05/20 — On Tuesday afternoon, we caught up with Kenyon Coleman and discussed his recent 13-day trip to the African nations of Burundi and Uganda. The Coleman feature is live on newyorkjets.com, but we thought you’d also be interested in some information we gathered from Oakland Raiders team chaplain Adam Ybarra.

Coleman, who is a starting defensive end for the Jets, originally met Ybarra more than six years ago when the Raiders selected KC in the fifth round of the 2002 NFL Draft.

“Since then we’ve been connected, as far as our hearts, towards young folks,” Ybarra told me. “We’ve done projects since his first year, which was 2003.”

Founder of The Tenacious Group, Ybarra works to empower students to discover their life purpose and help them achieve success through a six-week curriculum he calls Rising Expectations Standards and Honor (RESH 180). His organization also offers “Take a Stand” assemblies at schools.

At each Super Bowl, Coleman joins Ybarra’s group and they visit the host city's schools throughout the week. If the Jets aren’t playing in Tampa next February, Coleman will still be booked for a full week of action.

“We go there with a team of about 10 of us and we’re there for one week. We line ourselves up at two to three schools a day,” Ybarra said. “We do these one-hour assemblies with them, challenging the students to take a stand in their purpose, education and community.”

Ybarra believes the same messages that he and Coleman preach in the United States will be just as relevant in Africa.

“Our message is of helping young people discover their purpose, to give them the tools to think broader of themselves and not to allow your environment to dictate to you who you are or your potential and your future,” he said.

In addition to providing some basic necessities to children at two Ugandan orphanages, Ybarra and Coleman want to educate the youth. Aid is welcomed but as Coleman says, “They want to learn how to fish.”

“In the short term we want to provide some necessities, and then we’re going to train all of their staff in RESH 180,” Ybarra said. “All of the students in that school will go through the program. We’ll train their staff and then we’ll monitor the staff with the students.”

There’s one final note to this story and it tells us a lot about Chad Pennington. Before Coleman embarked on his African mission, CP approached his teammate and offered substantial assistance for both Burundi schools and for a new wing at a Uganda hospital.

“Chad kind of came up to me and said, ‘Hey man, I want to bless you guys for the trip.’ He wrote a check for a pretty substantial amount,” Coleman said. “Our goal was $50,000 and we ended up raising $65,000.”

Pennington, who started the 1st and 10 Foundation back in 2003, in a sense pushed Coleman past the finish line and that’s why he’s considered such a great teammate.