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How can we use goal setting with our students?

Research suggests that encouraging students to set their own goals can assist academic achievement and student engagement.

Tonight, we meet a former NFL player for the San Diego Chargers and Executive Director of goals for life to find out how his organization helps students throughout California.

I'm so happy you're joining us.

From Los Angeles.

This is KLCS PBS.

Welcome to everybody with Angela Williamson and innovation, Arts, education and public affairs program.

Everybody with Angela Williamson is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

And now your host, doctor Angela Williamson.

Reggie Berry is our guest.

Thank you so much for being here.

Is such an honor.

Well, thank you for asking me.

Well, we are going to talk about the reason you're here today.

But before we get to that, I'd love to spend our first part of this interview together talking a little bit about you, because you you actually came to California from another state.

So I want I want to hear a little bit and I want to hear how you got into football.

Well, you know, I got into football.

I was, I got I had three other brothers and they're all athletes.

And my sister, she was the oldest and she was the best athlete.

And so my brother I'm in the middle.

So they always get on my nerves.

Yes.

So I wondered down to the park and I saw these guys playing football, and some of them went to the grade school I went to, and they told the coaches I was fast.

And so they put a uniform on me where I couldn't move, and it sent me out there.

I didn't know what I was doing.

Did they just tell you, run one direction and that's what you did?

Oh, they put me on the line, you know, and so I looked at and I figured I could do this, I could do that, but I couldn't do anything.

I didn't know the game.

Oh, so you had to learn the game?

Yeah.

I think kids that play the game the best when they're young are the ones that know what the best.

Because there's a science behind it.

Right?

There's science behind everything.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, so you're playing this sport in high school, but you started younger than that.

Yeah.

Start in grade school.

You started in grade school.

So you just.

I guess you figured out how to play the game.

Yeah.

Yeah, I like playing, and I played baseball, and, I was a speed skater in the winter time.

And then after a while, I started to skate and I started playing basketball.

So I played in high school.

I played football, basketball and baseball, and I ran track.

Wow.

And our audience is probably thinking a speed skater because you grew up in Minnesota?

I grew up in Minneapolis, and all my friends, you know, they were Swedes and Norwegians and they all skated.

So I skated until I got in seventh grade.

And it makes a difference.

And and that's when you switched to football?

Well, I started playing basketball.

I always played football.

I played football since I was eight years old.

And I, you know, we lost every game the first year.

And after that we won every game.

We never lost.

Same team.

Same team.

Same players.

Yeah.

Well, well and I think this is really interesting because I hear this a lot about especially professional athletes that you focused on when you were younger, other sports as well.

Do you think that they that really helped you to really strengthen your skill as a as a football player?

Sure.

Because when you play other sports, you develop this, different muscles, you know?

So and then you learn, you learn that dedication that you need more awareness when you have repetition.

And so that's all playing different sports.

So I didn't know what sport I wanted to play.

I never like football that much.

I like baseball, you know.

Yeah.

But baseball my brother told me my older brother, he's two years older than me.

He took our goal was to get to college and get out of my dad's house.

So the only way I could get to college was play football.

My brother told me, you need to quit playing baseball, even though that was my best sport, and and go out for track.

And he said, and you need to get faster so you can get a scholarship to play football because they don't allow blacks to play baseball, they don't get scholarships in baseball, they get them in football.

And so I said, okay, that's what I did.

And that was really interesting.

Are we talking or talking in the 60s?

We're talking the 60s.

But the same way now you don't see blacks play American blacks playing baseball.

You know, when I was playing when I was a kid, a lot of blacks played baseball.

They don't play it anymore.

And they and I think one of the reasons why they, they stopped them from playing and they started bringing, ballplayers in from Dominican Republic, Panama, some Cubans and American blacks.

They just didn't have any programs.

I guess.

But I know that they discriminated against, blacks in college, too, because, even to this day, you don't see black.

Too many black players in college baseball.

Players.

So that means they don't get scholarships.

That means they're not playing in.

The scholarships are really important, especially when it comes to the African-American community, because that's a way to get in to college and to get that degree.

Sure.

That's a motivation.

That was my motivation, yes.

And to get out of my dad's house, get out of Minnesota, you know, because it was so cold there.

I don't know how you did it.

And then last game last season was always like two above zero ever since I was little, three below zero, you know, and I didn't like that, you know, I like football until it got cold and.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

And and when we're talking about that, needing that change and needing that scholarship so that you can, like you said, get out of your father's house, but also to, to get you to a different level as well.

were you already looking at California schools or take California come calling to you?

