Karsceal Turner – I Got Next !
Former Daytona Beach mayor Yvonne Scarlett-Golden was an advocate for bringing out the very best in Daytona’s young people. Often, during the now defunct Black College Reunion, she could be seem urging young men to pull their pants up and behave. Now a community center bearing her name will serve as a back drop for a meeting of minds focused on empowering those same youths when the INOW “We’ve Got Your Back” symposium comes to town Saturday, April 25th at the Yvonne Scarlett-Golden Center located at 1000 Vine Street in Daytona Beach.
The symposium is the brainchild of Darryl Nattiel, a 1981 graduate of Bethune-Cookman College (now University).
The Daytona Beach native and Mainland high school graduate is a product of two educators. Nattiel moved to Miami and embarked on a 30-year career in Volusia and Dade County public school systems dealing with special programs in physical education.
“I mentor through a mixture athletics and education,” Nattiel said. INOW Symposium: is an accumulative model mentoring program of INOW Inc., which shows the diversity of programs used to allow young adults meet their goals. The INOW Symposium is an empowerment session to motivate the minds, hearts and souls of those that attend,” he explained.
After retiring from the school system in 2014, Nattiel infused his background as an educator with his license as an athletic philanthropist and created INOW short for “In Not of the World”
“It’s been 30 years since I left Daytona to pursue a higher calling and I’m coming back home first to share what God has given me through the target youth audience across the United States. I plan to help bridge to gaps in young people’s lives, Physically Mentally, Socially and spiritually,” Nattiel said.
Many B-CU football fans may recognize Nattiel’s voice from Saturday football home games for the Wildcats. He linked up with B-CU Athletic Director Lynn Thompson in 1999 and began commentating from the sidelines, a position he held for nearly 15 years.
Nattiel, 57, was ordained a minister in 2004. Each speaker and awardee for the symposium is someone whom at one point was mentored by him personally.
Two dynamic speakers on tap
Among those speakers are retired naval veteran and Pastor D’Arthur Wilcox and Freddie Cole, former B-CU and HBCU All-American, turned coach and minister. Cole’s story began as a basketball standout on the high school, collegiate, and professional levels. He transferred that love and knowledge into the players on his high school roster at Lake Minneola High School located in Minneola, just northwest of Orlando.
Cole, 38, made a name for himself at Bethune-Cookman College as a high-scoring guard for the Wildcats in the mid-nineties. He achieved 1st team All-conference honors, held record for most 3’s in a playoff game (11) and regular season game (10), and was an HBCU All-American.
Cole still wasn’t done as a player, he took his 18 ppg and 43% 3-point shooting overseas and played for half a dozen teams to include: Argentina, United Kingdom, Hungary, Portugal and Honduras where he averaged 29 points per game and seven assists per game, good enough to be named team MVP. He also played one year in the NBA Development League before answering the call to wear the coach’s whistle. In the coaching realm, during four years at Lake Minneola High School. Cole earned Coach of the year for Florida class 6A in 2014 after he led a brand new school to a state finals appearance and a national ranking of #34. His team also earned back-to-back district championships.
Called to mentor and motivate the youth
It was during his tenure at MHS that Cole received a calling from the Higher Power to motivate and mentor youth. He does it in the weight-room, on the court and in the pulpit. He is a youth minister with Family Christian Center, located in Clermont.
“God called me to minister the gospel to youth, young adults, believers and non-believers. I answered the call 2 years ago,” Cole said. “My goal is to motivate people to give Jesus a chance to change their lives. I tried Him for myself so I can attest to the realness of Him. I wouldn’t spend time on things I’m not convinced about. This relationship I have with Christ is real and is life changing! God speaks to me in different ways daily and it edifies me. I want people to experience that for themselves,” Cole said.
Cole will speak on behalf of the fellowship of Christian athletes Saturday.
INOW recognizes everyday heroes
The symposium will also include an awards Banquet. Awardees include: Former B-CU, now professional wide-receiver Eric Weems of the Atlanta Hawks (Professional Athlete of the Year), Mr. Kennard Cox (Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Athlete of the Year), Dr. Booker T. Williams (Author of the Year), Stephanie Morgan Powers and son Eyan, (Single Parent and Son of the Year), and Ken and Laronnia Johnson, parents of University of Georgia Defensive Back Kennar Johnson (Parents of the Year).
Awards were chosen based on personal and career achievements and having been mentored by him at one point or another in their lives.
Nattiel he is excited about what God has in store for said the vision for INOW is wide and varied. He has plans to begin a mentoring program entitled “The Dream still Lives” to be held in Memphis, Tennessee in the parking lot of the Lorraine Hotel (where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was killed) the mentoring program runs from September to December with an award program to culminate in January 2016.
“Not even the sky is the limit to what God has in store,” Nattiel said. “With God, there are no limits at all”.
