Signing a child up for a youth football or cheer program can cost $150 or more. For families in some neighborhoods, that price puts organized sports out of reach.

Kenneth “Coach Ken” Dickson is trying to change that. A West Side native who grew up in the Lincoln Courts, Dickson started the Westend Redwolves, a youth football and cheer league offered at no cost to families in San Antonio’s 78207 ZIP code.

“I was around gangs, drugs, all kinds of things that’s in high‑risk communities,” Dickson said. “At the age of 20, I ended up catching the charge. I ended up going to federal prison.” When he returned home, he said, he was “dropped right back into the same community I left from,” and had to make a choice about his future.

Dickson, who later took a job with violence‑prevention group Stan

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