E25 Building the Leaders of Tomorrow
A positive role model can change a child’s life. This is a lesson Shakeel Nelson learned firsthand. With his father incarcerated for much of his youth, Shakeel grew up in a single parent household in a community with limited resources and opportunities. The lure of gangs and other dangers were present, but with guidance and a love of sports, Shakeel resisted and found his path in life.
Today, Shakeel is sharing what he has learned from his mentors and athletics with young people in his community. In early 2019, he and two other people founded the Inner City Ducks. Their mission is to provide a place where young boys (and soon young girls) can learn life lessons through the power of athletics so they are better able to reach their full human potential. Starting with 13 boys on a spring football team in May of 2019, the Ducks have grown to more than 50 children from ages 5 through 14.
Shakeel and the Inner City Ducks provide mentoring, a safe space to play and learn, discipline, and exposure to new experiences for the young people in his community. The players have participated in tournaments in Kansas City, Indianapolis, Chicago, Wisconsin, and South Dakota. Eating in restaurants, staying in hotels, and seeing new places expands their sense of what is possible in their lives and teaches them life skills they will apply in adulthood.
In this interview, Shakeel shares his personal experience growing up without a father and candidly shares the challenges he faced. Shakeel explains his inspiration for creating the Inner City Ducks and how he sees the organization and its players growing in the years to come. Shakeel also tells us about the creative ways he is introducing his kids to new experiences and teaching them life skills while developing athletes hungry for success.
At the young age of 25, Shakeel volunteers four days a week to support the youth of his community as a coach, role model, and mentor through the Inner City Ducks. Shakeel’s vision for the organization is to serve 150+ boys and girls and to provide a community center where the kids can go after school to play, study, work out, and receive mentoring.
Shakeel Nelson:
I really look at these kids as my kids. And when school time came around, I made sure that all the kids had at least one outfit to go to school in. Some needed shoes. We got some of the kids shoes. We just try to be more than just coaches.
Don MacPherson:
This is Don MacPherson, your host of 12 Geniuses. For much of 2019, I've traveled around the world interviewing creators and innovation experts for the show. For today's interview, I stayed in Minneapolis to interview Shakeel Nelson. On May 12th, 2003, I was matched with Shakeel through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. He was just nine years old. Through the years, we cooked meals, played sports. We even traveled to see an NCAA basketball game in Texas. Never did I imagine that the boy would turn into a man, driven to give back, but is he ever. Now 25 years old, Shakeel spends three to four nights a week working with more than 50 young boys from underserved parts of the Minneapolis metro. He is using sports in very innovative ways to teach these young boys secrets to success and how to be men. I'm extraordinarily proud of who Shakeel has become and excited to introduce you to him today.
Shakeel, welcome to 12 Geniuses.
Shakeel:
Thanks for having me.
Don:
In your work with the Inner City Ducks, what problem are you solving?
Shakeel:
In my community, there are a lot of single-parent homes. Either the father is absent or incarcerated. That exposes my kids or kids in my community to a lot of risk. And those risks being truancy, apathy, crimes, gangs, a bunch of stuff that get the kids on a bad track in that community. It isn’t easy growing up in that community with the absent fathers and absent role models. So, us as the Ducks, we try to provide the male role models to the kids so that they don't have to grow up without a father figure or a male role model in their house.
Don:
How old are the kids that you're working with?
Shakeel:
Well, we started in April with just 12- and 13-year olds. Since we've expanded out here in November, I am now working with five-year-olds through 14-year-olds. So, now we have about 60 kids in our program.
Don:
And how many did you have when you started?
Shakeel:
I started with 13 kids. We actually went to Chicago with 13 kids and we played in the tournament up there, and it was real good turnout. We went one and one. The other team ended up losing both of their games and had to forfeit one. So, we won the championship because we ended up beating that team. So, it was real rewarding having 13 kids out there, and I had two eight-year-olds on that team actually. That was fun. And they started and they played the whole game, and we were able to steal gel and nothing was wrong.
