New Orleans Saints cornerback Lonnie Johnson Jr. has reminders tattooed on his physique that signify the violence and despair he escaped in Gary.
He’s not quitting on his residence city, although.
On Saturday, Johnson returned to a freshly renovated stadium on the West Side Leadership Academy to host his third “Protect the Youth” soccer camp, sponsored by his basis.
About 350 children, ages 8 to 18, raced round tires and tossed good spirals underneath a sunny blue sky on West Side’s new shiny inexperienced synthetic turf soccer discipline.
Johnson and 2014 Merrillville graduate Ryan Neal, who performs for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and 2014 Thea Bowman Academy graduate Antonio Pipkin, a free agent quarterback within the Canadian Football League, led the drills with West Side coach Alger Boswell.
“It looks a lot different,” Johnson mentioned gazing on the soccer discipline that obtained a $936,000 improve final 12 months. “I just want to give back to the community.”
As Johnson spoke, he smiled as he appeared on the flashy new scoreboard displaying him patrolling a backfield on its display.
Joining Johnson, 27, at his camp had been spouse Selena and their two daughters, Ayla, 3, and Alani, 2, and 2-month-old son, Aceyn.
“He’s very humble and he’s grateful for everything he earned,” mentioned Selena Johnson of her husband. The couple met on the University of Kentucky, the place Johnson graduated after elevating his grades at a junior faculty.
His mom, Nora Johnson, mentioned taking part in soccer was all the time her son’s imaginative and prescient. “He started at age 5 with football and track. Lonnie came by it naturally.”
She performed basketball and ran monitor at West Side.
Her son performed soccer, basketball and ran monitor. He gained the state lengthy bounce title in 2014.
“I moved to Texas now, but Gary is still home,” she mentioned.
The household grew up poor, however managed to sidestep the gnawing gun violence that also canines the town.
On an August evening in 2015, when Johnson was leaving for a Kansas junior faculty, his pal Daja Brookshire, 15, was shot and killed as she acquired out of a automotive at Seventh Avenue and Adams Street. She was one in all 50 Gary homicides that 12 months.
Johnson has a rose tattoo on his proper arm with “Daja” throughout it alongside together with her start date and the Aug. 2, 2015 day she died.
Violence was an ever-present undercurrent for Johnson. Before he was drafted by the Houston Texans because the 54th choice within the 2019 NFL draft, Johnson informed an NFL reporter he got here again to Gary for 3 funerals earlier than he completed his first 12 months on the University of Kentucky.
“I’ve gotten numb to them. I don’t cry. It hurts but it just becomes another person you knew,” he mentioned.
Still, Johnson loves his metropolis. In 2019, he welcomed native supporters at his NFL draft occasion at West Side whereas he awaited a cellphone name that ultimately got here from Houston.
Later that 12 months, when Calumet High freshman soccer participant Curtis Walton Jr. drowned within the college pool after follow, Johnson quietly paid for his funeral.
“It’s important for Lonnie that he gives back,” mentioned Boswell.
Rodney Roberts, 12, a Seventh-grader at Merrillville’s Pierce Middle School, mentioned the camp “beats sitting on my butt.” Now, he mentioned he would possibly exit for the Pierce staff.
Pipkin mentioned he wished there was a camp like Johnson’s when he grew up in Gary.
“We had nobody before. Who knows how many guys we could give a chance.”
Tanisha Reid, of Gary, introduced her son Jabari Campbell, 10, to choose up pointers for his season with the Gary Steelers Pop Warner staff.
“He’s looking forward to practicing with Lonnie,” she mentioned. “He loves football.”
She mentioned her son’s staff performs its residence video games on the West Side discipline.
Andrea DuBose, of Gary, mentioned her son, LaShon, 10, went to Johnson’s camp final 12 months. “He wanted to come back. He learned skills and definitely improved,” she mentioned. “He wants to go to the NFL.”
Ryan Neal, a cornerback for Tampa Bay, mentioned the camp is essential to children.
“We feel the 219 area is not looked upon. To these kids, when they see us, it becomes real. We will continue to do this and find ways to give back however we can.”
Carole Carlson is a contract reporter for the Post-Tribune.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com