Standing in a picnic area surrounded by students sitting in chairs or on benches, Seneca Wilson spoke about the importance of advancing to the next level — of school, a career and life in general.

The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry assistant men’s basketball coach did so for half an hour in front of 40 local inner-city high school students. It was his first time formally working as a motivational speaker and he did it with conviction.

Wilson grew up in the projects of Pascagoula, Mississippi, sometimes eating syrup, ketchup or mayonnaise sandwiches. His family struggled financially as his single mother, Linda Wilson, worked at Wendy’s to put food on the table for her family.

“And that’s why I am the way that I am,” Wilson said. “I love people. I want to do anything I can to help someone get their life better.”

Shaped by his childhood and the mother whose life philosophies guided him through it, he is constantly motivating — his players on the ESF men’s basketball team and the student workers he supervises as the assistant director of operations for SU’s Department of Recreation Services.

When he was a child, Wilson’s mother would tell him, “Baby, if you got it, give it. If you don’t, then you can’t do anything.”

At 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 1, ESF held its first official basketball practice of the season. Coaches watched like hawks as the team scrimmaged five-on-five. Small forward Ryan Caldwell missed two three-pointers before Wilson pulled him to the side.

“You’re one of the best shooters on the team,” Wilson said. “But you have to believe that.”

Caldwell returned to the scrimmage and made a pair of 3-pointers.

Wilson works with Mighty Oaks big men on footwork and shooting. But when Wilson approached Mighty Oaks head coach Scott Blair about an expanded role, Blair realized Wilson could provide an element that ESF didn’t already have.

Sage Beemer, a Mighty Oaks power forward, was warming up before an ESF game against Polytechnic Institute of New York University, when Wilson pointed to the banners on the ceiling. The banners happened to have the same last name as Beemer on them.

“He knows when we are having a bad day or a really good day,” Beemer said. “If he knows we are having a down day, he will come over and say something to us that will make us get back in a rhythm.”

During holidays growing up, Wilson’s mother gave presents to the children around the neighborhoods that had less than their family. For other kids’ birthday parties, she baked cakes. Wilson calls her a “giver.”

That much was in his blood, but it wasn’t until he went to the Boys & Girls Club on Old Mobile Avenue that he started to become a coach. Wilson went there as a child and returned as a volunteer, coaching kids that, like him, were exposed to shootings, drug dealings and addicts.

The Boys & Girls Club gave Wilson an opportunity to get out of Pascagoula. Wilson had not traveled much outside of his city or state. The program took the kids on field trips to waterparks and camps outside of his hometown and state.

“It made me see past my city,” Wilson said.

A few years later, he was out of Pascagoula. Wilson attended the University of Southern Mississippi, where he became the first person in his family to graduate from college.

When Wilson attended the school, he got a job in campus recreation. There he met and developed a friendship with Chris McGee, the assistant director for facilities

During Wilson’s sophomore year in 2002, McGee and Wilson went to the Emerging Recreational Sports Leaders Conference at Clark Atlanta University where Dr. Dennis Kimbro, a professor of business and motivational speaking at the school, spoke.
Wilson recalls Kimbro saying, “You have 18,632 days left on this Earth. What are you going to do with the rest of them?”

The question resonated with Wilson. He realized that he wanted to become a motivational speaker.

He uses those same motivational techniques during skill workouts in practices, before and at halftime of games and in front of those 40 inner-city high school students.

At the park, the kids observed Wilson in silence with a dedicated focus. When the speech ended, some of the kids came up to Wilson and said, “Thanks, that’s exactly what I needed.”

Published on October 21, 2014 at 12:10 am