Don:
What are the innovations that you are introducing through the Ducks to these kids that differentiate this organization from other sports teams?
Shakeel:
It's not what you're doing, it's how you do it. And we're real big on how we do things with the Ducks. So, we travel with these kids, we take these kids to restaurants, we show them little things outside of their communities. We've been to the Viking Stadium a couple times. The Vikings are real familiar with us. We do a lot of community things outside of just football. Actually, I'm real big on not playing as much football and really getting into the lives of these kids. It's more of a life coach than a sports coach.
Don:
Can you give an example of how you have coached or worked with somebody on your team outside of the basketball or football space?
Shakeel:
Like I said, a bunch of my kids don't have fathers at home. So, for me to just be that guy they can call and help them with homework. For instance, all my kids’ teachers and principals have my number. Whenever something goes on, they call me and say, “Hey coach, can we give them 25 pushups or can you come up here?” They know I'll come up there any day that I'm off or anytime that I can. And kids call me while I'm at work. I'll step in the bathroom and talk to these kids and see what's going on. I really look at these kids as my kids. When school time came around, I made sure that all the kids had at least one outfit to go to school in. Some needed shoes. We got some of the kids shoes. We just try to be more than just coaches.
Don:
I know one of the things that you're doing is exposing them to travel. Can you talk about the benefits of this type of exposure for these young people?
Shakeel:
We took them to Indiana. We took them to South Dakota. We've been in Chicago a couple times. We've been to Wisconsin, been to Kansas City, taken them out there to see Arrowhead Stadium and stuff. So yeah, that was real nice. Just little experiences like that. Just having them all in a van and hotels, that's real different for the kids. They're not used to being away from their homes for a weekend and being in a room with a bunch of kids, or let alone a football team, and waking up and eating breakfast altogether and traveling all together and having fun. It is real fun for the kids.
Don:
There's exposure to life skills as well.
Shakeel:
For sure. For sure.
Don:
Could you talk about the importance of that and some of the ways in which you're trying to help them understand what these life skills are and how you're correcting them or maybe influencing their behavior.
Shakeel:
Yeah. Because for me, growing up, I didn't know how little things like thank you and please and thank you were important. I didn't know little things like that was important, and until you get older and you have to use those things in your everyday life. Going to these restaurants and going to these hotels, you have to be able to stay disciplined and be respectful and respect what's around you because it's not yours. You have to be able to go to these restaurants and teaching them how to use their manners, and say please and thank you, and look people in their eyes, and shake their hands firmly. Just a lot of life skills that these kids are getting every day. And it's rewarding because these kids love to say thank you. They love to say thank you. They do. They're coming to you every day, “Coach, thank you. I appreciate it.” Very, very, very appreciative of everything. So, it’s real good.
Don:
Well, gratitude is a life skill.
Shakeel:
Yes, it is.
Don:
And good for you for teaching them that.
Shakeel:
Thank you.
Don:
Another thing that is unique or sounds unique with the Ducks and the experience that you're giving them is you're bringing in guest speakers. Can you talk about some of the things that the kids are learning through these guest speakers?
Shakeel:
Meeting some of these guys early in my childhood, growing up, seeing all different type of successes, I wanted to introduce my kids to the same thing. Let them know that success comes in different forms, different colors. It doesn't matter. We can't be judgmental. We have to be able to divide our differences and love people for who they are. Having these people come in and explain their jobs to the kids and what they do, and how sports helped them become the men that they are today, and help them keep their businesses going, and little things like discipline that I teach them every day, how that helps them now in their lives at the age of 40, or the brotherhood that they kept from sports, and that they still have now into their 40s. So, it's great having these guys come in and explain to these kids what's going on. And it gives them a chance to see, like, hey, this guy looks like me. I got a chance. So, it’s great. It's real good.
Don:
These are teenagers or even preteens, and you have these typically men coming in who are 30, 40, 50 years old. What's the reaction of these young kids?
