Lifestyle & Culture Sports
Schooling youth in life and the game
By Bradmond Lee-Harewood
In 2005, Jamel Wright founded the Harlem Jets, hoping to create an opportunity for his son and other inner city children to grow and develop on and off the football field.
“I wouldn’t have known it was 20 years if someone else hadn’t told me,” Wright said. “The work is just that important.”
For those two decades, the team’s motto and slogan has been “Jets Equal Total Success,” meaning players must strive to excel athletically, academically and socially. Jets leaders also have offered tutoring, college prep and social and emotional learning to kids who’ve come through the program. Some have gone on to become professional athletes, doctors, lawyers and teachers and hold various other occupations.
“The beauty of our program is that I think we’ve done an amazing job at developing good character guys,” Wright said. “We establish what the standards and expectations are and we hold our guys accountable, giving [them] the tools in [their] toolbox to accomplish the mission.”
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, two yellow school buses transport 100 five- to 13-year-old athletes to Randle’s Island Park for practice. “Everywhere else, the community makes sure the kids have a safe place to play. But, unfortunately, here in Harlem — because there are so many things going on — we have to turn [that] little patch of grass into heaven,” Wright said.
“We’re able to accomplish so much with so little.”
Jamal Wright Jr. is the Jets’ vice president. “My father always preaches excellence and doing things to the best of your ability,” said the younger Wright, who is pursuing a New York University master’s degree in sports business. “More so than a business or a football team, it’s really our legacy.”
Harrison Donaldson is a Jets alum, who joined the team when he was seven years old.
“I got a lot of brothers out of this,” said Donalson, a 2025 Howard University graduate, who now coaches Jets 7 years old and younger. He took the position so he could give today’s youth athletes some of what the Jets gave him.
“We’re trying to get kids to see what they can be, maximize their potential and give them the tools to really do the best that they can do,” Donaldson said “There [are] certain characteristics that you won’t just take onto the football field, but that you’ll take into the office, into the classroom, in every aspect of life.”
But the players he works with are some distance from that. Right now, they act their age. “They’re complaining, crying, asking to use the bathroom, all that type of stuff,” Donaldson added.
“But I see the future for these kids. I know that as long as these kids trust the process, continue to listen to us [coaches] and their parents, do well in school, they’re going to turn out better than I did.”
Dwayne Seabrooks’ 10-year-old son, Daniel, joined the Jets last fall.
“I like the way they show the kids how to prepare for a game and to prepare for life,” the father said. “[Daniel’s] played for other organizations before, but we came here and he looked around and said, ‘Dad, this is home, this is where I want to be.’ It made me feel very very proud and comfortable bringing him here.”
His son has a real affinity for his teammates. And the coaches are positive, influential role models.
That “perfect fit” keeps Daniel at ease as he enjoys playing quarterback and linebacker, scoring and stopping touchdowns, while celebrating the game he loves.
As a father, does Dwayne Seabrooks see how this program is helping to shape his son, a boy who eventually will become a man?
“Absolutely,” he said. “Absolutely.”