Brown had just lost to Princeton, 9-6, and Chazz Woodson walked off the field with a smile. Odd, considering the Bears’ attackman’s goal since arriving at Brown was to win an Ivy League championship.

So why did Woodson, then a junior, walk off the field smiling last May after succumbing to the Ivy League champions?

He saw 28 fourth graders smiling back at him.

Chazz Woodson is a senior for the Bears, and one of the top men’s lacrosse players in the Ivy League. But for Woodson, who can serenade you with his passion about lacrosse, there is something far more important.

Woodson spent the first semester of his junior year student-teaching at P.S. No. 20 in Manhattan, an experience he ranks among the most rewarding of his life. Assisting Isabel Torres, the primary teacher, Woodson entered the class with 21 of the 28 students below the mandated reading level. When he left, all but one passed the reading test.

‘It’s very humbling,’ Woodson said. ‘When the kids watch what you do and listen to what you say, when you have a bunch of 9-year-olds telling you that you’re their role model, it just makes my day to hear that.’

Woodson oversaw a class project, which emphasized setting goals and choosing positive role models. Many of the students came from broken homes and lacked a strong presence in their life. Woodson helped fill it.

‘I can’t even begin to express the type of impact he had on their lives,’ Torres said. ‘They didn’t have the skills to be successful, to have goals, to have role models. He brought people into the classroom that have been successful in their field. Most (of the kids) don’t have a father around, so it was exceptional to have Chazz here because it gave them a male role model. And they became attached to him.’

When grading papers at the beginning of the semester, Woodson came across a paper that lacked necessary sentence structure and correct spelling. He kept putting the young girl’s paper on the bottom of the pile until there were no papers left to grade. By semester’s end, that girl was in front of the class presenting a three-minute speech that she wrote.

Watching her read the speech, Woodson realized his affect on the student’s lives.

‘It brought a tear to my eye,’ Woodson said. ‘Here’s a girl whose four-sentence paper I had trouble fixing, and she comes up to the front of class. I only asked her to say a couple of things, and she wrote a three-minute speech on her own. It was incredible.’

‘Forget reading; these kid’s couldn’t even write,’ Torres said. ‘By the end of the year, they produced phenomenal writing. The entire school was amazed.’

Woodson’s tact with kids might be inherited. His father, Woody, is a teacher. When Chazz came home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, he brought recordings of his students speaking.

‘(Chazz) was as proud of those kids as I’ve ever been of my students,’ Woody Woodson said. ‘To see the development of those kids, he just had a wonderful experience with that.’

Woodson’s relationship with the students didn’t commence at semester’s end.

When the 28 students traveled to Providence, R.I., to watch Brown play Princeton that spring, it was the first time the students were able to see lacrosse live. Despite the loss,

Woodson’s description of the afternoon glimmers with pride. He called it the best game experience he’s had.

Woodson first proposed the idea of bringing the students to a game, but Torres was not sure it would come to fruition. However, the support came pouring in. The students wanted to go, their parents wanted them to go and Torres convinced the school’s principal.

‘I still think about (the game) whenever I have a bad day because it was so much fun,’ Torres said. ‘The kids made T-shirts and posters, and they were just so excited. For a lot of them, it was their first time out of the city. They were so excited to see Chazz.’

‘When you hear the kids calling him Mr. Woodson, it hits you that he was their teacher,’ said Brown head coach Scott Nelson. ‘He’s a great leader. Even at our camps, kids followed him around. He’s truly a role model.’

Woodson doesn’t just set an example for students – he’s also a role model for his peers. Woodson is black, and he recognizes that lacrosse is not a sport that features a large number of black players. While he’s no pioneer, Woodson does recognize the responsibility.

‘We have two other black players and we have another one coming,’ Woodson said. ‘I try to emphasize to them that this is not only an opportunity for them to be college athletes, but it’s an opportunity for them to make a change. It’s not a big revolutionary thing, but it is significant to show that there are successful black players.

‘It is a big deal. I try to make sure that everyone knows (there are successful black players). I try to spread it because people think it’s a white prep-school sport.’

Woodson works to change that notion. He is a prolific goal-scorer for the Bears, for whom he uses his superb athleticism and point-guard skills from high school basketball to maneuver his way around defenders. Nelson gushes about how exciting Woodson’s goals are, and Woody revels in his quickness. Even Woodson’s brother, Bryce, testified to Chazz’s talent.

‘On a regular day, I’d say Chazz is terrible and no good,’ said Bryce, who plays high school lacrosse. ‘But my coaches say I’ve been watching my brother too much. They say I’m diving in the crease like him, working the defenseman like him. But he’s my biggest influence in lacrosse. He got me started, and I’ve been following him ever since.’

Woodson had promised his students that he’d score a goal for each one of them last season. Every morning following a game, the class would check on Woodson’s goal tally and count down. He finished the season with 32 goals, and Torres used Woodson’s scoring prowess as a lesson for the students about achieving their goals.

A year later, Woodson’s goal is a little different.

‘If you ask anyone on the team, they’ll say all I want this year is a ring,’ Woodson said. ‘I don’t want to graduate here and say, ‘I was close.’ There are so many players who have come through here and have been great players but don’t have any championships to show for it. I want to be the one to get it done.’

Published on March 30, 2005 at 12:00 pm