[Vision2020] For spring break, there's nothing, and then there's Mao Tosi's world

[Sue Hovey]

..   And remember Moscow's Andrea Lloyd, who played on the U of Texas NCAA 
Women's championship team, then later won a gold in the Olympics.  She 
played in Europe and in the WNBA for for Minnesota.  She's now a sports 
commentator.  Well anyway she will be inducted into the WNBA Hall of 
Fame--in June, I think it is.

Sue
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
To: "Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 9:38 AM
Subject: [Vision2020] For spring break, there's nothing,and then there's Mao 
Tosi's world


> >From today's (March 23, 2007) Anchorage Daily News at:
>
> http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/anchorage/beth_bragg/story/
>
> Remember the 1996-2000 Vandals' All-American 6'8", 280-pound defensive end
> Mao Tosi?  I am sure that former WSU QB Steve Birnbaum does.  After
> graduation he went on to play professional football for a few years with 
> the
> Arizona Cardinals.
>
> Where is he now, you ask?  Well . . .
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> For spring break, there's nothing, and then there's Mao Tosi's world
>
> BETH BRAGG
> COMMENT
>
> (Published: March 23, 2007)
> Spring break, and it's chaos at the Spenard Rec Center. Controlled chaos.
>
> The gymnasium is filled with kids that society calls "at risk," but the 
> only
> thing at risk here is that gym time will end before the kids are ready to 
> go
> home.
>
> Six basketball hoops hang from the ceiling, and four-on-four games are 
> being
> played at three of them. Clusters of kids shoot baskets and collect 
> rebounds
> at the others. Dozens more sit on small sets of bleachers, watching the
> action or waiting their turn. Astonishingly, only one person is wearing
> earbuds, and no one is talking on a cell phone.
>
> In the middle of it all sits Mao Tosi, the giant-sized man responsible for
> all this activity. He's the West High security guard who responded to the
> city's spike in youth violence last fall by starting after-school clubs at
> West and East high schools.
>
> Tosi is cutting up four bags of oranges with a paring knife, and the kids
> are eating them as fast as he can slice them.
>
> "We're trying to keep them all occupied," Tosi says as he jokingly
> admonishes a teenage boy trying to sneak up from behind and snatch a whole
> orange. "Keep 'em playing. Keep 'em busy."
>
> Tosi, 30, didn't learn until late last week that he could use the Spenard
> Rec Center and the Cellular One Sports Center for this week's three-day
> camp. There was little time to spread the word. But spread it did.
>
> "The gym doesn't open till 9," Tosi said, "and at 8:30 there were 20 kids
> sitting outside waiting. Some of them didn't even have coats."
>
> Ola Vaivai, a 17-year-old from West High, was among those who showed up. 
> His
> spring break alternative?
>
> "Nothing," he said. "I got parents that's working, and some of us don't 
> have
> cars, don't have transportation. Mao got us our ride.
>
> "Everybody here's for the same reason. He got everybody interested because
> it's free. Some of us can't afford five dollars, or even one dollar. It's 
> a
> good thing."
>
> It is a good thing.
>
> And it's getting even better. People in town -- important people, people 
> who
> can make things happen -- have seen Tosi at work, and they're ready to 
> help
> him help kids.
>
> Tosi will soon leave his job as a security guard for a job running youth
> programs for Communities in Schools of Alaska. The position will let him
> work full-time with kids in the city's middle and high schools.
>
> Tom Morgan, state director of CIS-Alaska, made the change possible by
> raising money from a variety of sources impressed with Tosi's work. The
> state's Department of Juvenile Justice says it will help. CIRI and Taco 
> Bell
> each donated $10,000, and the city added a one-time contribution of 
> $60,000,
> half from the police, half from the mayor's office.
>
> "You pay it one way or another," city manager Denis LeBlanc said. "If we 
> can
> keep the kids out of trouble, then the police aren't making police calls.
> We're convinced this will pay dividends to the city."
>
> The show of support for Tosi's work is one of the best, most tangible
> results of the city's increased focus on youth and gang violence since a
> number of shootings and killings in the last year.
>
> Tosi, a former NFL player who graduated from East High, isn't taking guns 
> or
> drugs away from kids. But he's diverting kids from those kinds of things 
> by
> giving them somewhere to go and something to do.
>
> It might seem like bribery when he tells kids that if they participate in 
> a
> poetry workshop, they can win digital cameras or T-shirts. But Tosi knows
> such offerings are a valuable currency. They buy him a kid's time and
> attention.
>
> The scene this week at the Spenard Rec Center was amazing. Kids of all
> sizes, ages and colors shot baskets, ate snacks, showed off their beat
> boxing skills and even tried a little poetry. There wasn't a hint of
> friction, a hint of bullying, a hint of trouble.
>
> "Look at the different race groups and ages,'' said 16-year-old Nicole
> Suapaia of East High as she watched a group of older boys play an intense
> yet friendly game of basketball. "This is good."
>
> It is good.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Seeya round town, Moscow.
>
> Came a tribe from the north brave and bold . . .
>
> "Here We Have Idaho"
> http://www.tomandrodna.com/HWHI.mp3
>
> "I-D-A-H-O Idaho Idaho Go Go Go"
> http://www.tomandrodna.com/Vandals.mp3
>
>
>
>
>
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