How Dreams Die

These groups may deal drugs and commit crimes, but the principal aim of most of the African-American gangs in Oakland (which is 30.3% black) and Richmond (28.5% black) is to defend their neighborhood from outsiders, even if the reasons that it needs to be defended are not always apparent. "They won't harm a little kid, but the problem for a lot of athletes is that they look older than their age because they are bigger," says Pugh, the East Bay Warriors president. "A 12-year-old will look 14, and that is considered old enough that he should know not to be caught in the wrong neighborhood. A boy might just be riding his bike to practice or have to change buses someplace, and that will be enough to get him killed."

The gang Fred helped found, the On1 Boys, consisted of about 40 members. In his old neighborhood in North Oakland near Bushrod Park, where former major league star Rickey Henderson spent his childhood days playing baseball, Fred was called Little Al by the older boys who lived there. In East Oakland he became On1 Fred.

On1 is a malleable slang term similar to hyphy, which is the name of one of the most prominent African-American gangs in Oakland (the Hyphy Boys) and can mean, among other things, dangerous or crazy. Asked why he and his friends named the gang On1, Fred struggles to explain. "It's a little phrase that, like, means a lot of stuff," he says. "If we were On1, we might be drinking and stuff. If we were On1, we might be knocking people out." George Knox of the National Gang Crime Research Center says that gangs like On1, for example, were not likely counted in the report to Congress because "they are what we call a Level 0 gang. They would be a pre-gang, more of a neighborhood prey group."

That Fred ended up in a such a group is not surprising. His mother, Lolita Nunn, was a drug addict (she says she has been clean since 2006), and his father lived in Oregon. His male role models were older boys in North Oakland and Pugh, 44, who's also a cousin. He tried to get Nunn to sign Fred up for the East Bay Warriors, but it wasn't until Fred was 11 that she agreed. "That might have been too late to reach him," Pugh says.

Playing for the Warriors, even if for only a few years, changed Fred. After one of his first practices, he came home and did the dishes without being told. A stunned Nunn called Pugh, who explained that all his players were required to behave at school and for their parents or they couldn't play. Fred was a gifted quarterback and followed the program's rules, but in eighth grade he moved to East Oakland, and the On1 Boys were born. The following year his mother moved the two of them to Berkeley so her son could grow up in a better neighborhood; when it came time to transition from Pop Warner to high school football, Fred chose the On1 Boys instead.

IN 2005, DURING HIS freshman year at Berkeley High, Fred and two other On1 Boys stole a bike from a house near the school. Stealing a bike is usually akin to shoplifting a pack of gum in Fred's world, but the bike he stole cost more than $2,500, and he went into the house to steal it, which amounted to felony burglary. The judge wanted to incarcerate him, but Pugh, with the help of a probation officer he knew, came up with an alternative: Rite of Passage (ROP), a rehabilitation program for at-risk youths. Fred almost ruined the arrangement when, a few months later, he and friends entered a Cal frat house during a party and started snatching purses. Pugh was ready to give up on Fred but relatives persuaded him not to, and Fred was sent to Sierra Ridge Academy, an ROP facility near San Andreas, in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

Athletics are a big part of ROP's curriculum. In addition to regular academic classes and once-a-week meetings with a case manager/counselor, Fred played on the ROP baseball team and traveled with a group of kids to Colorado to compete in a triathlonlike event among all ROP schools. Fred felt safe and directed at ROP, and it was amazing how quickly sports worked its magic. He pleaded with ROP administrators to release him early so he could be back at Berkeley High for football season. "You should see me play football. That is my sport," he told other ROP students.

Fred was released from ROP in the fall of 2006 and reenrolled at Berkeley High as a junior. Because of his criminal record he was shifted to Berkeley Tech, an affiliated "continuation" school for at-risk students. Fred got several jobs through a city program called YouthWorks, including one at the public library and another at a recreational center, running the scoreboard and cleaning the gym. In February '07 he spoke at the East Bay Warriors banquet, explaining how he had lost his way and how he had reformed. The following month he participated in Berkeley High's off-season workouts as a 5'9", 170-pound quarterback and cornerback, and began running to Memorial Stadium each morning. That summer he went with the team to a camp at Cal. "He was very motivated, and you could see it was important to him," says Alonzo Carter, Berkeley High's coach, "[because] his peers were trying to bring him down."

Unfortunately, before Fred could suit up for Carter, he learned of a new policy that prevented Berkeley Tech students from playing for Berkeley High's teams. Fred's grades were good; he could have transferred back to Berkeley High. But his mother didn't want him to leave the continuation school. "I worried if he went back to Berkeley High, he would end up in jail or get kicked out of school," she says. "You have to be really focused to do well at Berkeley High. It's so big [3,300 students]. B-Tech is smaller [118 students], more family organized, and he had black, male teachers. It was a really, really hard decision, but I just felt Fred should stay at B-Tech."

Despondent, Fred spent more time with the On1 Boys and less working out. Soon he found a lifeline: He heard how many college football players had played at the junior college level first. He told friends, "I'll still get there, just by a different route."