Steven Keith, managing director, came on board with Beat the Streets Providence in the summer of 2016. Prior to joining Beat the Streets Providence, Keith volunteered with Beat the Streets San Francisco, serving as head coach of Aptos Middle School. As a two-time New York state wrestling champion and a member of the 2009 USA Wrestling All-Academic team, he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Beat the Streets Providence. Keith wrestled at Harvard University, where he was a four-time NCAA qualifier and an NCAA All-American in 2012.
PBN: Beat the Streets Providence is a nonprofit organization that uses wrestling to inspire youth of both genders to commit to their studies and prepare for a successful career later in life. Where did this idea come from?
KEITH: In the summer of 2013, after volunteering in the Junior Achievement Program at Gilbert Stuart Middle School in Providence, Brown University wrestler William Watterson founded Beat the Streets Providence and launched two coeducational after-school wrestling programs. At Gilbert Stuart, Watterson taught business and entrepreneurship, and as an exercise asked students what their dream job was or what business they would like to start. Students gave answers along the lines of “I want to work at the mall” or “the grocery store.” It was striking that ambition and lofty goals were gone at such an early age. Students were lacking self-belief and were missing role models believing in them, telling them they could succeed and be anything they wanted. Then Billy discovered there were no after-school sports in Providence middle schools and he immediately knew how to make a difference.
Following the model of other established Beat the Streets chapters in New York City and Philadelphia, Watterson launched Beat the Streets Providence and has positively impacted over 800 students in the Providence school district over the past four years.
PBN: How do you link wrestling with better performance in school and a more successful career?
KEITH: Beat the Streets Providence uses coeducational after-school wrestling programs as a hook to draw students into a positive after-school environment where they receive mandatory academic support, connect with strong mentors, engage in healthy physical activity, learn about health and nutrition and incentives to attend and succeed in school.
- The No. 1 way to succeed in school is to be in attendance, so in order to participate in practice or competitions, students must attend school. We also tie handing out wrestling gear to attendance. Students must attend a minimum of five practices to receive a shirt, and 10 practices to receive shorts. Both participating in practice and receiving gear have shown to dramatically improve student attendance rates.
- The first 45 minutes of every wrestling practice is used as mandatory homework time, which over the course of the season equates to over 30 additional hours of homework time for every student. Our coaches and staff are also in contact with the guidance department and teachers at each school to make sure students are progressing in their studies.
- Our wrestling coaches provide students with a strong adult mentor. Over the course of the season, students spend more than 200 hours with a positive role model between practices, competitions, bus rides and team-building exercises.
- Every practice is 90 minutes of wrestling instruction, giving students roughly 90 hours of additional physical activity throughout the season, not including competitions.
- We schedule guest speakers such as community members who share their stories, successes and growth experiences to help our students stay motivated.
- Overall, we’ve built a culture, program and atmosphere to help motivate students to build habits and resilience for success in life!
PBN: In February, which marked the organization’s second anniversary, Beat the Streets brought its second cohort of athletes to the state championships. How did that feel?
KEITH: The weekend of February 11-12, Beat the Streets Providence had over 50 students participate in the R.I. Principals’ Committee on Athletics State Championships. It was the organization’s second year participating in the competition and our students made some noise throughout the state with two state finalists and another 18 students placing in their respective weight class and earning All-State honors. Nathanael Greene Middle School finished in the Top 10 as a team and Del Sesto Middle School finished in the Top 20.
PBN: As a coach, of what player accomplishments are you most proud?
KEITH: It’s too difficult to choose the player accomplishments I am most proud of because there is such a wide range of accomplishments with our students. Students in our program are excelling athletically, academically, physically, socially and plenty more. But, the thing I am most proud of from the state championship weekend was seeing our Beat the Streets family support every student-athlete. Every Providence middle school student cheered on a fellow Providence competitor. It showed everyone in the state that we are Providence strong.
PBN: How can the greater Providence community get involved with Beat the Streets?
KEITH: Everyone and anyone interested in being a part of our organization is welcome and there are a number of ways the Greater Providence community can become involved:
- Become a coach: We are always interested in adding coaches to our program. The more role models students have doing hands-on work at wrestling practices and during homework time, the more likely we are to keep our retention rates high and have a larger impact.
- Come see a practice: Beat the Streets hosts practices throughout the year at the Davey Lopes Community Recreation Center (227 Dudley St. in Providence) on Monday and Thursday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m. The students always love having visitors during practice so they can showcase their hard work.
- Become a mentor: Our organization is always looking for strong community members to connect with our students. Mentors are paired with anywhere from one to four students and are expected to connect with students twice per month outside of wrestling and once per month at a practice.
- Be a guest speaker: Inspiring students to be whatever they want to be is an important component of our program. We love having successful individuals speak to our students about their life experiences, current occupation and more.
- Follow us on social media: Stay up to date on the great things our students are doing in school, life and wrestling by following us on social media.
- Donate to the cause: Visit our website, beatthestreetsprovidence.org, to make an in-kind donation or learn more about Beat the Streets Providence. You can also make donations by shopping with us on Amazon Smile.
Emily Gowdey-Backus is a PBN staff writer.
