The film's impact derives in part from the magnitude of that struggle: East St. Louis has the nation's highest per capita murder rate, and But the doc also delivers emotional force by focusing on individuals: the enigmatic star receiver who, coaches admit, is a mystery even to them; the cornerback who is devastated by the sudden death of a year-old cousin; the coach who, through his work, compensates for missed time with his own eldest son. What might seem all too familiar becomes deeply human.
Sunkett knows well football's power to elevate. Playing at Camden N. High in the early s helped lift him out of the troubled city to Cheyney Pa. University, a historically black school where he lined up at defensive back. By the early '90s he had married his wife, Lisa, an East St.
Louis native, and they relocated to the area. It was a trajectory not unlike that of East St. Louis itself. Once a thriving middle-class manufacturing and shipping hub—the National Civic League designated it an All-American City in , the same decade its population peaked at more than 80,—it was hit by forces of urban destabilization, both common and unique: deindustrialization, white flight, the construction of an interstate that fractured neighborhoods.
When the crack epidemic struck the U. Louis native. Wildly disparate federal sentencing laws one gram of crack was treated the same as grams of powder cocaine hastened the devastation by tearing up implicated families and keeping them apart. The city's population continued to wane. Schools shuttered or merged. Neglected buildings fell into disrepair, their surrounding lots overgrown.
Against this backdrop Sunkett rebuilt the football program into a powerhouse that serves as one of the city's points of pride and its players' brightest source of hope. In 89 Blocks—a reference to the city's footprint and a nickname used by East St.
Louisans—Sunkett and his staff impress on their team that football can open doors to higher education. The school's season had been cut short by a midseason teachers' strike, wiping out the best chance to impress recruiters for that year's seniors.
No Flyer from the class of '17 is more coveted than wideout Jeff Thomas, an eventual All-America and top 10 recruit at his position. But no Flyer is as frustrating, either. Absent from a string of practices, Thomas is held out of a game and must eventually win over his teammates, who voted on whether he should keep his roster spot. His coaches confide that their star is hard to reach, often hidden behind walls he's built to protect himself from a harsh environment.
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Sports Illustrated February 20, USA Topics: swimsuit, necklace, bracelet, jewelry, swimwear, bracelets, stihl, rings, catbird, maui, robin
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