There’s a story I read the other day about Oscar Smith High School football player in Chesapeake, Virginia, Lonnie Andrews, Jr., who was killed on July 1, 2008. Very sad story from what I’m hearing.
The story is that he got into an argument with a 17-year-old boy who subsequently shot and killed Andrews. The young soccer star was set to attend Virginia State University on a soccer scholarship and had plenty of other college programs showing interest in him. The future looked great for Lonnie Andrews, Jr. He was going to play college football, get an education, and start an important part of his life and his future, but that’s all over now. And as for the young man who killed Lonnie, what can you really say? His life is ruined too! Now two lives have ended at such a young age.
Too many times you read these stories about young black men who play sports, who come from inner cities who have been murdered. This is not the first time this has happened and unfortunately it will not be the last. They are leaving home, leaving behind the streets for a better life, but your friends are falling behind as you go. Jealousy sets in because this or that person didn’t survive, didn’t get a scholarship to college, and for some reason in the African-American community, this turns into hate or rage and leads to someone being killed for no reason; to get out of the city center.
Go away high school sports stars and never come back is my message to you! Everyone in your world is not happy about the success you have achieved. The unlucky ones who couldn’t play a sport or achieve anything in school are left behind with no future or no hope and many times they don’t want you to have a future of your own.
The haters feel that if they can’t have a future, then they, the haters, don’t want you to have a future either. It is very sad, but there is always that rotten element that seeks to bring you down because you are successful and move on in life; because you can go places and do things.
Go away, sportsmen, and never come back! If he does, someone from his hometown won’t be happy to see him back.
What happened to Lonnie Andrews, Jr. is just another sad and sick story about a promising high school athlete who got cut too soon and who was trying to do something with his life and too often you read or hear about this on television.
To all the star athletes in sports: once you’re ready to go to college, just walk away. Don’t tell anyone where you’re going and never come back.