Mojave’s ‘Smart’ move a first for Nevada teams

Nick Christensen

Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004 | 10:13 a.m.

Gregory Beasley was just looking for money for his school's football program when he stumbled upon something worth infinitely more.

A Mojave High School math teacher and assistant coach for the Rattlers, Beasley spent much of the early postseason searching for grants to help out financially, and after some research, he found the perfect candidate.

"We saw 'Play it Smart,' and I showed my principal. We put the application together, kept doing follow-up, and got it," Beasley said.

It was late March when the application went in to the program, run by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. In mid-August, three weeks before the start of the school year, the school was accepted for the program that would change the way things are done academically at Mojave High.

Head coach Tyrone Armstrong had already established a study regimen, but the school's acceptance to "Play it Smart" took preparing for life after football, after high school, to the next level.

Jabari Moore, a Rutgers sociology graduate who was a linebacker for the Scarlet Knights, is the team's academic coach, a counselor just like college football teams have. Mojave is the first school in Nevada to have such a program.

Moore works all afternoon checking up on students' academic performance, helping with SAT and ACT preparation, and serving as an informal counselor for academic advice.

It also frees up time for Armstrong to focus on football, instead of checking up on grades or academic progress. Mojave players are required to spend four hours per week in study hall, a requirement Armstrong established last season. If they don't put in the four hours, they'll be benched for that week's game. Students also must submit weekly academic progress reports for all their classes to Moore.

The study hall isn't all books and worksheets. A couple of students chat quietly on their cell phones, others doodle on notepads. Armstrong occasionally blows his whistle and threatens laps or pushups when the chatter gets too loud.

But with all of the varsity, junior varsity, and freshman team players in the school cafeteria at the same time, the majority take advantage of the opportunity to focus on their schoolwork, and teachers use the study hall as a chance to find a student who needs extra work before a minor academic problem becomes a major one -- and a cause for academic ineligibility.

The study session is also a key opportunity for students to get ahead in classes, being prepared for the next class instead of playing catch-up all through football season.

Moore, who while at Rutgers knew "Play it Smart" director Jim Presbrey, went to a short seminar in Massachusetts before coming to Las Vegas to work with the Rattlers.

Not only does he try to prepare the players to get into college, he also gets them ready for the realities once they're there.

"The biggest thing I tell them is when you get to the college level, there's money for tutors ... you have all the opportunities to succeed in college," he said.

Mojave quarterback D.J. Tilche, a senior who had already taken the SAT, said he noticed that his grades dropped off last year after the football season and the study hall ended.

Armstrong said that the addition of "Play it Smart" is designed to try to curb the drop-offs.

"We find a lot of kids that in football season do a great job, and after football season tend to go awry," he said.

And, even if the team isn't as strong as it could be with an extra hour of practice, Armstrong said the higher grades are a trade he'll take.

"We want to win on the football field, and we want to win in the classroom," he said. "I'll take a win wherever I can get it."