Isaiah Foskey flexing next to trainer Mori Suesue at Malu Fitness in Antioch. photo by Marcus Malu

By Luke Johnson

Isaiah Foskey, an eighth grader at Holy Rosary Catholic School, was offered a football scholarship from University of Kansas on Thursday, May 21.

“I didn’t believe it at first,” his father Terry Foskey said. “I thought he might have been too young, but as I researched on Google, I’ve seen people even younger than that who have received offers. This whole ordeal is new to me. My wife and I are really excited about it.”

Isaiah stands at six feet, two inches and weighs in at a chiseled 190 pounds at only 14 years of age. On top of that, he is able to squat three reps of 275 pounds.

When he attended school the day following his offer, fellow students took pictures with and flexed their arms to mimic the photo attached to this article that trended on social media. They also pretended to hold a microphone up to his mouth and interview him as if they were members of the press.

Foskey last played for East County Youth Football at tight end and defensive end, where he collected nine touchdown receptions and caused seven forced fumbles in 12 games according to him and his father. In high school, he plans to play for De La Salle in Concord, which has arguably the most illustrious high school football program in the country.

When asked where this scholarship offer ranks among Foskey’s other accomplishments in sports, he deferred to an academic achievement and said this compares to a certificate he received for having a GPA above 3.5.

“When I go to De La Salle I just wanna keep my grades up and play well in football,” Foskey said.

Foskey does not have to accept the offer from KU right away. He actually has to wait until February of his senior year, in 2019 to sign his letter of intent to whichever college he chooses.

Erica Wagoner, discussing college scholarships with ILSP Program Coordinator, Don Graves.

One Face, One Bright Future: Tomorrow night, 18 year old Erica Wagoner from Pittsburg, and 85 other teens will take the next big step into adulthood, as they graduate from Contra Costa County’s Independent Living Skills Program (ILSP). For Erica, graduation will come with at least $1,500 in scholarships. While she’s not certain about a college major, she is confident, she’ll advocate for foster youth like herself, “You want foster youth to succeed after what they’ve been through”, she says, knowing what that really means.

Erica was 16 when her home life became less than stable, and she moved in with friends. Her brother and sisters went to live in other homes. Nothing was secure in her life; until she started attending the ILSP Program in Martinez. Here she says, she found, “People to trust. Even if you don’t think you need help, they know how to help.”

In its 27th year in Contra Costa County, with funding from the Federal Government and reliant upon community donations; ILSP prepares foster youth for their future, with life and employment skills training, money management and cooking classes, and provides them with the guidance to map their futures by going to college or a job training program.

June 16th, at Centre Concord, $65,000 in scholarships will be awarded; one more way ILSP is living up to its motto, “We deal in futures.”

Unified Basketball League game between Heritage High and Antioch High. photo by Michael Pohl

By Luke Johnson

Antioch and Deer Valley High School, along with Pittsburg High, have joined the three schools from the Liberty Unified High School District to become a part of a unified basketball league. This program, in conjunction with Special Olympics, is the first in Northern California.

Last year, Freedom High (Oakley) Athletic Director Steve Amaro helped develop a unified basketball league for the LUHSD, and the in-game atmosphere was electric and exceeded expectations.

“It was a full gym,” Amaro said about the first game of last season. “It was amazing… It became more of an event than I ever expected.”

Amaro invited Antioch High Athletic Director Ferris Anthony to a game and he immediately fell in love with it, and was on board for incorporating it on to his campus.

“I came back to the athletic directors‘ meeting and said, ‘Count Antioch in!’” Anthony exclaimed. “They were all looking at me like, ‘What? What?’ I said, ‘We’re in, man. This is something we wanna do. This is a great thing.”

Team rosters are formed by unifying life skills students with regular education students. What this does, is make life-skills students feel they are apart of the school and creates bonds with regular education students.

“They see me around school and say, ‘Hey, whats up?’ And that makes me feel real good, because they see we are also people in life, so we can also do what they do, but differently,” Deer Valley unified basketball player Jesus Guerra said to MaxPreps.

This program is currently growing, and has already caught the attention of the Mount Diablo Unified School District along with middle schools in Brentwood. Unified sports in the Bay Valley Athletic League has already expanded to include bowling in the fall and will have an undetermined athletic competition in the winter. This, like many other incredible things, is expected to catch on like wildfire.

