Coach Chestnut’s Urban Survival Notes: Real Life, Real Solutions, Raw Emotions, Applicable Actions

The purpose of this blueprint is to provide fundamental

tactics and techniques for young adults in need of

guidance to survive in an urban environment. This

information may also serve as a refresher for the more

experienced urban dwellers. More importantly, this blueprint

was inspired by my children, Sadaija and Maceo Chestnut, and

all my former students and athletes who attended West Creek

High School in Tennessee. My life mission is to empower youth,

and what better way to do that than by providing a blueprint

so that they can better prepare themselves for life outside the

classroom and off the playing field?

As you migrate through the survival notes, you will

notice that I follow a pattern. I'm offering a piece of advice,

followed by an experience or incident to support that advice.

Also included are music titles that were either playing in the

background or inspired me as I wrote Coach Chestnut's Urban

Survivor Notes. Music feeds and motivates me, and I hope it

does the same for you.

This manuscript does not pose all the questions one might

ask, nor does it provide all the answers, but it sets the foundation.

This work is listed as volume one, which alludes to more to

follow, such as workshops, life coaching services, and speaking

engagements. As mentioned before, empowering youth is

my lifelong mission, and I'm committed to it. Furthermore, I

know this work will last long after I'm gone. It's my legacy; the dash between the day I was born and the day I die. This book

documents the many times that I have fallen and gotten back up

even more determined.

I believe this work will also serve as evidence that the

time my parents and all those who invested in me was not

wasted. In many ways, I'm carrying the torch once held by my

grandmother, Emma Jane Savage, who fostered hundreds of

children in the city of Buffalo, NY. My mother, Shirley D. Webb-

Hall, and godmother, Gertie Graham, were life-long social

workers and consumer advocates. This work also challenges

my own children to take the baton - to not just exist, but to be

present and give back to society no matter how unfair it may

be at times. This work challenges every student and athlete I've

ever coached to go get their future and also be humble and give

back to the community that served them as well!