Students are encouraged to take advantage of all the opportunities college offers. For UMaine graduate and former football running back Roosevelt Boone, there has been just as much to give back as there has been to take advantage of.

Boone’s Football Life

University of Maine football coach Jack Cosgrove knew that Boone would be a coach long before he was offered the position.

“I used to kid him that he would be a future football coach whenever I saw him on campus,” Cosgrove said.

Now, three years after graduating from UMaine with a degree in kinesiology and just months after earning his master’s in kinesiology and physical education, Boone is back on the sidelines as the team’s running back coach.

“I took over in the spring, so I had that introduction,” Boone said. “So I had our 15 spring practices to get to know us as a group and our guys individually so we could set our position goals as well as individual goals.”

Boone has adapted quickly to his new position, gaining the respect and trust of his players. Just three years removed from his undergraduate days, Boone knows how to relate to his players and help them with more than just football.

“Some of the things that they have to deal with I’ve already gone through so I can give them some insight or a heads-up,” Boone said. “I can relate to what they’re going through, like coming out of camp or transitioning from summer to now having to handle not only their playbook but also their course load. It’s something I can relate to; I can understand it.”

The players are not the only ones facing a transition. Boone has faced the challenge of jumping into a coaching position with the defending Colonial Athletic Association champions. As challenging as his new job can be, Boone’s experience in the program has helped ease his transition.

“The one thing that’s helped me out is having some experience in the program, so I do know the offense and what we do schematically,” Boone said. “It’s not like I came into a situation where I had to completely learn a new offense, so that helped me out.”

“I already had a relationship with most of the staff,” he continued. “They’ve been patient too. I’ve made mistakes, and I’m still making mistakes as any first-year guy would do but the staff has been diligent and accepting in embracing my position here.”

Boone’s community efforts at home and abroad

Since Boon graduated with a bachelor’s degree in in 2011, he has been busy.

Boone worked as a camp counselor the summer before his senior year at UMaine and was taken aback by the cost of the programs. In an effort to make things more affordable for underprivileged kids in the area, he founded Strong Mind-Strong Body (SMSB), which allows kids who could not afford expensive sports camps to have a place to go for exercise and lessons in nutrition and wellness.

“The Strong Mind-Strong Body program is pretty much a youth development program where we induce a positive youth development through physical activity where we combat obesity and influencing positive youth development, raising self-efficacy through the curriculum that we do have that focus on mind, body and spirit: The three components of wellness,” Boone said.

In June 2011, a former teammate of Boone’s, running back Charles Kyeremeh Jr., passed away in a motorcycle accident while he was staying with Boone for the summer. Kyeremeh, a native Ghanaian, was visiting his mother at the time for her birthday and was heading into his second-year at UMaine.

Kyeremeh’s family started a foundation in his name, the Kyeremeh Jr. Foundation. Boone was able to work with Kyeremeh’s family to set up trips to Ghana the last two years so Boone could share his passion of health and wellness with the impoverished country.

“The schools that we work with are heavily populated, with 300-400 students in two or three grade levels,” Boone said. “This past year we sent 2,000 books to start a library in Ghana in his name, the Kyeremeh Jr. Library.”

Through his partnership with the Kyeremeh Jr. Foundation and a tireless work ethic, Boone has been able to make an impact in Ghana as well as right here in the Orono community.

Anybody interested in Strong Mind-Strong Body Student, Inc. is encouraged to contact Khari Al-mateen and Diana Abraham on FirstClass.