Since 2020, My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) has spent its leadership day with the Cincinnati Reds, with this year being no different.
On Sept. 3, the Reds hosted students from chapters throughout Ohio and introduced them to multiple special guests, including Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, Hamilton County Commissioner Alicia Reese, Reds President and CEO Phil Castellini, outfielder Will Benson, Hall of Famer Barry Larkin and director of MBK Ohio Kyle Strickland, alongside other Ohio, MBK and Reds leaders.
My Brother’s Keeper, started by President Barack Obama in 2014, aims to set up the next generation of men with the abilities to succeed and lead. A year after its founding in 2014, former U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown pushed for MBK chapters in Ohio, allowing for the statewide coalition to begin in 2018.
Castellini emphasized the importance of the youth taking hold of what comes next for them.
“Your future's in your hands. Take every opportunity given to you,” Castellini said. “I think you heard Will say, ‘Take and embrace the obstacles.’ When you work around them, that's going to instill more pride and focus on the fact that you can have an obstacle put in front of you, work around it or through it. That's really the message I want to make sure everybody's taking home today. Your future is in your hands, but you have got to work hard and apply yourself in anything. Absolutely anything is possible.”
This year’s leadership day had about 150 students, spanning Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati, learn from guest speakers through multiple panel discussions regarding careers based around sports and the journey of going from an athlete to a professional. The event began with Reds director of applied sports science Aaron Cunanan and senior director of analytics Nick Wan, who told their stories and answered questions regarding their careers.
One of the morning’s other speakers, Pureval, focused his message on the pursuit of the aspirations that the group may have and the work that needs to be done in the meantime for it to come to fruition.
“Whatever your dream is, whether it's a professional athlete or a professional, it requires hard work and commitment,” Pureval said. “The people that you are going to hear from today have walked in your shoes and have achieved their dreams. Take this opportunity that's being created to connect with these folks, to ask them questions, to better understand how they made it, to accomplish so many things. This is for you, and it's because you're special. I hope you take advantage of it because as Alicia Reese said, you are our future Cincinnatians or Ohioans, and you'll determine what the future of this state looks like. I'm excited about that.”
Following the opening portion of the day, the attendees split up into breakout rooms for different panels. The groups swapped between two sessions of “The Transition: From College Athlete to Career Starter” and “Years Later, Still an Athlete” before a networking lunch.
To finish the day, the youth heard from Benson and Larkin before a Q&A with the duo. Having been in the position that the attendees were, Benson highlighted the importance of being able to look up to someone in the position you want to be in.
“Throughout my journey, there's people that I saw that were in the position that I wanted to be and just having looked at them, it gave me inspiration,” Benson said. “Now you guys are blessed with the opportunity to sit down and talk with us. I would hope some of you guys want to be at this level or at least this level of expertise. In Barry’s case, he's a Hall of Famer, so he's one of the greatest to do what he does. Whether you want to play sports or do something else, you want to get to that highest level to be surrounded by it.”
Dating back to the first collaboration between the Reds and MBK in 2020, both Castellini and Larkin have been consistently involved, attending each leadership day over the past five years.
During his talk, Larkin spoke about why he keeps coming back to the event, telling a story about how a young man who directly connected with him now works with the neighboring Bengals.
For him, being able to watch as the work pays off for the next generation propels him to keep coming back and offer that helping hand.
“I’m super proud of coming back,” Larkin said. "I do know that I was in that spot at one time in my life where I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I knew I loved sport. If a program [like MBK] existed, I probably would've been down here myself.”