Shakeel:
Oh, these kids are excited. They're very excited. Their hands are raised in the air, two hands in the air. Sometimes you got to quiet them down because they just like bombard you with questions. So, you just got to be able to weed some of the kids out and pick one at a time because they're all so excited. And they want to play basketball and they want to play football, and they want to know what you do for work and who's your favorite football team, and who's your basketball team. And do you have kids? And do your kids play football? Do you play basketball? They're super excited to see new people. So, it's great.
Don:
You're 25 years old, and this is quite remarkable, in my opinion, that you have an organization with 50 or 60 kids involved now. I didn't realize it was 60. What is driving you to dedicate your time and your energy to these kids?
Shakeel:
Oh, I honestly feel like that's my calling. I played sports. I've been in the Big Brother Big Sister program. So, I know how big a male role model in a community like the Inner City could be. If I had someone like myself from the ages one through nine before I met you, I met you at nine years old, so if I had somebody from one through nine to bring me up, so it didn’t have to be my father, any kind of role model, I think that would've helped me a lot. Me being able to impact these kids’ lives early, getting these four- and five-year-old kids and these three-year-old kids is real big for me.
I feel like there's nothing else I could be doing right now. I've been to the college route, I've played college football. And this is the most excited I've ever been, just being able to reach these kids. I haven't even had the feeling of having my kids out of my program and them coming back and being like, “Oh, coach, man, I missed this.” I'm still with those kids now. I haven't got the biggest reward yet, but just being able to be there for these kids and being that male role model and somebody that they can confide in about anything is second to none, man.
Don:
You don't have any graduates yet, but one of the great things about working with kids is that you see growth and you see growth pretty quickly, right? It can be week to week, could be practice to practice. You can even see growth during a practice.
Shakeel:
Correct.
Don:
That's got to be rewarding.
Shakeel:
It's very rewarding. It almost brings tears in my eyes, man, but I got to be tough for the boys.
Don:
When you started the organization, it was going to be eight to 14 years old.
Shakeel:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Don:
And now there's five-year-olds. When I tell people about this, a lot of times I help them understand that, well, this is… A lot of times moms drop off the boys who are involved in the program and then the younger brothers
Shakeel:
Yes, and sisters.
Don:
And sisters.
Shakeel:
Yes.
Don:
And you've welcomed that and actually used that as an opportunity to grow the program. So, maybe you could talk about that a little bit.
Shakeel:
Yeah, so like I said, with me starting with just 13 kids in my program, not having a lot of equipment or having a lot of stuff for any other kids, I just kept it at that, and it was a good start. But then, once things start rolling, you started having a lot of the parents who would let some of those kids miss practice because they had to work or the older kid had to watch some of the kids. I said, “Hey, you don't have to miss practice, but we're a community team, we're a family. So, if there's any time that you need to bring your kids up here for two hours up until whoever gets out of practice, you can do that.” That started happening with a lot of other kids, and just a bunch of family just started coming up and it was one thing led to another. And now I have a five-year-old team and I have a six-year-old team, a seven-year-old team, eight-year-old team.
It was good. It was a good domino effect. It was just like, “Come on, hey, you guys are up here already. No need to try to travel anywhere else when your big brothers play right here. So, just come on, I'll create a team for you guys, and let's get it rolling.” That went well. Fundamental football went real well this year.
Don:
You alluded to this a little bit earlier in the interview. You talked about you growing up without a father figure. Your father was incarcerated from the age of three to 14, Is that correct?
Shakeel:
Correct.
Don:
What was it like not to have a father involved on a day-to-day basis? And was there a hole in your life, or how did that feel?
Shakeel:
It was a real big void. I caught myself playing the blame game a lot whenever something went wrong or whenever my actions were not as good. I would blame it on me not having my dad around. But when I was able to go outside of my family and meet a person like you, I was like, this is just all excuses. It was just literally like one of my biggest excuses growing up or why I did what I did. It was easy for me to go outside and hang with a bunch of guys that wasn't doing too good in the neighborhood, or just getting into little fights. Meeting a guy like you, man, it changed all that. So, I was able to look past that narrative of, I'm doing this because I don't have a father or I don't have a dad in my life.
