It is with the deepest sorrow that I inform our friends of the passing of Ms. Christina Whidden on Friday morning, April 4, 2008. As All Sports’ Director of Grants and Scholarships, Chris showed all of our students unconditional love and respect. Her presence and contribution to the All Sports Community family will be truly missed.

Her physical heart may have weakened, but her true heart, her inner soul, will always live on. Chris used her special gifts to inspire All Sports students to seek their educational potential and return to the community to help the next generation. She was truly dedicated to the belief that when you are helped, it is your privilege and responsibility to come back and give back. She was always thrilled when an All Sports graduate reached out to help at least one student of the next generation. Just last year, Chris encouraged two of our students, Gilbert and Sergio, to establish the Perez Brothers Scholarship. She beamed as she watched the ceremony and saw the smiles of the young people who received their awards. It is a tribute to Chris that her life touched so many young people in our community.

By Ernest Hooper
Times Staff Writer

TAMPA -- When T.J. Lewis stands before NationsBank employees in shirt and tie soliciting United Way donations, he looks little like "the kid" who used to play point guard at Gaither High.

Yet thanks indirectly to some United Way seed money, Lewis has grown in many ways since he completed his senior year at Gaither in 1993. You could argue the charitable organization never has made a smarter investment.

Lewis' full-circle story began when United Way gave Tyrone Keys the seed money to begin All Sports Community Service, a scholarship service for high school students that also promotes community involvement.

One of the first players Keys helped was Lewis, who averaged 17.8 points and became Gaither's second all-time leading scorer. Keys sent tapes of the ball-handler to Queens College and Lewis landed a scholarship with the Division II school in Charlotte, N.C.

"Some of your smaller schools don't have a recruiting budget," Keys explained. "They tend to look in the paper and see a guy averaging 18 points and they say, "We can get the same type of guy locally without paying out-of-state fees.' What they don't know is the character and leadership the guy is able to bring. Those are some of the things I try to bring out."

After two seasons as a reserve, Lewis broke into the starting lineup last season. One of five starters in double figures, Lewis averaged 11 points and four assists for Queens, which went 25-6 and made the Division II Sweet 16. The team captain, Lewis was given the Royal Award for academic and athletic leadership.

Tyrone Keys, who has made helping others his lifelong mission, returned last Saturday to his alma mater, Mississippi State University. Keys was honored for his work with All Sports Community Service, his Tampa-based non-profit organization that was featured in "Story of Character" television spots to commemorate the SEC's 75th anniversary.

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Albert Einstein once observed the condition of the world around him and remarked, “It is every man’s obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.” Tyrone Keys, the Founder and Director of All Sports Community Service, a 501(3)c organization providing opportunities for student/athletes to attain personal enrichment through higher education, may not be aware of Einstein’s words. Nevertheless, he has certainly lived them out in his life.

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The 2008 NFL ALUMNI SUPER BOWL RAFFLE is here! For $100.00 you will get a chance to win a 5day/4night hotel stay, round trip airfare to Arizona, 2 tickets to the game and 2 tickets to the NFL Alumni’s Player of the Year Awards Dinner.

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From their mother, Flora Curley, a nurse, Gilbert and Sergio Perez learned to balance their lives between athletics and academics.

From their father, Gilberto Perez, a carpenter, the brothers learned the value of hard work and never taking anything for granted. 

Sean Farrell, the new Managing Director for the Merrill Lynch Tampa Complex, presented the 2007 Success In Education Award to Tyrone Keys during a community event on March 15 at Higgins Hall.  The inaugural event, titled Success In Education:  A Look At Our Future, gave local universities an opportunity to showcase themselves to the business community, alumni associations and honor roll students from Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk County.  A representative from Saint Leo University, the University of Tampa and the University of South Florida spoke about The Year 2010, and the advantages of staying in Tampa for their college education as well as their careers.

To our donors and friends:

After retiring from pro football, I had to have three surgeries: back, knee, and shoulder. But before I could have these surgeries I had to have several EKGs, tests that check the heart’s function. After that I was ordered to have a heart catheterization. Everything checked out fine. But it was during this stressful time that I was given a book called The Heart’s Code, by Paul Pearsall. Pearsall said, “Our ancestors knew that the heart had powerful energy and that it conveyed deep wisdom. However, as the human species developed its brain, it began to lose sight of its heart.” I wondered to myself if this had happened to me. Playing football and reaching the ultimate pinnacle of my career in Super Bowl XX, I knew I had reached a dream. But I began to see that was only a portion of what I was. I had achieved a physical goal, but now I was seeking the connection to my soul, my real purpose in life. I began to get involved in programs in housing projects and the Juvenile Detention Center, as well as a program in the suburbs.

