Tony Smith’s Impressive Background

I interviewed Tony Smith yesterday and learned some interesting things about his background. His parents were high school juniors in Stockton when he was born. They were too young to care for him and he spent most of his childhood bouncing between relatives and family friends. He was on a path to juvie when an uncle sat him down in the 7th grade and told him he better start making some decisions about his life. The 12 year-old Smith wrote a six year plan stating that he wanted to get a football scholarship to Notre Dame. He spent part of high school in a group home in Placerville, but he earned a spot at Cal.

Smith said he has a plan to reduce to almost zero the number of students performing at the below proficient level on standardized tests within three years. That sounds about as likely as getting to Berkeley from a group home in Placerville.

Once the video from my interview with Smith is edited, I’ll put it on OakBook.