It was more of a mind thing. Once I got more control of myself, it was more of a, okay, well, let's see how we can get him back into my life instead of worrying about him not being in my life. It's very easy to get distracted, very, very easy to get distracted because some of these moms aren’t too strong or can't handle some of these kids once they get to that preteen age, and they start knowing more than you know. Now they're turning their chin up at you and you've been, not calling them for a couple years, but not using the disciplinary factor too much. So, now that they're up in age are being disobedient. A lot of the blame, they say, is for not having a father figure around or the male role model. That's why me having this program is real big.
Don:
How did you overcome the desire to use that as an excuse?
Shakeel:
My mom is strong, man. She's a strong woman. She's a very, very strong woman. She stopped me right on my tracks. I was her only child. I mean, it was an easy decision once things started getting too out of hand for her. And seeing tears in her eyes, so it was easy for me to just be like, “Okay, I'm her only child. It’s just not what we're going to do.” And then, when he got out when I was 14, those actions were still kind of happening. So, I was like, okay, maybe he's not the problem. Maybe it's just I need to change. So, it was more of a reality check for me.
Don:
When he got out, you were 14-years old and you were still misbehaving. He was back in your life and you were still misbehaving, and you realized, maybe it's not his fault?
Shakeel:
Exactly. And that's why I'm here for these kids because a lot of what's going on nowadays is these kids are not being held accountable for a lot of stuff that they do.
Don:
Is this at home or within institutions? Meaning the school…
Shakeel:
Yeah, at home, institutions, school. So, I'm just trying to bring that disciplinary factor back and do it in the fun way too. But like I said, I don't like to just be all about sports. It's more of a life coaching with me and showing these kids like, hey, sports is just a small thing, literally like the smallest factor that we're doing. That's why we practice every day with these kids. Some days we may practice hard on, practice three days a week, but the other two days, I might just be talking to one kid for an hour and a half or the whole team for two hours. We're just sitting back connecting and getting to know each other a little more, and stuff like that. So, yeah.
Don:
Was there ever a moment in your life where you thought you might be following your father's path?
Shakeel:
Yeah, for sure. From the ages of nine to about 12-years old, kind of the kids that I coach now, I was kind of on a bad path. I was not a good kid at all.
Don:
What sorts of behaviors did you engage in?
Shakeel:
Little things like staying out late, touching weapons, and getting ahold of weapons, and being in the gangs, and just stuff like that. I'm proud of myself. I'm real proud of myself that I was able to… It was easy for me. Like I said, it was very easy for me because I was my mom's only child. My dad had already did whatever he needed to do in jail. I didn't want to be that. I loved sports a lot. One day I almost missed a game because I had got in trouble with the police. That was very easy for me to be like, “Okay, I can't miss a game anymore. I don't even want to miss practice. So, whatever that was, I'm just not going to do it anymore.”
Don:
What's the future vision of the Ducks?
Shakeel:
Now we have about 60 kids. For the future, we want to have 150 plus kids, boys and girls basketball team, with the boys football team also. We want to have a facility in the next five years for kids, kind of like a safe haven for kids to come and do their homework, receive mentorship, work out, receive life lessons. After the program, if you're 14, 15, 16, after the program, you’d come back and receive these same things from the same role model that you had growing up.
Don:
You had a really special experience a couple months ago. In September, a guy by the name of Mike Rowe came to visit. He has a television show called “Returning the Favor.” He's very well known, also has a phenomenal podcast called “The Way I Heard It.” Could you talk a little bit about what it was like, why Mike came to visit you, and what that experience was like?
