Between a cop and a counselor

(This story originally appeared in the Hesperia Star Tuesday, December 5, 2006)

Michael Stewart has been a professional basketball player, a corrections officer and an educator. All of those have melded for the fourth act in Stewart’s life, as the Hesperia Unified School District’s first intervention liaison.

“I was in law enforcement before I came into education,” Stewart said last week, in the Hesperia High School office he occupies much of the week, although he also makes his way to Sultana High School when possible.

“I love the job. Oh God, this is heaven,” he said. “When I was playing overseas, I had big dreams. ‘I’m going to the NBA!’ … but I blew out my knee twice.”

After college, he played professional basketball in Portugal, but after hurting his knee, the professional sports portion of his life ended, and he worked as a corrections officer at the Arizona state prison in Perryville. Stewart had friends die in the line of duty, “so that made me think about a change of career.”

So the Victor Valley High School graduate and member of a family full of teachers returned home to the High Desert, teaching in Adelanto and coaching girl’s basketball at Hesperia High School and serving as the assistant coach for the girl’s softball team. It’s not his first time coaching, though: Prior to returning to the High Desert, Stewart coached such NBA luminaries as Richard Jefferson, Miles Simon and Mike Bibby.

Now he uses everything he’s learned in all his various jobs in his new position, where he’s neither a police officer nor a school councilor (he reports directly to Hesperia Unified School District Superintendent Hank Richardson), and attempts to steer “at risk” kids away from the wrong path, or yank them back off before they go past the point of no return.

For many of the students he sees, having a stable figure available to them is one way to balance out a host of problems they face, including having “only one parent, domestic abuse, drug abuse, parents who are incarcerated.”

So far, Stewart has had to do little to find kids with problems; some have been referred to him by counselors or teachers, but others have found him on their own.

He hears stories of “a lot of family problems. A lot of domestic problems, abuse. Pregnancy issues,” he said. “A lot of them don’t have a parent at home, [or] one is working two to three jobs.

“Being a kid now is tough,” Stewart said. “I hate to say it, but it’s tough.”

Sometimes he just is there to listen or point the students towards resources.

“I try to get the kids in a lot of programs,” he said. “I offered some of the kids to be my staff. … I have one girl who’s my stat girl. She’s never done [sports statistics] in her life.”

But for those who are already risking trouble with the law, he reaches back to his days working at a state prison.

“I sit them down and tell them what prison life is really like. It’s not like it is on TV.”

And he tries to connect with the students’ parents.

“I’m trying to get the parents more involved. If they get off at 5, well, I’m here until 7. Come on in and we’ll talk about it.”

Stewart finds the work, as tough as it may be, satisfying.

“My mom always told me that if you can put a smile on a kid’s face, or help a kid, you know you did something.

“If I can deal with the stuff I did in prison, this is nothing. This is no big deal.”

Beau Yarbrough can be reached at 956-7108 or at beau@hesperiastar.com.