About Us
Mr. Brian Mayes, or Mr. BB as he is known to so many young people, is a native of Charlotte, NC, and the son of Bishop Charlie Mayes and the late Dolores Mayes. He is married to Roberta Langley, who is both his life partner and his partner in working with young people and serving the community.
Brian is a 1983 graduate of West Mecklenburg High School. After graduation, he proudly served for four years in the United States Air Force.
He then spent 20 years as a very popular and highly regarded national gospel performer.
Although Brian still does some singing, his career focus then changed to community service.
For 20 years, he served as Director of Family Life Outreach, an organization that does significant charitable work in the community.
Since 2014, Brian has been the Director of the Boys and Girls Clubs Jackson Teen Center. Under Brian’s leadership, the Center is one of the best-attended programs of its kind in the entire country. 90 percent of Center members go to college or into the military upon graduation.
At the Center, Brian has developed a number of innovative programs. These include “Make it a Conversation”, which enables young people to interact with community leaders and experts about topics of interest, and “Jobs and Employability Training for Teens” (JETT), which provides jobs skills training and internship experiences for high school students.
Brian has received numerous awards and recognitions.
In 2016, he received the Leonard Price Award for Community Service.
In 2017, he was named “Person of the Year” by the Camden Chronicle-Independent.
In 2017, he received the “Delta Five Points of Purpose” Award.
In 2017, he and his wife Roberta received the WIS “Community Builders” Award.
2022 South Carolina's Serve and Connect Change Makers Award Recipient
Brian is tireless and passionate about his work with young people. He has been a life-changing mentor in the lives of countless young people, truly changing the trajectory of their lives for the better.
Summer Grind was the only program in the summer that was fully funded. No charge to the participants nor the parents. No charge for admissions to the games. We provided a safe and secure environment, it was very family oriented. Summer Grind had a high level of community involvement, mutual respect and the program ran this summer without incident. We want to thank all of our volunteers, referees, and coaches.
We are excited to keep the vision of Summer Grind alive in our official, year-round program, "Grind Out Sports and Education."
We are grateful for our sponsors who helped make this happen, including the South Carolina Office of the Governor, DJJ, Kershaw County School District, SAC program under the Dept. of Public Safety and Kershaw Health.
Mr. BB’s Corner
Play the Numbers
According to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, Americans spent over $70.15 Billion on the lottery last year. And who doesn’t love the sounds and bells of a slot machine especially if you’re winning yet slot machines have some of the worst odds? According to Investopedia, odds on slot machines range from 1 in 5000 to 1 in 34 million. Statically, most people who gamble never quit their jobs while playing slots or whatever they enjoy playing. In other words, the average player will not spend his or her grocery money on the lottery.
The same holds true in sports when it comes to numbers. Let’s focus on football. There are over 1,093,234 high school players in the United States and only 6.5% (or 71,060) will play in college. The drop-off from college to the pros is only 1.2% and the numbers for the NBA are even less because there are fewer jobs in pro basketball.
This past summer, I was able to partner with some remarkable people and organizations to create a Basketball Program called Summer Grind (credit Zyrique Bradford). Along with Zy, we had help from DJJ, Kershaw County School District, Serve and Connect, JTC, Roberta Langley and the JETT (Jobs Employability Teen Training) program, Frank Alexander, John Drakeford, Rob Jones, Lawrence Moses, Kenny Lee, Chris Greene, Orvin Holiday, Travis Jefferson, Craig Jones, Andre Richardson, Alexia Boykin, Makalia Allen, Sterling Council, Mrs. Corner and a host of students and parents (not to mention great food by Darius Choice) we had a great summer program. However, before we could have our first practice, someone shared a post with me from a parent that said that this league wouldn’t help their child in their basketball career. This is where the numbers come in. For the record, I love sports as much as the next person, but I play numbers. Since the numbers are greater that a child won’t make the pros, why not have a little Algebra on the side? You see, I am more concerned with the whole student, not just the athlete. I have been criticized on how I run the gym at JTC all because I require students to allow us to help them academically. We had a great summer, and some students were able to conquer the fear of Algebra and Algebra II through our student tutors. My focus was not to create the next Lebron or Michael but to offer a cool gym to allow students to play and get some summer tutoring. For the record, no student or parent paid one red cent to participate in our program.
I guess you can say, I play the numbers too. I bet that any student that comes to JTC and put forth the effort will have an opportunity to go to college and these numbers are much greater than the lottery. I can’t wait to see the next professional athlete come from Kershaw County but just in case they don’t, take this Education with you. If you don’t make the pros, there is nothing wrong with being a doctor or a lawyer.
So just like the lottery, play the numbers correctly, and don’t bet the house on just one thing.
BB