Shakeel:
It was kind of a surprise to me too. I didn't know up until the last minute. I got an email earlier in the year from a production team in New York. They came across a couple non-profits in Minnesota, and they came across the Ducks, and they wanted to do a story on us. I was skeptical at first. It was a team from New York. I didn't know much about it, but I took a chance on it and turned out to be “Returning to Favor,” which is Mike Rowe's new show, that he has going on on Facebook Watch, where he goes around the country or wherever in the U.S., and he says, as he likes to call them, “bloody do-gooders.” He goes around and he surprises the bloody do-gooders in every state. So, he made a trip up here to Minnesota, completely caught me by surprise. I thought I was just doing a day with a production team, and they were just going to be here a couple days and that was going to be that. We were standing at one end of the football field and there was a van at the other end of the football field. A guy hopped out with about 17 cameras.
I didn't know what was going on. It caught me off guard. And this guy walked up and he looked familiar, and I'm like, “Wait, who's this guy?” He's like, “Are you familiar with me?” I'm like, “Yeah, you're the guy from Dirty Jobs.” He's like, “Yes, Mike Rowe.” I'm like, “Wow, okay. What are you doing here?” He's like, “Well, we hear that you guys are sharing helmets.” And I'm like, “How does this guy know this? Who told this guy this?” And he's like, “Yeah, so we want to donate a check to you guys.” And he gave us a nice donation to the kids and now we have a story to come out in January, a documentary about how I started the Ducks and what we got going on around in our Inner City community. Yeah, that was a fun day. Real down-to-earth guy. Real good guy. We kind of exchanged a couple things too, meaning he has one of our jerseys now too. So, he's a Duck. So, it's good to have Mike Rowe on the team.
Don:
The Minnesota Vikings are the professional football franchise here in Minneapolis, and you and the Ducks had an opportunity to go to the practice facility where the Vikings practice and receive their training and therapy, etc. One of the Vikings, Stephen Weatherly, led the team through a tour of the practice facility, but that was a big surprise for the kids. Could you talk about that day and the excitement that the kids had going through that experience?
Shakeel:
It was tremendous, man. It was crazy. Proud to be a partner with this guy, Stephen Weatherly. Real down-to-earth guy. Vanderbilt graduate. Speaks a couple languages. Very smart guy. Wow, I was very-
Don:
I think he speaks like seven languages and plays 11 musical instruments.
Shakeel:
Yeah. It’s crazy.
Don:
And 6’5, and 250-pound, African-American guy from Georgia. Great role model for these kids.
Shakeel:
Great role model.
Don:
Because if you're talking about education, you couldn't imagine a better role model for these guys’ education and discipline. It seemed like the name of the game for this guy.
Shakeel:
Yeah, seriously, and him being African-American, that's real big. So, it gives my kid a real big chance to get outside of their horizons a little bit. Meeting him and spending the day with him, real funny guy. Man, and kids loved him. They clicked pretty well. The experience was great. We practiced on the field for an hour and 30 minutes. Steve came out afterwards, kind of did some defensive drills with the kids, kind of 7on 7. He was running the defense and joking around with the kids. It was a real good day. Crazy day. Surprised the kids with some helmets, shoulder pads and cleats. All the kids were very, very happy about that. Donated to the kids, also donated to the program, which is great. But yeah, the day was tremendous. We appreciate everything you did, Steve. The kids are more than happy with all their gear, and we'll never forget that day for sure.
Don:
Shakeel, what needs do the Ducks have right now?
Shakeel:
Yeah, so the Ducks, we have a need for donations. Any financial donations is real good for the kids. You're helping us get these kids a better opportunity at life, anything as far as sports or exposing them to new things in the world. It kind of takes money to do things like that. So, financial donations is real good. Volunteers for as far as like coaching or volunteers is anything in the program. You can volunteer to just do books or ordering of the t-shirts, or the gear, or anything. Any type of volunteer would be real helpful for the kids. The more the better, kind of puts the kids in a better situation. Now they have more role models around them and stuff. And some social media advocates would be great too. If you're not able to donate financially or volunteering your time to us a couple days a week, if you can post us on your Instagram or your Facebook or share us on your LinkedIn or anything, that'd be awesome too.