The Super Bowl often is touted as the ultimate event in sports. But for 46-year-old Jackson native Tyrone Keys, who helped the Chicago Bears win Super Bowl XX, football's biggest game served more as a means to an end.

Jenkins, once Keys' coach at Callaway, directing 15 young men in 'Gentlemen's Quest'

Non Profit Group Helps Community 

TAMPA - Louisville senior J.R. Russell is projected to be one of the top receivers in the nation this year, but he was barely recruited out of Gaither High. Russell led Gaither with 34 receptions, 465 yards and nine touchdowns as a senior. He al-so led the Cowboys to the sec-ond round of the region play-offs.

The odds seemed against her. Kylie Moord and her brother were being raised by a single mom who was a teacher's aide and then worked a second job so she could provide for her children. But Kylie dreamed of going to college. "I knew early on how important that piece of paper was. My Mom, whom 1 admire so much, worked low-paying job. 1 knew 1 would get there though, even if 1 had to sit outside the classroom door."

Why you might know him: In the 80’s Keys was a defensive end for the ’85 Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears, the San Diego Chargers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

The Mike Alstott Football Camp for Kids takes place for 4 days in Tampa and 4 days in St. Petersburg. Kids from 8 to 17 learn football skills and get to personally meet Mike Alstott. Each year All Sports Community Service selects young men who are now successful college players to teach alongside the Camp's college coaches. This allows young people to see what can be attained with hard work and a good attitude. It also helps remind the youth that college is the stop between adolescence and the pros.

Growing up in poverty and an area of high crime, Todd Williams lost his mother, who he barely knew, at a young age. His grandmother, who cared for Todd and was the love of his life, passed away when he was only 14. In addition, he lost his father during that same time. Homeless, with no place to stay and no one to turn to, he took to the streets of Miami where he lived in a car and stole food to survive. When boredom set in, he returned to the area where he grew up, stole a car and was arrested. That's when fate invented and he was introduced to All Sports Community Service. With a strong will and desire to fulfill the promise he made to his grandmother, he graduated from high school, attended Florida State and graduated with two degrees - one in Psychology and one in criminology. Recently, he returned to Tampa where he spoke to the young men in the same halfway house where he once lived.

All Sports Founder and Director Tyrone Keys has had a storied career in football, both as a collegian and as a professional career was climaxed as a member of the Super Bowl Shuffle-winning Chicago Bears, and recently he was inducted into the Hall of Fame at his alma mater, Mississippi State University.

Todd Williams, 23, spent two years living on the streets during a crime-filled youth. At 14 he met All Sports Community Service director Tyrone Keys at the Leslie Peters Halfway House in Tamp and began to turn his life around. Now a senior offensive tackle for Florida State University, Williams dreams of playing pro football - and more.

Four years ago, a tall, lanky student graduated from Hillsborough High School and headed north to college, leaving behind the Robles Park Housing Project where he had grown up, a place surrounded by drugs, violence, and hopelessness. "I'm glad to see anyone make it out of this neighborhood, "one neighbor said to a Channel 8 reporter covering the story.

A decade ago, Albert Perry, a young athlete from a tough inner city neighborhood in Tampa, Florida, was headed to Texas Southern University. Few doubted that this thousand-yard rusher would one day play collegiate football. But a few weeks after the fall semester began, something went wrong and Albert was back home.

Tyrone Keys wanted to give something back. He had just about everything an athlete could ask for. He played during a winning era at Mississippi State. He played on the 1980 team that beat #1 Alabama in Jackson, his hometown. He went on to a nine-year pro football career, including a stint with the Super Bowl Champion 1985 Chicago Bears.

Former NFL star and current Executive Director and Founder of All Sports Community Services, Tyrone Keys, spends endless days and time helping local high school athletes reach the collegiate level, especially those who possessed marginal talent or weren't offered a scholarship. His track record reads of nothing but success with these young men once they've reached college and follows their progress up until the time they graduate and either go on to a professional sports career, or enter the world of business.

When T.J. Lewis stands before NationsBank employees in shirt and tie soliciting United Way donations, he looks little like "the kid" who used to play point guard at Gaither High.

When a limousine cruises through a housing project, it usually represents and ending. The sight of a long black car with multiple doors is most often associated with funeral processions.

The story of Nathan Peoples isn't that uncommon, but he is.

Peoples, 6-foot-2, 218 pounds, is a heralded linebacker for Armwood who had every reason to believe his future was with a Division I school. For as long as he can remember, the advice has been the same: practice hard, play well, make good grades, do well on the college entrance exam and a scholarship will be yours.

I was born 21 years ago, the first of three boys to the proud parents, Shelton and Johnnie Ruth Keys. My parents graduated from Alcorn University. So from day one all I heard was education and going to college. My mother is a typing teacher; although I am not the best typist in the world, I do type a little. My father, who is retired now, was formerly a Farmer Home Administration Appraiser.