EDWARDSVILLE - Kweisi Kenyatte, a former tennis player at the University of Illinois, returned as a guest speaker at the annual Diversity Day program and luncheon, an important part of the Edwardsville Futures tennis tournament, presented by The EGHM Foundation, on July 31, and it's a program very near and dear to his heart.
After his professional career was derailed, due to injuries. Kenyatte became an assistant coach for the women's team at Drake University in Des Moines, Ia., and is now also getting ready to take tests in which he hopes to become a police officer in West Des Moines, Ia.
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It's all been a part of a great journey that Kenyatte has been on, and he came to Diversity Day to talk to the participants in the annual clinic, driving directly from Des Moines to Edwardsville, leaving at 2 a.m in the morning, and going through a severe thunderstorm, in order to take to the kids.
"I thought Diversity Day was great," Kenyatte said in an interview conducted shortly after the end of the program. "It's so awesome coming out here and seeing all the kids grow from year to year. This is, what I want to say, my fourth year, or maybe my fifth year doing it. I can't keep track at this points," he said with his trademark smile and laugh. "But it's amazing coming out here, and seeing their growth and development, and trying to plant seeds in them, things they can with them and carry on in the future.
"So I woke up early," Kenyatte continued, "I drove here at two in the morning, through the night, through a little storm. But that's OK. I got here for the kids, and that's all that matters. They had a good time."
Keyatte learned much as an assistant coach for the Bulldogs, and enjoyed his experiences thoroughly.
"Being a coach at Drake was an amazing time for me," Kenyatte said, "and I still am a coach there. Breaunna Addison was my head coach, and I learned so much stuff from her. How to properly run practices, how to make players peak at certain times, just being one of the one of the professionals, being a better person and a better coach. And yeah, being a police officer is nothing that's set in stone, yet. I take my tests on Saturday, but if everything moves how they're supposed to move, I start the Academy in January, and start my quest there. So, I'm really, really excited for that."
Along the way, Kenyatte expressed a faith in God and feels that his faith, along with His guidance, will make a big difference in Kenyatte's future.
"Well, I don't really have a thought about His plans," Kenyatte said. "I just know that everything that I have for myself, I need to pray about it and talk with Him, because I noticed how things easily, and how things align once I started to put Him first. And I think before, I saw myself before the Kingdom of God, and I just wanted to push myself forward in whatever I wanted to do what I thought was right. The thought popped into my head that it was right, let's go with it. And now, I fee like I'm just a little more cautious, just a little more prayerful about these things, and they're leading me to the proper path."
Kenyatte is also taking the lessons learned from growing up in the tough east side of Detroit, and as a player for the Illini, and applying them to his own life as well.
"Well, I think it's just the toughness that Brad Dancer (head men's tennis coach at Illinois) put in me, and learning how to submit to authority," Kenyatte said, "especially in the police academy, it's a little militaristic. Obviously, the hard-nosed, rough, rugged, hustling mentality that you develop growing up in the east side of Detroit is something that I carry with me every day, and I'm learning how to channel that into good. I've got this big personality, and Brad always told me I could use it for good, or I could use it for bad. I want to use it for good."
Kenyatte is looking ahead to his possible new career, and will use his faith to guide him into whatever happens next in his life.
"Oh, year, I'm super excited," Kenyatte said, "and I think I'll do great. I know I'll do great, I'll have God's armor with me as I'm walking and serving. And that's all I want to do I want to serve the people, so I think that's what we're all called to do."
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