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Cedric Jones is cultivating a new era of young men around Los Angeles.
The former NFL player and actor does it with his BMoved Foundation, but he calls the time spent with his boys the Beastie Academy.
Jones honored nearly a dozen of his mentees Thursday, July 21 at his Beastie boxing gym in Manhattan Beach.
Only young men are involved currently, Jones said, but young women will have their space with BMoved once he finds women to lead that sector who are as passionate as he is about supporting the youth.
Some boys start working with Jones at as young as 6 years old, he said, and he sticks with them for good, into their college experience and early adulthood. He keeps it a small group of about 13 on purpose, he added, to give the boys equal time and attention until more mentors are on board.
And there’s no recruiting or advertising, Jones said. Every boy who he brings into the circle heard about his mentorship through word of mouth, built by one impacted mentee putting on the next.
BMoved and Beastie Academy’s goal is to support young men from whatever age, Jones said, help them make wise decisions and keep them in a positive mental and physical space despite any negative stereotypes that may surround them.
Jones strives to “provide them a blueprint for life as best we know how,” he said, “helping them be providers, protectors, those who standup for justice and equality.”
Former NFL player Cedric Jones and the BMoved Foundation host an evening to honor a group of young men for their accomplishments at Beastie Gym in Manhattan Beach on Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Cody Coleman, left, Jordan Washington, Niko Scott, Boston Stovall, Dylan Arthur and Brandon Hendrix are some of the mentees to be honored for their accomplishments by Cedric Jones and the BMoved Foundation at Beastie Gym in Manhattan Beach on Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Former NFL player Cedric Jones and the BMoved Foundation host an evening to honor a group of young men for their accomplishments at Beastie Gym in Manhattan Beach on Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Former NFL player Cedric Jones and the BMoved Foundation host an evening to honor a group of young men for their accomplishments at Beastie Gym in Manhattan Beach on Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Former NFL player Cedric Jones and the BMoved Foundation host an evening to honor a group of young men for their accomplishments at Beastie Gym in Manhattan Beach on Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Former NFL player Cedric Jones hangs out with Gary Otto and Rob Stone as the BMoved Foundation hosts an evening to honor a group of young men for their accomplishments at Beastie Gym in Manhattan Beach on Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Former NFL player Cedric Jones hangs out with Matt Leinart as the BMoved Foundation hosts an evening to honor a group of young men for their accomplishments at Beastie Gym in Manhattan Beach on Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Former NFL player Cedric Jones and the BMoved Foundation host an evening to honor a group of young men for their accomplishments at Beastie Gym in Manhattan Beach on Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Former NFL player Cedric Jones and the BMoved Foundation host an evening to honor a group of young men for their accomplishments at Beastie Gym in Manhattan Beach on Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Former NFL player Cedric Jones and the BMoved Foundation host an evening to honor a group of young men for their accomplishments at Beastie Gym in Manhattan Beach on Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Former NFL player Cedric Jones and the BMoved Foundation host an evening to honor a group of young men for their accomplishments at Beastie Gym in Manhattan Beach on Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Former NFL player Cedric Jones poses with a group of young men he helped mentor at Beastie Gym in Manhattan Beach on Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
The academy is not just for “underserved” youth either, Jones said. It’s for anybody.
“We have some kids who are more than wealthy, but they still need to be inspired and need guidance,” Jones said. “It doesn’t matter whether you have or not, they all want to be something; I can never downplay any kid’s issues, if I feel I can help them, I will.”
Jones works with these boys physically, mentally and emotionally, he said. Every one of them is in a fitness program at the Beastie gym, they participate in a book club, attend financial literacy seminars, clean up litter in different neighborhoods, and they have Zoom calls weekly to discuss their goals and talk about anything, good or bad.
“They talk like they’ve already made it,” Jones said, and that’s what he likes to see. “I want kids to say ‘I don’t want to be where I’m at (now) in five years.’”
Some of Thursday’s honorees, from high school to college age, have been with Jones for seven years, he said, and others who’ve just begun.
To name just a handful of his mentees’ accomplishments, Jones said that five are currently in college, three of them are All-American football players, one recently got a scholarship to Pepperdine University, another received a Division 1 athletic scholarship, and one is an entrepreneur, music artist with a clothing company.
But no matter what their ambition, they all put in extra hard work in and outside of the gym.
“I cant be more proud of them,” Jones said.
Nine out of the 11 boys honored Thursday were there in person to receive certificates recognizing their “ability to change, and the courage to get up one more time,” as well as blazers to wear in the professional world.
One of the absent honorees, Justin Octave, a Leimert Park native, Atlanta boxer and graduate student at Tuskegee University, said in a video played at Thursday’s event that meeting Jones changed his life for the better.
“We were locked in from the start,” Octave said. “He’s the reason I believe in no excuses and never quitting; words like those are just not even in my vocabulary, it’s like it’s impossible to quit or fail, we just keep on going.”
Jones picks up the phone no matter what time of day or night one of his boys call, he said, and will get them an Uber to the gym or wherever they’re meeting if they need rides.
“We pick each other up when we fall, we keep each other up and hold each other accountable for everything,” Jones said.
Inspiring phrases are painted all over the Beastie gym walls, like “look like a beauty, train like a beast,” “you are a champion,” “words to live by: power, greatness, strive” and more.
“When you walk into the gym you’re surrounded by these words full of motivation exploding off the walls,” Octave said.
His favorite one, he added, is “‘fall seven times, get up eight,’ because it’s not about how hard you get knocked down, it’s about how strong you get up; that’s what we do, overcome the odds.”
“One thing I noticed is even if you don’t purposely go and read each sign in the gym, as you’re working our your brain subconsciously is taking in all these signs and suddenly they become part of your lifestyle,” Octave said.
And it’s true, Jones said.
“What you do in the gym transitions into life,” Jones said Thursday. “When they go through adversity I want them to remember the pain they felt in the gym and know they survived,” Jones said. Then “they know ‘if I go through something in life I can push through it.’”
Jones has been mentoring kids for more than 10 years, he said, and officially made BMoved a non-profit in 2014.
It all started when Jones bought a pair of shoes for a boy he met at Ross.
The sneakers the boy was wearing were tattered, Jones said, but his aunt said she couldn’t afford new shoes. When Jones asked her if he could buy her nephew the shoes, she expected him to want something in return. But he just wanted to help a kid in need, he said.
He ended up giving even more to him, and ultimately other young men too. Jones gave the woman his phone number, offering a listening ear to her nephew whenever he would need it.
She reached out, explaining that her nephew was in the foster system, having problems in school and had no men role models in his life.
“I started hanging out with him regularly and after a month whoever was taking care of him told me he had a huge turnaround,” Jones said. “I was like ‘wow, I’m really impacting this kid’s life.”
He continued to meet more youth he wanted to support, Jones said, and it kept going from there. At first, the group would train and have seminars at Jones’ home in Compton. And as the academy grew, the gym became its home.
“It’s odd,” Jones said, to do something like that “in a world where we don’t have a lot of (positive) male figures, it’s odd for a man to say ‘how can I help you young man.’”
Jones plans to open a brick-and-mortar Beastie Academy within a couple of years, he said, “a state of the art facility catering to our boys in ways they don’t normally have.”
It will initially be a place for youth to spend time after school and on weekends with athletic space, a library, computer room, counseling and more, he said, but eventually an actual school with academic curriculum paired with all the things he already brings to the kids he serves.
But no matter what form the academy takes, Jones will never give up on any of his boys: “I got y’all ’til the bitter end.”
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