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An Asbury-based non-profit organization seeks to bridge a perceived disconnect between local student athletes’ athletic prowess and their failure to shift that talent past the high school level.

The Sportz Farm Foundation‘s mission is to “produce professionals on and off the field,” said Diteko “Tiko” Hammary, the organization’s founder and director.

Currently, Hammary and other volunteers run free strength and conditioning boot camps with local youth two to three days a week for two hours at a time. There, they are mentored for brief periods of time by Hammary and other volunteers about the importance of discipline, work ethic, sportsmanship, and academic success.

The youth that participate are kept “busy and off the streets, where they are likely to be if not for the open sessions,” said Alisha Hammary, the program’s assistant director and wife of Diteko Hammary.

By the start of the school year, the major priority of the organization will shift to the academic success of the student athletes. In the past, Hammary has referred students he trains to pro bono academic consulting programs in the area and hopes to form partnerships between them and the foundation in the coming months.

“We work with kids from all over the area — Asbury, Neptune City, kids from the Boys & Girls Club — there’s a whole wall of pictures of students we have helped,” said Jean D’arcy Maculaitis of MAC Testing & Consulting in Shrewsbury, who some of the Sportz Farm kids refer to as “Dr. Mac.”

Hammary’s plan for the foundation is to form partnerships with academic services like MAC for students to access for a small fee.

Daquane Bland-Bennett, 17, is a rising senior this year at Asbury Park High School [APHS]. He plays football, basketball and also runs track. His work with Hammary started his freshmen year at APHS when Hammary recognized Bland-Bennett’s talent on the football field. When he entered his sophomore year, Hammary helped secure him a SAT tutor.

“All year-round he’s our coach, not just on the field,” Bland-Bennett said. “When you come here, you get a one-to-one relationship with someone you can build trust with. It’s not just about the sports.”

Bland-Bennett’s current GPA is 3.0, but he’s hoping to end the school year with a 3.3.

Maurice Hart, 20, graduated from APHS in 2011. He is currently a junior at Delaware State College.

For Hart, Sportz Farm “helped show [him] the right path.”

“It gives kids a chance to develop skills and opportunities to succeed,” he said. “It teaches you a better work ethic.”

“It’s somewhere to go to keep you off the streets and keep you active,” Bland-Bennett said.

Diteko Hammary graduated from APHS in 1991. He started coaching football in Asbury Park the Pop Warner level in 2003. In 2008, he decided to coach at the high school level because he started to notice a pattern — talented athletes he coached at the Pop Warner level that moved up to play in high school were not able to transfer that talent to the college level.

“We have a town that has numerous state championships — on a Pop Warner level, on a high school level — and that doesn’t always translate into college success,” said Alisha Hammary. “The athletic talent is there, however, it’s typically always the grades that come into play. Some parents don’t know enough about that so they don’t stress it enough in the home.”

Hammary has taken his student athletes to several training camps throughout the country in Connecticut, the Carolinas and Texas. There, he networks with other high school and college coaches.

“I already know their athletic ability,” he said. “But when college coaches look at them and say, ‘OK, well how are your grades? Let me look at your transcript’ that’s when kids would drop their heads. That’s when I realized I needed to do something else, not just get these kids exposed athletically. I need to make sure, academically, that they meet the requirements for that next level.”

That’s where The Sportz Farm Foundation came into play. The program officially launched in January of 2013 and has since applied for non-profit status. In the coming months, a board of directors will be formed.

Hammary has enlisted the help of Asbury Park resident and Rutgers University professor Nora Hyland. She is supportive of the “spirit of the foundation” and sees sports as a way to expand the opportunities of area children, she said.

“Particularly, for low income students, it’s often those non-academic activities that keep those kids engaged in the academic process,” Hyland said.

Hyland’s plan is to help draft the foundation bylaws, and is in talks as to whether she will serve on the foundation’s board of directors.

“Before, it was mostly just volunteer basis, there was no structure around it. It was Tiko volunteering and spending time with boys who didn’t have the presence of a father in their homes,” said Alisha Hammary.

“His father was the same way, and that’s where he gets it from,” she said. “It’s not even work for him.”

Donald Hammary Sr., Diteko’s father, was an Asbury native. He coached football at the high school level and worked as the city’s recreation director, according to Diteko Hammary.

The Donald Hammary Sr. Community Courts on Prospect Avenue were named in his honor.

This summer, the foundation organized trips to four sports camps featuring professional athletes Kyrie Irving, Timothy Wright, Carmelo Anthony and Hakeem Nicks. These camps allow student athletes to increase their skill abilities and network with many other students as well as coaches, according to Alisha Hammary.

“If someone is going to believe in them, they are willing to put in the work,” said Diteko Hammary of his student athletes. “All I have to do is show you the way so you can bust down the door yourself.”

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Photo at top: Diteko Hammary [at left] keeps a close eye on student athletes as they take part in one of The Sportz Farm Foundation’s strength and conditioning sessions held in the Asbury Park Middle School gymnasium.

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