Twenty-five years ago, Rodney Cephas gathered a bunch of kids at Beacon House and told them he was forming a football team.

Since then, Cephas, who is the director of athletics and mentoring for the after-school education and youth development program, has had 10,000 kids take part in one of their athletic teams.

“We do basketball, girls and boys,” Cephas said. “We do sideline cheer, plus competitive cheer, baseball, T-ball. We’ve just started a pilot program track last year.”

Cephas made it clear that the kids, who range between 5 and 18 years old, are student-athletes and must maintain a certain grade point average to play on a team.

While Beacon House makes its home in Ward 5 at the Edgewood Commons housing complex, the 400 kids that take part in its programs come from all eight o

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