In an individual’s life, there are a few things that are certain. Obstacles, death, and growth are subjects that will occur in an individual’s life. How individuals deal with each topic is the part that has uncertainty. Each person deals with these subjects in their own way. Some individuals cope and evolve while others crash and become stagnant. What do you think Kenneth Stephens Jr. a former college football player, now-teacher, Co-Founder, and COO of the sports media outlet New Era Prep did when he faced these subjects?

On Wednesday, December 29, 2010, Stephens could have decided to crash and burn, become stagnant, and not care anymore after the unexpected passing of his mother, Latanya Dawson. At 18 and just six months away from graduating high school, the person who gave birth to him, who cared for him, and who helped him get to that point in his life was gone. Stephens no longer had his mother physically present to talk to about his preparation for college or anything else that may have crossed his mind.

On that Wednesday morning, Dawson, who was on dialysis due to kidney failure, catheter popped out. According to Stephens, “with the combination of the catheter popping out and his mother using a blood thinner drug for her dialysis she essentially bled to death.”

“… the blood was shooting out so fast like a movie …,” said Stephens.

Stephens still calls his mother’s passing the toughest thing he has had to face. He described that period as a time he was pushed to the edge. Fortunately, Stephens had a support group (his family and high school) that helped him get through that tough time. During the interview, Stephens reflected on how his alma mater Boynton Beach Community High School forced him to get counseling:

“The high school I went to – Boynton High they all helped me. The staff. The administrators. They all gathered around me and made sure I had the proper services to get through that time. Although I didn’t want counseling because I felt like it wouldn’t help – it truly did help. And I am so grateful for Boynton High during that time period, they literally forced me to go to counseling. That helped me out tremendously with my mental state, how to push through, and do everything that I am doing now.”

After his mother’s passing, Stephens continued to go to school and prepare for college. He used sports to keep his mind off his mother. While at Boynton Beach HS, Stephens was a two-sport athlete: football and weightlifting. He was captain of both teams. Stephens excelled in both sports and as a senior earned Palm Beach All-Area honors in both sports (football and weightlifting). In addition, the 5-foot-5 defensive lineman played and was captain in the 2010-11 Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey, and Fronrath Law Firm All-Star Football Game in Palm Beach County. With a cumulative 3.5 GPA, decent SAT and ACT test scores, and good playing film, Stephens thought getting a scholarship to play division-1 football would be simple. However, this was not the case.

During Stephens recruiting process he received interest from schools across the nation. However, when National Signing Day occurred in 2011, the defensive lineman was not one of the athletes at Boynton High signing a national letter of intent to play for a college. Stephens was hurt by the experience.

Earlier this year before National Signing Day, Stephens wrote an article (for New Era Prep) to encourage overlooked high school athletes who would not be signing their NLIs on the big day that things would be okay. In the article, Stephens reminisced about his experience on National Signing Day. He even gave two examples of how two D-1 colleges (Bowling Green State University and Florida Atlantic University) met him and left without offering him a scholarship.

Although Stephens didn’t sign an NLI on National Signing Day or receive scholarship offers from the two D-1 schools that met him, Stephens eventually got to sign his NLI. On Wednesday, April 13, 2011, Stephens had three scholarship offers to choose from Miles College, Benedictine College, and Bethel University. With the help of his high school, Stephens received the opportunity to select the college he would sign his NLI to in front of his high school with his family in attendance. Stephens signed his scholarship with Bethel University. He became the first in his family to go to college.

While at Bethel, Stephens helped his team win back-to-back conference championships and got his Associates degree in General Studies. After his second year at Bethel, some coaching changes were made and Stephens felt it was time for him to leave. “I had an amazing time at Bethel and met some amazing people,” Stephens said. Making a leap of faith, Stephens applied to FAU and got accepted two weeks before classes started at the university in Boca Raton, FL.

Although Stephens left Bethel and got accepted into FAU based on academics, the then-junior wanted to continue playing football. During the fall of his first semester at FAU, Stephens tried out for the Owls football team. He did not make the team.

“I was probably too out of shape at that time and I probably wasn’t taking it seriously enough,” Stephens said while laughing.

After his first attempt and reflecting on all the obstacles he faced and overcame, Stephens tried out again for the football team in the spring. He made the team.

During his time at FAU, Stephens had to work his way up to the “top”. Stephens gained the respect of his new teammates and his position coach at the time (Terrance Jamison). As a defensive tackle, Stephens didn’t get much playing time because he played behind two future NFL nose guards (Trevon Coley and Brandin Bryant).

Attending school in his home county, the Boynton Beach native took advantage of the opportunity to network and made connections for his future after college. While at FAU, Stephens obtained his bachelor’s degree in Psychology and master’s degree in Educational Leadership.

After college, Stephens accepted a job offer from Santaluces Community High School’s Principal Tameka Robinson as a world history and African American history teacher.

“This is my first year teaching, actually… . It’s been great since I’ve been working here (Santaluces),” Stephens said.

As a teacher, Stephens enjoys seeing students’ light bulb go off during class discussions and also mentoring them. He loves and values that some students confide in him and come to him when they are having a bad day.

Stephens uses his experiences to help motivate and uplift his students. Being close in age with his students, Stephens knows he can relate to a lot of his students.

To some, Stephens is seen as a person who symbolizes perseverance. During the month of December last year, Stephens was homeless for two weeks. During this period, Stephens lived with some of his friends and would drive to Santaluces High with a backseat full of clothes. Stephens fell into a situation where he was unable to find an apartment to move into after his lease for his old apartment expired. Although Stephens’ living situation was one most would dread, he did not allow his situation to stop him from teaching, disciplining, and motivating his students.

When Stephens is not teaching at Santaluces High, you can find him covering a sporting event alongside his New Era Prep team: Xavon Christopher (CEO & Co-Founder), Naji Tobias (Chief Reporter and Community Relations Manager), Keith Forde (Chief Photographer and Multimedia Manager), and Jibril Stewart (IT Technician & Website Consultant).

New Era Prep is a sports media outlet based in Palm Beach County that covers high school (in the Palm Beach area) and college sports (in the South Florida area). Besides sports, N.E.P is also involved in academics and the community.

“We cover a range of sports dealing with high school and college. Our primary sports are football and basketball, but we do cover all sports …,” said Stephens. “Far as going into detail about what we do exactly at these games – mostly videography, photography, and journalism. We report on the games, stats, highlights, and we give updates on the overall games. Also, we may highlight certain players if they have a great story or something if we feel the community needs to know about.”

When asked why New Era Prep was created, Stephens stated: “… we want to make sure we cover these student-athletes and students the way we wished we were covered in high school … and get them to the next level.”