Well, you know, I used to when I was a senior in high school, I always did poorly in math, and I used to look out the window and be snowing and be cold.

And I'd be.

I started dreaming, and I always think about coming to California because, my dad and mother had came to California.

When they came back, they had this, this plate and had oranges, so.

And oranges.

They got up on sunset, evidently.

And I used to look at them and wonder how they were doing in California because it wasn't doing well in Minnesota.

It was so cold.

So I have trouble in math.

And I started dreaming, and I listed dream how I could get to California.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

Okay, now I just want I want to transition you, from Minneapolis to California and talk about those college years because you talked about that discrimination.

And that's important because I think that makes up the story of who you are and why you have the organization that we'll talk about in the second half.

So so my question to you is when you first come to California, had you already visited the college before you come, or I mean, was it culture shock?

I want to hear what happens in Reggie's mind.

Well, you know, I got a scholarship to go to Iowa State.

at first.

So I went there as a freshman.

That's a good football team.

Two buddies get cold there.

It was cold.

Yeah, it was cold, but they had, Johnny Majors was the coach.

Jimmy Johnson, that you see on TV.

He was one of the coaches.

And so they had a great coaching staff.

But it was cold and, and it's really funny because, in spring I thought I had a good spring.

And so they had to go see Johnny Mathis, the coach, and he told me he didn't think I was tough enough to play in a big eight.

And so I left out of there and I seen all the stones to play with Miami when they went 17.

And oh, and, and he asked me what was wrong, and I told him what the coach said.

He said, oh no, he didn't say that.

I said, that's what he told me and I'm out of here.

So either my brother, I went out to California right after the summer and I met OJ Simpson, and he was my brother's roommate on the road.

And I and I met, Al Collins, all those guys, Tony Smith, Bubba Smith's brother.

And so they all had Jimmy Jones was a quarterback.

They all had brand new cars.

And so I said, how can I get to California?

Oh, yeah, to get a new car.

Oh yeah.

And so I, what was his name?

one of the, one of the wide receivers, Bobby Chandler, later played for Buffalo.

Okay.

I was covering him, practicing with those guys when I came out.

It helped my brother to have his card, so I just was practicing with them, and he told me he thought I was pretty good.

So of course, back at Iowa State said, I don't think I don't think you're tough enough.

Bobby Chandler told me that I was a pretty good and he took me to go see the the coach at SC, one of the coaches.

So they told me, if if you, if you leave Iowa State and go down to Arizona Western, I never heard Arizona was to.

The community college.

Yeah.

It's in Yuma is on I never heard of Yuma Zona.

And they said if you make the team down there, then we'll give you a scholarship to USC.

So I said, wow, I can get out of Iowa and get out of Minnesota.

I could probably get to California, which was my goal and my dream in the first place.

And so I went down here is on a Western, and so, you know, I tell kids, because I work with kids, I tell them sometimes you got to take chances, you know, and I took the chance because I believed that I could make it.

And so I went down there and Arizona Western was the outlaw school.

So they had different schools from all over the country sending players down there to hide them out in case the grade point was in high enough, or then, you know, they took them from others.

They were supposed to go to another college.

They take them down there and hide them out down there.

And so they sent me down there.

That's way.

And we had one of the best.

We had the best junior college in the country.

We were second in the nation in in football.

And everybody on that team got a scholarship.

And so when the coach came, we, we won that.

We, we played in the national championship.

And they put you know, the funny thing is they put me in a position where you put your toughest player at it, drove it back.

But at Iowa State a month and a half earlier, the coach tells me I'm not tough enough.

I go down there as an A Western and they said he's, extremely aggressive.

And they put me at Rover back and I'm only win 174 pounds.

And so, I led the team in tackles.

And when the season was over with I, when the coach came from SC to get the players that were going to go to the SC, they didn't ask for me.

And that's where I fell.

And so I was really disappointed and I wasn't seeing the coach.

And I said, you know, coach is down here looking for players, but they're not they're bringing these other guys but they're not bringing me.

And he told me, he said, you know, Reg, you didn't come in at you won't go in at the semester.

You'd have to take a year off because the Pac eight and the Pac eight and then and it was the big eight, they they added each other, so I couldn't go from one.

So then he said they're not going to pay for it.

And so I was really mad.

I went back to my room, you know, I was throwing stuff.

And my roommate's name was Charlie Hunt.

