The article below appears on AJC.com on December 11, 2014

I wanted to pull out my old cheerleader uniform and start practicing my toe-touches when I got the news that the Raiders of Mays High had advanced to the Georgia High School Association Class AAAAA state championship football game. Friday at the Georgia Dome — 8 p.m. — they will take on the Northside Eagles from Warner Robins. Never has Mays gotten this close to a championship. Not a semifinal. Not a quarterfinal. No kinda final. Yet in last week’s game, this team of young men made history when they defeated the Stockbridge Tigers 30-15.

I’m a Class of ’90 graduate of what was once referred to as the “golden ghetto.” I ran track, was on the varsity cheer squad and enrolled in the math-science magnet. Now, I’m an educator, hip-hop scholar and proud alumnus who knows from personal and professional experience the symbolic win this game represents beyond the points this team will score. In fact, I know of at least four reasons why the game is significant not only for current Mays students and alumni but also students, alumni, and representatives of the entire Atlanta Public Schools.

1) Community-based coaching. Community-based coaching builds trust between coaches and their players. The coaching staff — headed by Corey Jarvis — is predominated by APS alumni, including one Mays graduate, Tony Slaton. Jarvis is a graduate of Harper, now known as Harper-Archer Middle School. Most of the other coaches either attended Harper as well or Douglas, located only a few miles down the street. Mays lost its very first game against Hughes 27-7. Thereafter, they only lost one more game. Their strategy according to coach Jarvis: “We identified ourselves not by who we thought we were, but by who we saw we were.” Great play on words, right?

2) Alumni pride for city leadership. The Mays community instilled a pride in its alumni that continues to reveal itself in city leadership. We have to look only to the Atlanta City Council. Council President Ceasar Mitchell is a graduate of Mays (1986), Kwanza Hall (1989), and Andre Dickens (1992). Although Joyce Sheperd and C.T. Martin went to Washington and Michael Julian Bond and Keisha Lance Bottoms are graduates of Douglas, they and their Douglas and Washington peers are Team Mays on Friday night, if only for the pride, legacy, and commitment these schools made (and continue to make) to the success of its alumni.

3) A win for Atlanta hip-hop. The leaders and cultivators of Atlanta’s hip-hop community were cultivated in Mays, Douglas, Therrell, and other APS schools. Let’s take Rozonda “Chili” Thomas from TLC. She’s a Mays graduate (1989). Khujo, Big Gipp, and T-Mo of the GOODie MOb are 1990 graduates. Ceelo is a former Mays student. DJs Mike Webster and Art Terrell are ’83 and ‘86, respectively. Shanti Das, a key element of Outkast’s early success, is a 1989 Mays graduate. Hot 107.9’s Emperor Searcy is Mays 1989 as well. And his business partner Lil Jon, while not Mays, is a Douglas graduate. Michael “Killer Mike” Render and Clifford “TI” Harris Jr. attended Douglass, too. Rico Wade and Sleepy Brown of Organized Noize Productions and the early mentors of Outkast’s Andre 3000 and Big Boi are graduates of Therrell. So is DJ Toomp. And these are just the public faces. There are more. The fact that it is Mays playing Friday night is a win for Atlanta hip-hop.

4) Morale boost for APS.

APS has taken several blows on the athletic and academic side the past few years. There was the cheating scandal that left a severe blow as well as the Grady address scandal. City schools such as Mays that once sat at the helm of good schooling have struggled to define their place in the “New” Atlanta. With the changing demographics and the series of troubles, the added value of APS has been somewhat diminished. This game is an opportunity to rehabilitate the image of Mays and APS, while reinstalling pride and morale in its alumni and current student body — especially since the average GPA of the Mays football team is 3.1.

Benjamin Mays once said, “It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn’t a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream.” Quotes like this still hang from the walls of the remodeled Mays High. As they did when I was there, I suppose these quotes still seep into the minds of the student body — especially its football team — who, along with the coaches dared to dream big. And at Friday night’s game, these young men will represent the outcomes of doing so.