By Mike Hogan
Sports Editor
Welcome to East St. Louis, Illinois, one of America’s crime-plagued cities, commonly found at the top of “Most Dangerous Cities in America” lists. It is also the city that St. Bonaventure men’s basketball star Courtney Stockard calls home.
On the border of Illinois and Missouri in the shadows of the St. Louis Arch, the crime rate in the city of East St. Louis is 80 percent higher than the national average. The city is only safer than seven percent of all cities in America, and if you were currently a resident, you would have a one in 22 chance of being a victim of a crime. And while the violent crime rate has decreased from 2017 to 2018, it is still hailed by many as the most dangerous city in America.
This is the same city where Stockard and many area basketball icons strive to make a lasting impact on the cities youth – to show them that there can be brighter days and things ahead of them.
TruVision, founded four years ago while Stockard was still a sophomore at Allen Community College in St. Iola, Kansas, is a non-profit organization that allows East St. Louis’s youth a unique opportunity that Stockard and many others did not have growing up.
“TruVision is a lot of things combined into one,” said the senior forward. “It’s a mentoring program, a basketball training outlet and a brotherhood. We just try and focus it on the youth. We try to get them in the gym and mentor them, and give them those valuable lessons that we didn’t have growing up from older guys that we looked up to. If we focus it on the youth, that’s what we feel will change the culture and the future around St. Louis.”
Along with Stockard, others involved with TruVision include: founder Deshaun Cooper, who played collegiate basketball at Northwest Missouri State, Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum and former University of Kansas basketball standout and now Sacramento Kings shooting guard Ben McLemore.
“My good friend Deshaun Cooper, who graduated the same high school four years before me, started TruVision while he was still in college,” said Stockard. “When we connected, we started training together. And then that next summer, we started having camps, training sessions and lectures for the kids, just trying to keep the kids away from the streets. We all are coming together to change the culture.”
Stockard, who helped lead the Bonnies to a historic win against UCLA in last year’s March Madness tournament, admits that he is in a much better position now compared to where he was growing up. Stockard considers himself an exception to the stigmas and statistics that he personally saw friends and neighbors go through.
“I am a huge exception to the statistics and to what’s usually going on in St. Louis,” Stockard said. “A lot of people don’t make it out. A lot of people are in jail or dead before they turn 21. I have many friends that fit that description. If we had that guidance that we’re trying to give these kids now, we would be in a totally different situation. Myself included. I am not saying that I am in a bad situation now, but if I had that guidance I think some things would be different.”
While Stockard stands out for what he does on the court, he certainly hasn’t forgotten what its taken for him to get to this point in his life. Stockard will continue to provide a ‘TruVision’ for his hometown no matter what the next move is for him after his career at St. Bonaventure comes to a close at the season’s conclusion. Courtney Stockard – bigger than basketball.
hoganm17@bonaventure.edu
