Back on track after football dream derailed

By Linda Trimble
Educational Writer
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SOUTH DAYTONA — Travis Mack grew up dreaming of playing football and coaching the sport when he could no longer play it.

His dream fell apart over winter break two years ago when Travis suffered a serious knee injury as he was tackled hard in a sandlot football game with some friends.

When Travis asked his doctor after surgery if he could still play football, he was advised to try pingpong instead.

“I was discouraged. I didn’t know what I wanted to be other than a football player and a coach,” said 18-year-old Travis, who lives in Daytona Beach. “I started slipping.”

Bouncing back and forth between Spruce Creek — where his favorite memory is scoring a touchdown in his last game on the freshman team — and Seabreeze high schools, Travis started acting out in class and ignoring assignments until it was too late to make them up.

“I was going to school,” he said, “but I was a jokester. I didn’t take anything seriously; I got a lot of referrals.”

That was until August, when Travis enrolled in the Richard Milburn Academy, a charter school that opened five years ago in South Daytona.

Milburn, which opened a DeLand branch last year, caters to students who have struggled in traditional high schools. Most of them have fallen behind in the credits needed for graduation; some have had truancy or discipline problems.

Principal Sam Smith welcomes them all and takes pride in helping the teens get back on track toward graduation. “I can see the trees for the forest,” Smith said. “There are some good kids here.”

He believes so much in their future that Smith and his family personally give Milburn graduates $200 each if they return the next semester with proof they’re enrolled in college. The Smith family has spent $9,000 on that program so far.

Travis quickly realized there was no room for joking around at Milburn. “The teachers stay on top of you all the time; they want you to succeed,” he said. “They’re easy to talk to; they seem real.”

At 6 foot 2 inches tall and 360 pounds, Travis has the size to play football but he’s had to settle for watching games on TV or his brothers’ games since the injury.

Two teachers at Milburn have helped Travis realize he may still be able to coach some day but his education has to come first.

He often talks sports before school and during lunch with Lakisha Graham, who had Travis in a career exploration class. She helped him realize there might be another path to his goal of coaching sports and put Travis in touch with Luke McCoy, who teaches physical education and health at Milburn.

McCoy also coaches a semipro football team in Daytona Beach and allowed Travis to hang out on the sidelines last season to get a taste of what it means to be a coach. McCoy thinks Travis’ newfound determination to study and pursue his goals will lead him to a coaching job some day.

“All he needs is the desire,” McCoy said of the teenager he describes as “a humble giant.”