About 99% of the archives I found about my high school Southwest DeKalb were about sports, mainly football. SWD has always been a worthy competitor in Georgia high school sports, so I was not surprised. The most interesting story I found was written by Shannon Owens of the Orlando Sentinel. The article titled “Black kicker a rare find,” was about written about Taylor Wesley, who at the time was Florida A&M’s starting kicker. Wesley is also an alumnus of Southwest DeKalb High School. He talks about growing up in an all black community and how there were black kickers in grade because someone had to take the position. He went on to mention the number of black kickers dwindle significantly once they move on to college, even at HBCUs.
The writer also interviewed SWD’s head football coach at the time, Colin Godfrey. Coach “Buck,” as we called him, was the first black kicker to emerge out of Southwest DeKalb and receive a full athletic scholarship for his position. Coach Buck thinks that many black students don’t go after the kicker position because people are more concerned with those who make touchdowns and throw passes.