Pubdate: Wed, 03 May 2006 Source: Midweek, The (IL) Copyright: 2006 The MidWeek Contact: http://www.midweeknews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3747 Author: Diane Strand Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) UP OFF THE MAT Former Boxer Alphonso Bailey Tells Sycamore Students About Beating The Opponent Known As Drug Abuse Several Sycamore students recently had an opportunity to listen to an inspiring message. Former amateur and professional boxer Alphonso Bailey visited Sycamore High School on April 21 to talk to the students about the dangers of drugs and alcohol and about the importance of following their dreams and accomplishing their goals. Bailey started his presentation by showing a clip of one of his boxing matches that was aired on the USA Network. He then talked to the students about his past experiences and how he overcame one of his toughest opponents, drug abuse. Bailey received a football scholarship to attend Kentucky State University; however, his life started to change while attending college. He said his father died during his sophomore year of college, which negatively effected his life, because he had a close relationship with his father. "He had a lot of influence in my life, and when he died, I didn't handle it right," Bailey said. "I had no one to talk to, and I felt like my father had deserted me." Bailey said, after his father's death, he began hanging around the wrong type of people and began using drugs and alcohol. He said he and his friends also began robbing stores and participating in other types of criminal activity. "Doing drugs will take you on another level that you don't know you're on. You think it's cool and everybody else is doing it, but don't get caught up in that...," Bailey said. "It's like a snowball effect. It keeps rolling and rolling and gets bigger and bigger. Before you know it, you're in a mess, and this is what was happening to me. I was constantly getting high." Bailey said he was eventually arrested one day during football practice. He said many of his teammates watched while he was being escorted into a squad car. "The cops came over, and they handcuffed me. I was embarrassed. The whole team was looking at me, because I was getting arrested on the football field," Bailey said. "They just put me in the car, and little did I know my life was going to change at that moment." Bailey was sentenced to 15 years in prison, 10 years in Kentucky and five years in Indiana. Bailey told the students that despite what might be portrayed on television, prison is not a glamorous lifestyle. "Prison is a place that I call where bad is considered good, and good is about as good as it's going to get...," Bailey said. "When I got there it was like a nightmare. Don't believe prison is all this stuff you see on TV, the glamour and the excitement. It's not like that. That's a lie. Prison is bad." While in prison, Bailey began reading the Bible and started to overcoming some his negative habits. "When I first got to prison, I cussed real bad. I could make people cry. I had a terrible mouth. So, I tried to stop cussing for an hour, then I stopped cussing for three hours. Sometimes, I stopped cussing for a day. Pretty soon, it was a week, then it was a month," Bailey said. "I was developing good habits. Habits can either make you or break you. They can make you strong or make you weak." Bailey said, eventually, he also overcame drug and alcohol use. "I just quit. I didn't want to do it anymore, because I looked at drugs as something that was taking control of me. I don't like anything having control over me," Bailey said. "Drugs take control of you, and they had me doing things you normally don't do and saying things you don't normally say." While in prison, Bailey became introduced to the sport of boxing. He said he was trained by another inmate named "Snake," who taught him the proper techniques of the sport. "'Snake' had two life sentences, but he was one of the greatest light heavyweights I ever met in my life," Bailey said. "He could hit real hard. This guy was bad, and nobody bothered with 'Snake.' He was tough, and he was my trainer, and he showed me all kids of tricks, and I got really good." Bailey began to fight as an amateur boxer while in prison. Two years and nine months into his sentence, Bailey was released from prison and sent to Louisville, Ky to train as an amateur boxer. "When you put positive things into positive things, you're going to get positive results, and I felt like I did a lot of positive things during that time in my life, which turned it around, and I got a lot of positive results," Bailey said. During his amateur career, Bailey participated in a national tournament in Indianapolis. Bailey said, even though he did not win the tournament, he defeated the top-ranked junior middleweight boxer in the country. He said, about two weeks after the tournament, a boxing magazine named him the number one junior middleweight amateur boxer in the country. "That was one of the most positive times in my life, because I remembered when I was leaving prison, I was telling the guys the next time they are going to see me is in a boxing magazine or fighting on USA or ESPN," he said. Bailey was named to the USA International Boxing Team about nine months after he was released from prison. He said competing on the USA team was a positive experience in his life. "We were fighting the Russians in Buffalo, New York, and they had our team in the middle of the ring with the American flag, and we were all holding the flag, and I started crying, and several guys on the team looked at me and said, 'Why are you crying?' I said, 'You guys don't know where I was nine months ago.' You're life could be going bad one day, and it could be going great the next," he said. Bailey later became a professional boxer. He ended his career with a 17-3-2 record with eight knockouts. Bailey told the students to follow their dreams and to never give up on themselves. "Keep dreaming. Keep your imagination growing. It's an awesome thing to have dreams, and always try to stay young," Bailey said. "I always try to stay young, because I know I'm always in a position to grow. Whenever you stay young, you're always in a position to grow." Bailey is currently an ordained minister in Indiana. He conducts presentations at schools, churches and jails throughout the country to encourage people to stay away from drugs and to make positive choices in their life. "This is my passion. This is my life," Bailey said. "I felt I was called to the ministry." Bailey recently completed a documentary about his life entitled "Down But Not Out." Bailey said he revisited the places where he grew up as a child and the prison in Kentucky while filming the documentary. "It brought back a lot of memories, and I had to relive that all over again," Bailey said. "Even by telling the story, I'm back there once again." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman