Episode 04 • Guest Profile
Jarrett Collier.
Jarrett “Coach Jay” Collier is a coach, mentor and Athens Boys & Girls Club director committed to giving young people the structure, belonging and consistent support that can change the direction of a life.
His Story
The club became his landing place.
Jarrett’s relationship with the Athens Boys & Girls Club began long before he became its director. He entered the club as a 10-year-old growing up in a single-mother household and found a place where he could remain safe, build friendships and be himself.
After graduating from high school, Jarrett briefly left for college before returning home. The club once again became his landing place—this time as an employee beginning his own work with the next generation.
What began as a childhood resource became the place where his own experiences could become useful. He understood what it meant for a young person to need somewhere dependable to go and someone dependable to meet them there.
His story came full circle: from being the child who needed the club to becoming one of the adults responsible for protecting what the club can mean to another child.
The Work
Showing up before something goes left.
Safe Spaces
The Athens Boys & Girls Club gives young people somewhere structured to go after school. It provides recreation, education, meals, relationships and a space where children can feel acknowledged, protected and included.
Mentorship
Jarrett pays attention to how young people behave beyond the uniform. Anger, withdrawal and poor decisions may be signals that something deeper is happening at home or inside the child.
Coaching
His approach to sports is rooted in teaching. Winning matters, but it cannot become more important than developing character, building confidence and keeping a relationship with the child.
The Critical Hours
What happens between 3 and 7 matters.
The hours after school can become a gap between the structure of the classroom and the presence of a parent returning from work. Without support, young people may be left to supervise themselves, care for younger siblings or navigate environments they are not prepared to manage alone.
Jarrett understands those hours personally. The Boys & Girls Club gave him somewhere safe to be while his mother worked. Now, he helps provide that same consistency to children and families across Athens.
The club cannot control every environment a child returns to at the end of the evening. It can make sure that while the child is inside its doors, they are seen, supported and treated as someone whose life carries value.
Sometimes the club may be the only place a child receives a hug, encouragement or the attention needed to recognize that something is wrong before it becomes a crisis.
The Coach
Lose the game or lose the kid?
Jarrett challenges a culture that treats young athletes like machines. Children are often told exactly what they must do to become successful before anyone stops to ask whether the pressure is healthy or whether they still enjoy the game.
As both a coach and the father of a young athlete, he understands how difficult it can be to separate ambition from expectation. A parent wants more for the child. A coach wants performance. Neither goal should erase the fact that the athlete is still young.
His standard places development above recognition. Players may want to imitate the finished version of professional athletes without seeing the repetitions, discipline and years of work that created that result.
Jarrett is willing to lose a game while teaching a lesson. What he refuses to accept is winning at the expense of losing the trust, confidence or future of the child.
Belonging has to come before performance.
Jarrett’s work begins with a simple understanding: young people are human before they are leaders, athletes or success stories. They will make mistakes. The responsibility of the adults around them is to notice what is special early enough to help protect it.
“I can’t save everyone… but I’ll die trying.”
Follow the Story