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Our Carver Heights
Stallions History
In the
summer
of 1984, two men sat in Kennedy Park in Carver Village (now Carver
Heights) and watched a number of children play touch football. While
watching these talented children play football, these men, Gary
Crawford and Jerome Green, had a
vision – a vision to create an organization to help these children.
Having grown up
in the
Carver Heights community, Gary and Jerome were witnesses to sparks of
great athletic ability, as well as the enjoyment the young
people of the community experienced in their football games. They knew
that it was time to have the courage to do something to improve and
enhance these children’s experience with and enjoyment of sports.
After extensive talks and
collaboration between Gary and Jerome, they decided on a framework for
their organization and sought advice and assistance from the City of
Savannah. This planning led to Gary and Jerome going door to
door in
the community passing out fliers, announcing the first league
practice.
On August 1, 1984, the Carver Village Stallions conducted its first
organized football practice. The first practice
session
of the Carver Village Stallions had only nine children participating.
The small number of children did not discourage Gary and Jerome, but
sent them on a campaign to encourage other children to play.
In spite
of the fact that many of the community’s children already played with
teams, they were able to recruit four more children to join the team.
The Stallions began their first season with thirteen players and they
finished the season with a record of no wins and ten loses. These were
disappointing statistics, but the visions of the Stallions remained
alive.
With the 1985 football season approaching, the Stallions were not sure
how many children would show up for the team’s first practice. To their
surprise, twenty-three children were present for the season’s first day
of practice. With each passing year, more children joined the
organization.
While more children were
joining
the Stallion’s football team, more good men were also coming out to
help the team’s growth. Jerome Richards started the mighty-mite
program. Ronald Richards joined the Stallions and started the
basketball and track program. Johnathan Armstrong joined and started
the baseball program. Eventually, a few of the mothers got together and
started up the cheerleaders.
Today, the Stallions have grown from the original thirteen children in
a small local community, to a nationally recognized youth organization.
The Stallions now have five football teams (148 children); three
cheerleader squads (70 Children); two baseball teams (28 children); ten
basketball teams (101 children) and sixty children participating in the
track program.
The Stallions began with the vision of Gary Crawford and Jerome Green,
but it took the hard work and dedication on many good men and woman to
build this organization into one of the most exciting, enjoyable and
competitive youth organization, recognized not only in the city of
Savannah, but nationwide. And the vision continues…Over
the years the
Stallions athletes have visited Las Vegas NA, Memphis TN, Orlando FL,
Atlanta GA, Virginia Beach VA, Nassau Bahamas and many other places.
“Building
young boys and girls with
character”
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 The philosophy guiding The Stallions youth
development
programs-is that resilience and competency building are central to
helping youth navigate adolescence in healthy ways-provides the
groundwork for a promising and exciting array of programs for
adolescents.
Despite the number of programs or the importance of their
objectives, whether they promote healthy adolescent development remains
unclear because the definition of youth development programs is elusive
and evolving.
Drawing on both the literature and the results from a survey of highly
regarded youth development programs, this article examines 3 defining
characteristics of the youth development program-program goals,
atmosphere, and activities.
The results suggest a provisional definition of youth development
programs based on the prevalent aspects of the goals, atmosphere, and
activities reported by respondents. Youth development programs seek not
only to prevent adolescents from engaging in health-compromising
behaviors but to build their abilities and competencies.
They do this by increasing participants' exposure to supportive
and empowering environments where activities create multiple
opportunities for a range of skill-building and horizon-broadening
experiences.
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