“It felt real good. I never thought I was going to do this in my life,” Guerra said after a game against Pittsburg.

The Antioch High Unified Basketball Team. photo by Michael Pohl

Safe-Driving Video Wins Two Awards in National Competition, Students Will Receive $12,500 and Behind-the-Scenes Trip to Velocity Network Show Taping

Silver Spring, Md. (May 11, 2015) – Toyota and Discovery Education announced today that  Jordan Bjorklund, Daniel Harte, Joseph Salazar and Karina Vazquez – students at Antioch Unified School District’s Deer Valley High School– triumphed over 1,000 entrants from across the country to be named winners in the annual Toyota TeenDrive365 Video Challenge. The four teens from Antioch created a video on the importance of driving safety which has won both third place and the People’s Choice Award in this national competition.

Now in its fourth year, the Toyota TeenDrive365 Video Challenge, a key component of an ongoing partnership between Toyota and Discovery Education, invited teens across the country to create short videos to inspire their friends to drive more safely and avoid risky behavior behind the wheel.

The team from Antioch was chosen as third place winners by a panel of judges at Toyota and Discovery Education, netting them a prize of $7,500. In addition, the students’ video was named the ‘People’s Choice Winner’ through an online public vote, garnering them an additional $5,000 cash prize and a behind-the-scenes trip to a taping of a Velocity network show. You can view their winning video here.

“We loved how this PSA addressed driving safety with creativity and a clear-eyed view of the distractions that face drivers of all ages,” said Michael Rouse, president of the Toyota USA Foundation. “We offer the team our heartfelt congratulations and are proud to help share their vision for encouraging other teens to drive more safely.”

“The TeenDrive365 initiative addresses the need to keep students safe on the road by providing engaging digital resources and experiences that encourage smart choices behind the wheel,” said Bill Goodwyn, President and CEO, Discovery Education. “We are honored to stand alongside Toyota in congratulating Jordan, Daniel, Joseph and Karina and the rest of this year’s winners for their creativity, innovative thinking, and dedication to positively influencing the behavior of their peers.”

The Toyota TeenDrive365 Video Challenge, which was recently named a winner in the annual Communitas Awards, is one component of Toyota and Discovery Education’s TeenDrive365: In School initiative, a comprehensive program offering a range of tools designed specifically for school educators and teens.

The program is part of TeenDrive365 (www.teendrive365.com), Toyota’s comprehensive initiative to help parents model safer driving behaviors for their children. Building on the programs and resources Toyota has offered for more than a decade, the program offers a collection of online tools, events, expert advice and tips as well as social media elements.

About Toyota

Toyota, the world’s top automaker and creator of the Prius, is committed to building vehicles for the way people live through its Toyota, Lexus and Scion brands.  Over the past 50 years, Toyota has built more than 25 million cars and trucks in North America, where it operates 14 manufacturing plants and directly employs more than 40,000 people.  The company’s 1,800 North American dealerships sold more than 2.67 million cars and trucks in 2014 – and about 80 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 20 years are still on the road today.  Toyota partners with philanthropic organizations across the country, with a focus on education, safety and the environment. To date, Toyota has contributed more than $700 million to American nonprofit groups. For more information about Toyota, visit Toyota.com/USA.

About Discovery Education

Discovery Education is the global leader in standards-based digital content and professional development for K-12, transforming teaching and learning with award-winning digital textbooks, multimedia content that supports the implementation of Common Core, professional development, assessment tools, and the largest professional learning community of its kind.  Available in over half of all U.S. schools and primary schools in England, community colleges and in 50 countries around the world, Discovery Education partners with districts, states and like-minded organizations to captivate students, empower teachers, and transform classrooms with customized solutions that accelerate academic achievement. Discovery Education is powered by Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK), the number one nonfiction media company in the world. Explore the future of education at www.discoveryeducation.com.

Contra Costa County Supervisor Federal Glover’s Youth Summit is this Saturday, May 9th at Pittsburg High School in Pittsburg from 8-4.

Join KMEL Lady Ray and our keynote Speaker Shaun Derik for an amazing day. Workshops will be offered to help the youth find jobs, improving relationships, CPR, leadership, making a difference, having a healthier lifestyle, and video/photography skills are also available. Free breakfast and lunch will be provided, along with airbrush tattoos and manicures. Come see the latest Dance Offs as all Middle through high school students are welcome. You may qualify to receive an All summer Tri DeltaTransit bus pass by just showing up. Again, It’s all FREE. Visit D5YouthSummit.com for more information!