He was one of the stars on the team, and he was going to SC and he asked me what was wrong.

And I told him, and I was mad.

So he said, come on, man.

So we started walking.

I thought we were walking so that he could cut me off down and we were too.

So finally asking, where are we going?

And he said, we're going to see the library.

I said, where are we going to see library?

And I was mad at him when I heard that, you know, I'm not in the mood to go see the library and or pick up books.

You know?

And so he said, yeah, he said, librarians know everything, you know.

And I told him that, and he said, come on.

So I went with him to the library, and he was right.

So he was so kind and so sweet.

She looked at me and she says, she asked me what the problem was.

I told her and she said, well, where do you want to go to school?

You can't go to USC.

Where do you want to go to school?

And I said, well, I want to go to school in California.

You know, I don't want to go to school anywhere else.

And she said, well, let's look and see what schools are in California.

Yeah.

So she, she said, here's Fresno State.

She said, would you like to go there?

And I said, I don't know, put it down.

And she said, because I didn't believe her, I thought she was, you know, and I said, I did, I didn't believe.

Yeah.

What does a librarian know?

But she knew something, right?

Yeah.

She was on see so I didn't she put down San Diego State.

She put down a Long Beach state.

And so I was watching her.

Right.

And write in the letter and she says how tall are you?

And I said, I'm about 510.

And she looked at me.

She said, stand up.

I stood up, it looked like a six feet one to me.

And she wrote down that a six foot one.

Then she said, how much you weigh?

And I said, about 174.

She said, stand up again.

She looked stout, and she says, you weigh 190 pounds.

And she rolled down 190 pounds.

And then, she took the football fields.

And so it was like San Diego State, Long Beach State University, Santa Barbara, Fresno State.

And I told her, I said, I'm going to you got all this good, don't you put the university of away.

And so she put the oh, you want it?

She put that University of Hawaii.

So she sent my films to all those schools with my measurements.

In the film you can see you can't see how big someone is on the film, you know?

And, every one of the schools wanted me.

Yeah, if one of them wanted me.

So I went to Long Beach State.

And the reason why I went to Long Beach State is they had a guy there.

they're getting ready to make a movie about.

He had just got out of prison.

Well, he had spent five years in prison, and he was the number one draft choice.

But this was his senior year, and I was a junior.

So in Long Beach, they had stickers on the back of his car.

Have you seen Leon and Leon?

Had a fullback over his head and the fullback with 215 with his uniform on, and he's holding him over his head and it was on all the bumper stickers.

So when they recruited me, I seen that and I said, well, I'm going here.

Yes, to.

Go play with Leon.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

you know, that is the perfect end to our first segment.

It so that's well, when we come back, I want to hear about your nonprofit.

That's right here in Southern California.

And we want to talk about those goals and the mission and what our community can do to help you achieve that.

So thank you.

Stay right there and we'll be back.

Thank.

I'm really.

Very I see we're still inside.

You'll see his work on this 102 900.

I believe we I mean.

Welcome back.

Now let's talk about this organization's mission when we left off.

You work through a lot of challenges to get to the school and the place that you wanted to get into.

We didn't talk anything about your NFL career, but just before we go into a little bit about goals for life, because I know that that's really helped you form what you're doing today, let me just talk a little bit about that.

So how does Reggie you get to Cal State Long Beach?

How do you get to the San Diego Chargers?

Well, you know, it's interesting because, the coach at Iowa State to told me that I wasn't tough enough to play.

Yes.

I'm not filling in right now.

Well, they came back down here on a Western to try to get me to go back to Iowa.

And they said that was never said.

But once you've been to California, you'll never go back to Iowa.

I'm sorry to say, you know, and so I got to Long Beach State.

But, you know, it's interesting.

I asked kids that the coach at Iowa State told me I wasn't tough enough.

Yes.

And the coach there was a Western told me I was extremely aggressive.

So who's right?

Was the coach of the Iowa State right, or the one that is on the list in and see the answer to that question is I'm right because it's what you think about yourself that counts.

If I had to believe the coach at Iowa State, I didn't believe what he had to say.

I thought I was doing very well, you know?

And see, I found out later on because I was president of the Players association in Los Angeles, and I was sitting on the national board of the Players Association.

And so at one of the meetings and the guy from Tennessee, there's representatives from all over the country, and the guy from Tennessee is aware that Johnny Majors, who's that coach, was from.

