Becoming an All-Star: Former opportunity youth and local basketball coach discusses how he became a team player for Newark youth

For Justin Hall, basketball is more than just a sport. It’s a metaphor for life—valuing perseverance, respect and support. And despite all blocks, Justin still has his head in the game. 

Even while facing adversity at his former schools, basketball has been a constant passion in Justin’s life. He’s played the sport since he was eight; but it wasn’t enough to keep unwanted labels off his back. Teachers regarded him as a student that was disruptive, rebellious, “didn’t like to listen” and “didn’t do work.” However, according to Justin, those labels came from a lack of understanding, rather than an unwillingness to participate. 

“I had [those labels] put on me because they wanted to make it seem like I was already a problem to start with. Creating the label takes the longest, but once it started, it just made it easier for people to perpetuate it,” he said. 

Justin entered his former school with high grades and would sporadically be on the honor roll, but due to a steady stream of suspensions, his grades began to suffer. He was once suspended from school the week after spring break for refusing to move to a different table after a teacher suspected that he would talk to the students around him while finishing a survey. 

“I moved when she told me to move the first time,” Justin said. “I didn’t give her [any] problems. So like what's the issue? I ended up getting five days for it.” 

By missing the first week of the third semester due to that suspension, he missed seven classes and received 35 zeros. Unfortunately, incidents like this would often lead to two, three and four-day suspensions for Justin. He started seeing suspension as a vacation from his teachers that acted more as opponents than team players in Justin’s support system—pushing him out of an environment that was meant to embrace him.

Justin started looking for other schools to attend and heard about LEAD Charter School, an initiative of Opportunity Youth Network (OYN), from a friend. He submitted his application in the summer of 2018 and enrolled that academic year. Justin immediately felt a difference in the experience and began to notice a shift in who he wanted to be. 

“Teachers at LEAD didn’t really push buttons with me because they understood where [we] were at,” said Justin. “They understood the kind of students they were around. That was the real difference—the respect factor.” 

A YouthBuild school by design, LEAD’s model supports the academic and non-academic needs of students who were previously disengaged through a curriculum that offers hands-on job training and an emphasis on social and emotional learning. Students are able to pursue various career pathways and can graduate the program with a high school equivalency or a high school diploma and an industry-recognized credential.

“Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), like YouthBuild, and many others throughout the state have been serving students like Justin for years,” said Robert Clark, Founder and CEO of OYN. “By reengaging young people who were not successful in traditional education settings, these CBOs can serve as a roadmap as we all seek to improve public systems and ensure they are meeting the needs of every student.”

While at LEAD, Justin pursued the technology career pathway. After receiving his CompTIA Information Technology Fundamentals certification, he attended Seton Hall University and studied sports management. Justin left college early for financial reasons, but was eventually redirected to coaching basketball and becoming a social and emotional learning coach at Phillips Academy Charter School in Newark. 

He never realized he wanted to work with youth until he became a father. Now Justin is a team player in other youth’s support systems—including his son’s. 

“Now since I had [my son], I feel like it’s one of those situations you could help somebody, give them parts of knowledge before they get to a certain spot, a certain part of their life. If you know you could stop a lot of stuff from happening then you should do it. So that’s all it was for me; just a matter of figuring that out.” 

As he looks to the future, Justin aspires to become a head coach for a basketball team. But for now, he’s helping Newark youth shoot for the stars and score.