FIRST PITCH: The Urgency of Now

   Three days before its first official day of practice, the Richmond High basketball team’s 2014-15 season began in tragedy. 

   Fixing a bike on his grandfather’s front lawn, 16-year-old Rodney Frazier was fatally shot in what has been reported as a gang-related case of mistaken identity. It was another senseless act in all-too-familiar cycle of inner-city violence — and not just in Richmond. 

   Berkeley High varsity boys basketball coach Mark DeLuca rents out his garage to Richmond coach Rob Collins. 

   “From inside my house I could hear him screaming and crying,” DeLuca said. “I immediately went to find out what was wrong and he told me ‘My point guard was shot and killed.’ That was Friday, it wasn’t until Sunday that he was really able to talk about it.”

   Collins is truly one of the good guys among the East Bay coaching community. He got into coaching to help kids, and left jobs at more affluent suburban schools to so that he could be work to be a positive force in the lives of students and athletes at Richmond High. 

   DeLuca has taught, coached and lived in West Contra Costa County for several years. In addition to his Berkeley coaching duties, he’s currently the Student Life Director at El Sobrante Christian High. He saw the pain his good friend was in and committed to making it a teachable moment.

   “That Sunday night I said, ‘Rob, we’re going to hold a peace rally. Rodney is not going to die in vain,’” DeLuca said.

   DeLuca said he fired off an email to Richmond Police Chief Chris Magnus at 8 p.m. on Sunday night. Magnus returned his call in just 20 minutes — on a Veterans Day weekend — and pledged full support for whatever DeLuca and Collins needed. From there, the coaching fraternity and basketball community took over. 

   A peace rally was set for Wednesday of that week at sunset on the steps of Richmond Auditorium in front of City Hall. And in just two days, the coaches had support and commitments from more than 10 high schools. 

   “It was amazing what they accomplished in just two days,” said De La Salle-Concord coach Frank Allocco who was one of three coaches to speak at the rally, along with DeLuca and Collins. “There was more than 500 people there, and it was almost all kids, coaches and parents. That was some amazing and powerful stuff.”

   Allocco’s speech touched on the wisdom and words for Anne Frank and Martin Luther King, referencing the latter’s phrase of recognizing the ‘urgency of now.’

   “Sometimes we look at these situations and think we can’t make a difference,” Allocco said. “But we can make a difference, it just hast to start with one single act at a time.”

   Rob Collins makes a difference. 

   The outpouring of support at the rally was as much of an act of respect for Collins’ efforts as it was a desire to honor another life which was taken much too soon.

   “Every time I have a conversation with Rob, I tell him he’s real deal,” Allocco said. “Because he is.”

   DeLuca, Collins and many of the other coaches who came to the rally are committed to continuing to make a difference. With help from Contra Costa County Sheriff’s department and other agencies, they are hoping to develop the Operation Athletics program. It will be a program that will send influential coaches from a variety of different sports to talk to gang members or kids who have been identified by authorities as at-risk youth. The hope is that the coaches can get these kids to put down their guns and pick up a ball. 

   “It’s not logical for a gang member to respect other people’s lives unless someone has shown them respect and kindness in their life,” DeLuca said. “Someone needs to show them that their life has value also.”

   Collins and his team are still grieving obviously, but what happened on steps of Richmond Auditorium on Nov. 12 certainly helped start the healing process.

   “We came together today to remember (Rodney Frazier),” Allocco said in his speech. “Let us leave today to honor him, committed to living the change we want to see.”

Watch the video of Frank Allocco’s speech at the Peace Rally for Rodney Frazier