And he he'd always say to me, Johnny told me to tell you, hey, yeah, yeah, he come from Tennessee, I see.

How are you doing?

He told me to tell you hi because he had breakfast with always with Johnny Majors.

And evidently Johnny knew I was a player, that he let go, that he wasn't going to let go again because he ended up winning the national championship.

He's one of those coaches.

Yeah.

Yes.

And and Jackie show coach with him.

He won the national championship.

And Jimmy Johnson who coached with him, he won the national championship.

So Jackie Sherrill come to my end of the locker room when I was playing with the charges.

And he told me, you know, Reggie would have been a better player if he had stayed in Iowa.

But you know what?

He was right.

They were they were the best coaches.

And that's where I really learned how to play.

Football was in Iowa.

So that's where you I learned it.

The name of the game was Never quit.

Just don't quit.

If you quit, you lose, you know.

And if you quit this as far as you get say.

And I learned it from them and I will.

So that carried on.

When I went there.

I was on a Western when I went to Long Beach State.

But it's also carried on into this organization that you started because when I was reading about your organization, that's what you're pushing, right?

Why is that so important?

Well, you know, when I was growing up, I noticed the thing about some kids is they quit easier than others.

And sometimes when you quit, what you are getting right trying to accomplish is just you had to take one more step and you would accomplish it.

So I always thought the reason why I did well is because every one did.

I couldn't lose out.

We lost and I've lost before.

It's just that I refused to lose because I wasn't I didn't quit, you know, if you quit, you don't go anywhere.

So I tell them, even if you're reading the book, finish the book.

Don't quit.

You know, whatever you got to do, don't quit and have that in your mind.

I'm not quitting.

And I learned it at Iowa State.

Don't quit.

I don't care if you how tired you are.

Don't quit.

If you have to stay up all night to pass a test, stay up all night.

You do what has to be done when it has to be done, and you do it as well as it can be done.

And you do it the same way all the time.

But in your life you had, I mean, at the time, one of the top coaches in the country tell you something negative.

I mean, you were able to turn that around in your head.

It seems like it's harder for our young people to do that today.

So how does your mission help them turn that around?

I think it kids respect you.

And and I think what kids need most is pats on the back.

I think especially, kids that what they used to call at risk or kids that have problems.

Yes.

And I think that's what they they don't get those pats on the back.

And see, I still had those pats on the back when I was growing up.

So what you say to me, I don't believe, I believe, but I think about me, you know, and you can say what you want, but I already know who I am, you know?

And that's why I pat the kids on the back.

And we teach them and goes for life.

You know, the same thing it takes to do well in sports is the same thing it does to do well in school.

It's the same thing it does to do well in life.

Like I had dysgraphia.

I used to write backwards and I had a problem and my brothers would get A's and school and B's and in English and math.

But I always got DS, and I never got to fail because if you get a fail, my mother wouldn't have done that.

Except that.

No, but if you get a fail, that means you didn't try.

And that's what I tell kids when you when I see you fail.

Did you try it now?

Did you do anything?

No.

Because you can't fail unless you don't do anything.

If you're trying, nobody, no teacher, no coach is going to cut you.

if you're trying as hard as your kid.

And they like people to try hard.

And I like them.

So I pat on the back and tell them they can, you know, don't quit.

You know?

And so basically there's this fundamental message that helps to strengthen how their they, they have this outlook.

And basically because I know your organization, you go in those areas where they have those at risk students.

And so there's just there's a missing link there that goes for life fills that link.

Correct.

Right.

We do.

We we we have a what you call the winners vocabulary.

And we talk about what comes out of a one is mouth and what comes out of his mouth.

And they have to learn the winners vocabulary and be aware of the loser's vocabulary like the one is vocab is gone is what's in that movie stand deliver that, he said.

If you have got this, you got everything.

That means you can't.

If you got guts, if you try hard, you got everything it takes.

attitude, how you see things and how you react to it, preparation, how you prepare yourself or how you study disciplines.

What I talked about before do what has to be done when it has to be done, and do it as well as it can be done, and do it that way all the time.

Focus and see straight ahead and don't get distracted in consistency.

I can do it over and over and over again because that's the problem.

They quit and you can.

But if you're consistent, you understand that the when is that?

When it's vocabulary, you can do it over and you can.

You're conscious of the fact that I'm not quitting.

But this was actually, going back to that first segment when we talked, but you actually showed how you were consistent because even though you loved baseball, you needed football so that you can get to where you want it.

So you became consistent in football.

