Fast break to success

Photo by john larson

HOOP DREAMS. Michael Hankins observes a recent basketball practice of a team operating through his organization, Mentoring Our Children 2 Honor Academics (MOCHA).

Michael Hankins was in the sixth grade, attending Hunt Middle School, when Los Angeles street gangs arrived in Tacoma in the late 1980s. They showed up right when middle schools dropped their sports programs.

The two factors created a perfect storm for an explosion of gang activity. With no football team to turn out for at school, local boys had extra time on their hands. Older guys were rolling around with cars, clothes, jewelry – living a lifestyle fueled by profits from the crack cocaine trade.

“That really hit my generation hard,” Hankins recalled. “A large number of kids became victims of the streets.” More than 60 of his childhood friends are dead, casualties of drug and gang-related violence.

Hankins could have been one of them. He joined a set of the Crips gang. As a teenager the Crips blue competed for his loyalty with the black and gold of Lincoln High School, where Hankins played basketball for the Abes.

Just after his 18th birthday Hankins got nailed with a cocaine distribution charge that could have landed him in federal prison for 45 months. His court proceedings dragged on for six months. His girlfriend at the time (now his wife) had just given birth to their first son.

Sergio Armijo, the judge in the case, gave Hankins the biggest break of his life. He asked the young man if there was something different he wanted to do. Hankins said go to school.

Instead of prison, Hankins was off to school, first at Tacoma Community College, (TCC) then Central State University in Ohio.

And instead of rolling with the Crips, Hankins decided to help his community. “He (Armijo) did not have to worry about seeing me again from that day on.”

Hankins graduated and returned to Tacoma in 1996. He worked in late-night programs through Metro Parks. Dr. James Hammond, who was vice principal of Jason Lee Middle School, got Hankins a job doing youth outreach with Tacoma Public Schools. Four years later, when Hammond took a job with Bethel School District, Hankins followed, working five years there.

In 1998 he started Youth Creations, which organized activities for youth ranging from basketball to dance competitions. It operated for eight years.

Not long ago he was thinking of starting a new group, something more structured and focused. One night the word “mocha” came to him in a dream. The next morning he told his mother, who asked him what the letters stood for. A month later it came to him – Mentoring Our Children 2 Honor Academics (MOCHA).

Hankins is the executive director. The organization has a board of directors, a telephone number, an office on the way, and most importantly a mission to get youth to succeed in school and life.

The teenage Hankins did not have the background people may associate with gang members – a broken home and abject poverty. His mother has a master’s degree. His father was actively involved in his children’s lives and stressed the importance of education. He feels not all kids in gangs are from broken homes; they are surrounded by a broken environment, where drug dealers can have the highest paying job in the neighborhood and rappers on television glorify a materialistic lifestyle.

Markus Maceo, program manager for MOCHA, agrees. Growing up in South Seattle he got into some trouble in an environment full of drugs and gangs. Without caring mentors, he feels he would either be dead or in prison.

Now the gang life cuts across all socioeconomic classes, he noted. “We understand the importance of being role models for the community,” Maceo said. “That is why we pride ourselves on stressing academics, athletics and family.”

“MOCHA is the product of one person with a vision,” said Board President Sukara Grandberry.

MOCHA has three initiatives. Team MOCHA is the basketball component. MOCHA U is the mentoring component, while MOCHA Cross Train promotes health and wellness.

MOCHA Elite is a touring basketball team. This summer when it competes in tournaments, the team will visit the University of Southern California, the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Nevada Las Vegas. This fall when the players compete in Atlanta, they will visit Morehouse College and Spelman College.

“Whenever we have sports we tie it in with academics,” Grandberry said.

Regina Green said her late father Harold Dean Hankins, who passed away in January, instilled a deep love of sports in his four children. He played pro basketball in Germany, coached basketball at TCC and took his family to Tacoma Tigers (now Rainiers) games. “He was a sports fanatic. That was so important to him, sports and school.”

Her mother, Virginia Hankins, is on the board. She recently retired from a 30-year career in teaching.

Rashad Norris, outreach director at Highline Community College, is a long-time friend of Hankins.

He sees a crucial need for more programs like MOCHA that reinforce what schools are doing. “He takes athletics to a whole new level,” Norris said of Hankins.

This month MOCHA has held two fundraisers. One was a basketball game featuring pro and college stars, the other was a banquet. In attendance at the latter was Armijo. Hankins presented him with a plaque to acknowledge the second chance he got in that courtroom years ago.

Maceo and Hankins are busy applying for grants and seeking other funding sources. They have a base of operations at People’s Center on Hilltop, where a remodeling project is creating office space for their non-profit.

Hankins is also writing a book, “Inner-city Madness.” The final chapter will contain solutions to the problems he sees plaguing urban areas.

He is a success story from the streets, someone who turned his life around and is committed to helping the next generation. “A lot of negatives in my life created a lot of positives.”

For more information on MOCHA, call (253) 365-4813 or e-mail .

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