recognized, and that’s what we want to do. It’s time to tell our story and get that story out there.”

The graveyard rests on a hill where the unpaved Illene Way and Old Monmouth Road meet, just off Route 522. The area known as Squirrel Town was once the home of segregated blacks who worked the land on nearby farms.

While it’s designated an historic site, it does not register on GPS and is not visible from any main road. The church had lacked the funds and manpower to properly maintain it, Rev. Sparks told Zenger, but the church’s trustees launched a social media campaign to fix that, soliciting support and setting a date to clean up the two-acre property.

Volunteers showed up after a local news broadcast featured the effort. Some brought landscaping equipment to clear away the brush.

“It was time to take care of it because honored veterans shouldn’t be laid to rest in such a place,” said Robert “Babe” Warrington, a church trustee.

“We used to solicit help from the Boy Scouts, and even some inmates from jail have cleaned things up in the past. But it’s in a remote spot and it’s hard to get equipment up there. It got to the point where we needed to do something. The response was tremendous.”

After Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, approximately 190,000 black men served as soldiers for the Union Army. Another 19,000 joined the Navy. All were part of the United States Colored Troops, which grew to 175 regiments within the U.S. Army. Those units, church members say, validated abolitionist Fredrick Douglass’s proclamation that “he who would be free must himself strike the blow.”

An estimated 1,185 black soldiers and sailors came from New Jersey, according to William Gladstone’s book “United States Colored Troops, 1863-1867.”

Historical records show those regiments won victories on the battlefield. About 40,000 black soldiers died from either battle or disease before the Civil War ended in 1865 — a death rate about 35 percent higher than white Union troops.

Knowledge of their sacrifices remains sparse, even in Freehold.

“It’s important to know that even though there were segregated troops, these black fallen soldiers paid the ultimate price for the freedom that we have now,” said Warrington. “Unfortunately, things like this don’t get taught in the school system.”

“I don’t think a lot of the school systems around here know about Squirrel Town or other black cemeteries that exist,” he said. “I grew up in Freehold and didn’t know anything about Squirrel Town until I joined the church in 1989, and I’m 68 years old.”

The Bethel AME Church is also working on an updated list of those buried in Squirrel Town.

Among the names is Cpl. David Limehouse of Company A in the 127th United States Colored Troops. He suffered a gunshot wound to his left hand while seeing heavy action at the “Siege of Petersburg” in Petersburg, Virginia, where a nine-month battle ended with a victory. He died in 1896.

Lewis Conover, who fought in Company rests near him. Conover served from August 1864 to September 1865 and saw action in the First Battle at Deep Bottom Virginia, also part of the Siege of Petersburg. Conover was discharged at Brazos, Texas before moving to Freehold, where he died in 1910 at the age of 65.

Alongside the Civil War heroes are buried black veterans who served their country in other armed conflicts. Pvt. James William died while serving in a segregated unit during World War I. American forces were segregated until after World War II.

Freehold’s black pioneers are buried here, too, including Alex and Julia Hawkins, whose children served in World War II.

“A lot of our history is forgotten. It’s swept under the rug,” said Tracey Reason, their great-great-granddaughter. “History likes not to give homage to black people. But these lives and legacies are too important to be forgotten.”

Reason’s niece Kelly Guerra, another Bethel AME Church member, said she is scouring the Internet and archives to gather names of others buried in the cemetery.

Guerra told Zenger she plans to send the list of names to the Veterans Administration, which provides free headstones in recognition of each veteran’s service. “I’m glad people are finding out about the history of Squirrel Town and about Bethel and their own people,” she said. “We’re also connecting family members with history they never knew.”

Capt. Robert C. Meyer of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, which helps clean up and restore grave markers, attended the June cleanup and put “Grand Army of the Republic” plaques on or alongside broken and unreadable headstones.

“Honoring any veteran by clearing an unmarked, overgrown grave is very important,” Meyer said. “It adds to the community when you clean up these kinds of areas and bring them back to light. We still need to get some headstones out there, some new signage and other things that need to be addressed. The veterans buried there deserve that.”

About a half-acre of the property still needs clearing.

Long-term plans call for a fence, new signs, crosses and a flag pole to make the cemetery easier to locate. Neighbors whose property borders the cemetery support all of it.

“Since our cleanup we’ve gotten a lot of calls and a lot of interest in the cemetery,” Rev. Sparks said. “It’s obviously important to people, especially when you’re talking about civil war soldiers and the history of families in this area. This is a predominantly white county. But people both black and white want to know the story.”

The church plans a celebration of the restoration on Veterans Day in November.

“We want to hold ceremonies there on Veterans Day, Memorial Day and Juneteenth,” Rev. Sparks said. “These will be annual events that will help us tell the story so young people can understand the history they may or may not learn in school.”

“We want to be a historical site where when people visit Freehold — this is a stopping place — as well as the original church. It’s not just our church history and New Jersey history. it’s U.S. history.”

(Edited by Alex Willemyns and Hugh Dougherty)

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