And so that's been part of your life.

And people can see that.

So how do you how do you get that part from what Reggie's done.

And pour that into others so that they can do that too?

Well, we set goals with them every day, and we say a goal is something that you want for yourself in the future, and the future is how you want to live your life.

So they have to set a goal.

And then we talk about, you know, somehow something we go over that winners will carry.

And some people quit easier than others.

What makes you quit?

You know, just different stuff like that.

So if we can recognize inside ourselves when is a point where we quit and change that, then we can be consistent and reach the goals we want.

If you got a dream and you believe your dream, why can't you have it?

You know, if it's realistic, you can.

I always tell them you can't fly.

You know.

But if you want to be a doctor, you could be a doctor.

Yeah.

Bunch of doctors out here.

You may not be able to play pro football, you know, and you may not want to at this rate with brain injuries and stuff.

But you can if you got a dream, you'll have a plan A and a plan B, and I always tell them sports can never be a plan A, not even a plan B, it's got to be a plan C really?

Yeah.

Because sports is not a reality.

Professional sports is not a reality.

You get the chances of being a professional football player is like get hit by lightning.

And I don't tell them they can't know because they told Mugsy Bull.

He's a little bitty, five foot seven, five foot three basketball player, and they told him he couldn't play in high school, you know, and they told, you're always telling Michael Jordan flunked out or didn't, make the team.

And when he's a sophomore.

So if you quit, he didn't quit.

You know, if you quit, that's as far as you quit.

But if you don't quit, it's tough to lose when you don't quit.

You know?

And if I'm playing against you and you won't quit, and it's tough to beat somebody that won't quit, you know, you can't quit.

You know that's what you want to be.

And that's your dream.

Follow your dream.

Just be consistent and don't quit.

Don't be quit.

But, you know, people try to talk you out of your dreams.

We call them dream snatches.

Oh, I love this term.

Dreams snatchers.

Because, I mean, that happened during the course of your career.

So what?

What do we tell these dream snatchers when they're trying to do that?

What we tell you.

Don't ignore the dream snatchers.

You know, it's.

Nobody can tell you who you are.

You need to know who you are, yourself.

And if you know who you are, they can't just nested dream for you.

You know?

And sometimes we have to look at that as a challenge and then keep moving forward in making sure that we stay consistent.

We used to say, if your stuff is good, somebody is going to use it.

You know, if your stuff is good, I don't care what occupation is, somebody is going to use it, you know?

So I figured if he couldn't use my stuff, somebody is going to use.

It because it was that good.

I thought I was better than he thought I was, or I thought that he thought I was.

Well, and I'm glad that you have that mentality, and I'm glad that you use that for goals for life.

We believe it or not, we are almost done with our time tonight.

But before we end our conversation together, I want to know how the community can help.

Goals for life.

get out there more because these young people.

You have a message to help them move to their next step to help them achieve their goals.

So how can we do that?

What goes for life is it's former athletes, football players, and there's a basketball player doing that now, teaching kids to set goals.

So we go into the schools and they send us from sometimes seven kids an hour or sometimes 15.

Sometimes some guys coach whole classes.

They'll give them a class, the coach and the coaching them.

On setting goals and how to be successful, how to win.

Yeah, and we have a guy now.

He's a basketball player.

He does yoga with him.

I used to do it quite a time but they were meditating.

Didn't know it.

So you had to be still for 7 to 10 minutes.

And they didn't know that's what they're doing.

But they loved doing it.

You know, because kids have so much stress in their lives, they like to sit still for a little bit, you know?

So the ones that come to the class, they like that.

well, Reggie, thank you so much for your time.

And we'll make sure that our audience can reach you.

But, wow, what you're doing, especially all of your friends, you know, X pro athletes coming into the schools and working with the at risk students so they know that their goals are valuable and that they can achieve their dreams.

You know.

So.

Much, Elijah Penny told me he played for the Giants, and he was one of, student, one of my and his brother.

And he told me that he told it.

He thought about when he was going to play pro if Reggie could do it because he was a free agent.

Because I was.

He saw me speak at his class.

If he could do it, I could do it.

And that's what he did.

And I think if if you can do it, I think I can do it.

I might have to work harder than you.

I might have to spend more time than you do.

But eventually I can do it.

Eventually I'm going to win.

And that's my that's my attitude.

That's how I see things.

And that's perfect as a perfect way to end our conversation.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for that.

And thank you for joining us on everybody with Angela Williamson.

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