Glover represents District 5 on the Board of Supervisors, which includes a portion of Antioch.

Katia Williams

By John Crowder

Katia Williams, a 17-year-old senior at Deer Valley High School, who is an Advanced Placement (AP) scholar and ranks in the top 1% of her class, was recently named as a recipient of a National Achievement Scholarship.

The National Achievement Scholarship Program, part of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, was established as an academic competition in 1964. It provides recognition for outstanding Black American high school students. Students qualify for the program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). More than 160,000 competed for the award last year, and Katia was one of only 700 students across the nation to receive one of the $2500 scholarships awarded.

The prestigious award is only one of several that Katia has garnered for her academic endeavors as far back as her fourth grade year, when she won the school spelling bee at Jack London Elementary School and went on to reach the semifinals in the Contra Costa County Spelling Bee.

Since then, her awards have extended beyond academics. Through the years she has received numerous awards at the Contra Costa County Fair for her creative writing. Katia also sings with the Deer Valley High Show Choir and dances with the high school’s Dance Crew.

More recently, Katia and her science partner, who are both taking AP Calculus AB and AP Physics this year, placed third in the Contra Costa County Science and Engineering Fair, for their project, “Simple Calculus: The Transformation of an Oxymoron into a Reality.” The project, entered in the Math and Computer Science Category, was selected to advance to the California State Science Fair. Established in 1952, the fair will be hosted this year at the California Science Center in Los Angeles on May 18 and 19. Katia will be one of over 1,000 students competing for over $50,000 in prize money at the event.

Katia does not spend all her time on academic pursuits and art competitions, however. Last August, she traveled to Honduras on a mission trip and helped build seven homes, distributed food to the poor, and assisted in a medical clinic. She is also a camp counselor for underprivileged children and children from foster care. This last Easter, she could be found at Shepherd’s Gate, a shelter for battered women and children, serving a traditional Easter meal.

Katia has applied to, and been accepted at, all four of the University of California schools to which she sent an application; no surprise given her list of accomplishments and her 2060 SAT score (which places her in approximately the 97^th percentile of all students taking the test). Her plan is to attend either UC Berkeley of UCLA in the fall, and to major in Statistics. She would like to pursue a career in Data Science.

While she may not have settled on a choice of school, one thing is certain: Katia will continue to achieve success wherever she goes, and DVHS can take pride in this soon-to-be alumna.

Dallas Ranch Middle School Boys and Girls 2015 Tournament Champion soccer teams. Photo by Michael Pohl.

By Luke Johnson

Dallas Ranch Middle School dominated in the Antioch Unified School District Soccer Tournament. In the championship matches, the girls defeated Antioch Middle 7-0, while the boys succeeded Black Diamond Middle 4-0, on Saturday, March 21st.

In five matches of the tournament (four round robin and one final), the Aviators boys and girls only allowed their opponents to score one goal each. They were led defensively by keepers Bryan Cruz (27 saves) and Juana Mendoza (22 saves). Cruz is one of the top ranked goalies in California among all 8th graders, according to coach Conrad Diaz.

Eli Orocio on his way to score one of his three goals. Photo by Michael Pohl.

Offensively the girls were boosted by Sarah Figueroa and Tatiana Elsea, who had seven goals and five assists apiece; while the boys were propelled by Elias Orocio and Gustavo Perez, who both had three goals and three assists. Figueroa performed a hat-trick by scoring four of her goals in the championship match. Overall DRMS outscored its opponents 19-1 for the girls and 12-1 for the boys.

Diaz, who coaches both teams and just won his first championship in his three-year tenure, said the biggest victory this season did not happen on the field but in the classroom. Earlier in the school year, six players had a 0.5 GPA and were ineligible. But all of them found encouragement in playing soccer and brought up their grades to over a 2.0, some over 2.5, to compete this season.

“This school was blessed with good players,” Diaz said. “They were enthusiastic about getting their grades up, and they were self-motivated… That is my success story; not the trophies. The trophies are great, and all that, but getting those six students to realize that academics are first, and that’s their future.”