In August 2010, I was walking in downtown Montreal and bumped into a good childhood friend that I had not seen in a while. I asked him how he was doing. “I’m wanted,” he told me. “I’m wanted”. That’s what you say when the police or criminals are after you. I found out later that he had dropped out of school and had turned to crime.
I remember that when I was a child, this friend had lived in an environment that would not always grant him the same opportunities that I benefited from. However, as a kid, he had enormous potential, and not only in sports. But he had no one to give him the support he needed. I am convinced that a good coach could have changed things, and not just for him, but for every kid with whom I grew up and went through similar things.