Don:
You've taken the kids to Chicago, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Wisconsin. They've gone to practice at the Minnesota Vikings facility. Mike Rowe came out and did a documentary. The CBS News affiliate came out and did a story on the Ducks. What do these kids think about all of these experiences that they're presented through the Ducks.
Shakeel:
They won't reap the full benefit up until they get out of the program and go to high school, or get into this life where you're grown up and now you got to use the things we taught you when you were 12-years old or 10-years old. Right now, it's just, they're just playing football, having fun, man. And I'm just a man behind the camera. They're very grateful. They tell me ‘thank you for…’ every day. On Thanksgiving, I got a bunch of texts saying, “Happy Thanksgiving, coach. Thank you for…” stuff like that. Yeah, it is great. It's very rewarding for me and other coaches seeing the smiles on these kids' faces. And yeah, it's real good.
Don:
What does success mean to you for the Ducks?
Shakeel:
Success to me, for the Ducks, means having these kids go on, they don't have to play football after I'm done with them. Just success to me looks like just leaving my program and these kids going on to be men in life, going on to be a family man or a working man, whatever it is, something rewarding. That's all I want to see. I'm good with anything else.
Don:
I think it would be really important to help people understand that this is not your full-time job. What else do you do?
Shakeel:
Currently, I've been at North Memorial Hospital for two years now, and I do environmental services. And this is my part-time/full-time job. Nobody's taking any money. There's no incomes or anything. This is all volunteer work. It is a job. It is a second job, and I wouldn't be doing anything else for a second job.
Don:
Shakeel, where can people learn more about you and the Ducks?
Shakeel:
We have a load of ton of social media stuff for the kids. We’re real big on social media. We have Instagram account. You can follow us @inner_city_duckselite. And you can follow us at Facebook at Inner City Ducks Elite. We also have a website now, innercityducks.org. Loads of content that tells you about what we got going on, our accomplishments over the year, and our accomplishments and what we're trying to accomplish for the next couple years, and what we're doing now and how the program is ran. Yeah, make sure you go follow everything, subscribe to us on YouTube. Also, you can type in #ducttape, or you can go on there and just type in Inner City Ducks. There’s loads of contents on there for you guys to follow and keep up with the ducks.
Don:
And you are on LinkedIn as well, correct?
Shakeel:
Correct. Sorry, yes, I'm on LinkedIn too. You can follow the Inner City Ducks on LinkedIn, or you can follow me personally, Shakeel Nelson on LinkedIn, and I can shoot you a confirmation to the Duck's page or whatever too. Yeah.
Don:
Well, Shakeel, you're providing an incredible service to your community. You're making a difference in these young boys' lives, and you and I have obviously known each other a long, long time. I'm incredibly proud of you. Thanks for taking some time to talk with me today, and thank you for being a genius.
Shakeel:
Thanks for having me, man. I’m proud to be a genius.
Don:
This is the final episode of Season 2 of 12 Geniuses. I want to thank all the guests who shared their expertise on the topic of creativity and innovation; Best-selling author, Daniel Pink; Hip Hop legend, Brother Ali; Hockey Hall of Famer, Lou Nanne; and the other nine geniuses, it's been an absolute thrill to learn from you.
I want to thank you, the listener. Your feedback has been helpful in making this show better every episode. Season 3 of 12 Geniuses will begin in January, 2020. We have an incredible lineup of guests, including Cecily Sommers, Krista Tippett, Dan Buettner, and Dr. Robert Eichinger. If you love what you've heard, please consider rating 12 Geniuses on your podcast app. If you hated what you heard, please send us an email to future@12geniuses.com, and share your ideas on how we can improve. Constructive feedback is always welcome.
Devon McGrath is our production assistant; Brian Bierbaum is our historical consultant; Jay, Tony, and Toby from GLPro in London make sure the sound quality is phenomenal. Thanks for listening, and thank you for being in genius.