'Magic' speaks to students

Valentino Willis brings message of respect and wholesome fun to assemblies in Gentry schools

Gentry High School students Suzie Sikes and Kendra Pettit are pictured with Harlem Swish Captain "Magic" Valentino Willis at an anti-drug school assembly on Aug. 24. Willis encouraged students to respect parents and teachers and to refuse alcohol and drugs.

Gentry High School students Suzie Sikes and Kendra Pettit are pictured with Harlem Swish Captain "Magic" Valentino Willis at an anti-drug school assembly on Aug. 24. Willis encouraged students to respect parents and teachers and to refuse alcohol and drugs.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

— With a message of respect your police officers, listen to your parents and teachers and say no to drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, Harlem Swish Captain "Magic" Valentino Willis drove home his message with humor, fun and basketball tricks when he visited Gentry Schools last week.

“Talk to your police officers,” he said. “They are there to help you.”

"Listen to your teachers, your principal and your coaches," he told the students, "because they love you just like Mom and Dad love you.”

“You are the future of the world,” he told students, encouraging them to respect their teachers and study hard.

Again and again he asked students for their response to alcohol, drugs and cigarettes, encouraging them to say and gesture “No.”

Are you going to listen to your parents, teachers and principal, he asked, urging them on to respond with a resounding “Yes.”

Willis kept students interested in his serious message with humorous basketball stunts and tricks.

"You can't do tricks like this if you're on drugs,” he told students. “Alcohol causes brain damage. Cigarettes cause cancer. Drugskill. No drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes!" he had students repeat after him.

He recounted to students what happened in the drug-related death of Len Bias.

"He was 6'7', could do all the tricks, he could do anything with a basketball. He never drank. He didn't smoke. He never did drugs," Willis told the students. "He left the University of Maryland and was drafted by the Boston Celtics, but he went to a party and someone offered him drugs and he’s no longer with us."

Willis involved students, teachers and school staff in his humorous act to encourage students to promise they would avoid drugs and listen to their parents and teachers.

Willis is the captain of the Harlem Swish, a comedic basketball team that performs at anti-drug rallies throughout the country. He was drafted by the New Jersey Nets and played in the Eastern Professional Basketball League where he averaged 25 points a game.

Since leaving professional basketball, he turned his attention to helping children and conducts basketball clinics and participates in the Special Olympics. Willis has taken his anti-drug and alcohol message across the country by repeating his act at school assemblies around the country.

Sports, Pages 10 on 08/31/2011