TAMPA — Fred Spencer's done a little bit of everything during his career in basketball. He famously shattered a backboard during a slam dunk attempt during his playing days at Troy State in the mid-90s. He played professionally in Europe before staring a coaching career that's taken him from youth programs to NCAA Division I. Now, he's leading an initiative to promote antibullying through sports.
Spencer coaches the Bay Area Basketball Hurricanes, a team comprised of 13-year-old boys from the Tampa Bay area. Spencer promotes core values along with the message of antibullying, and for him, it's personal.
"I’m dyslexic. So when I was in middle school- before I hit a growth spurt- I was getting teased and bullied a lot in my early days," said before practice. He wants his original love for sports to show through his coaching. "Once I started playing sports and I got popular in sports, all of that [bullying] went away. It just took me back. I’m like oh, okay, how can I bring that together?"
WATCH NOW: Local basketball coach promotes antibullying through sports
He wants to use his experiences as a player, coach, and parent to help him with his push for positivity.
"As a coach and a parent, you have people you can rely on as a resource before you go out and do something bad or just hold all of that in," Spencer said frankly. "It seems to be working so far."
"Everyone can get the anti-bullying message and learn basketball, discipline. How to be on the court and off the court," Hurricanes guard Braden Butler said. "That’s another thing that’s great about coach Spencer. He’s teaching us how to be good on the court, and respectful, and off the court. Like keeping up with our school work. He’s teaching us that’s really important."
Even the parents of Spencer's players say his overall message is getting through loud and clear.
"If those morals, and those values, and those teachings are reinforced with someone they look up to, someone they respect, someone they love- I think it’s easy for them to stick up for those kids they might see having a hard time," Frank Pomarico said before watching his son take the court. "It carries over, without question, to our children each and every day."
Fred's authored two books: "Anti-Bullying Through Sports" and "Bullying & The Brain - Mental Health Impacts." As someone who's beating dyslexia, Spencer joked that he has to get used to seeing a lot red ink from the editing pen of those who approve his books. But he calls it a labor of love, and he's hard at work on his third book.
"If I can do antibullying through sports, and I can put what I’m trying to do in every household, we pretty much will touch every inch of this nation because you’ve got athletes in every household," he added. Now he hopes more former players will follow his lead. "Kids that I started this program with, now they’re coming here to volunteer and help me coach. Some of them are coaching college basketball and giving back to their community. When I see that, it’s gratifying knowing that something you just created from scratch is actually working."
