Youth Voices Rising: Notorious Watkins Interviews WVSU Basketball Coach Marcus Reed

This story is part of Youth Voices Rising, a Black By God narrative-change project supported by The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation and produced in partnership with the Norman Jordan African American Arts and Heritage Academy at West Virginia State University.

Seventeen-year-old Notorious Watkins got the chance to turn interviewer during Black By God’s Youth Voices Rising camp.

Watkins, a 12th-grade student from Charleston, West Virginia, was assigned to interview a local leader in the sports category. His interview was with WVSU assistant men’s basketball coach Marcus Reed.

Watkins asked Reed about his work with young athletes and what advice he would give the young people in the room.

For Reed, coaching is about more than basketball.

“I’m trying to help young men become better,” Reed said.

When Watkins asked what advice he would give someone sitting in the room that day, Reed offered a simple message: be yourself.

“A lot of people try to change to be somebody else,” Reed said. “You gotta do the right thing, but being yourself goes a long way.”

For Watkins, the experience was also a chance to learn more about West Virginia and the people who make up its communities.

“I learned more facts about my state and how great our community really is once everyone comes together,” Watkins said.

Youth Voices Rising gave Watkins and other young people the opportunity to sit across from community leaders, ask their own questions and learn more about the people doing meaningful work around them.

For Watkins, a conversation that started with basketball ended with a lesson that reaches well beyond sports: being yourself goes a long way.