Former Hurricane Standout Offers Sports As Solution To Gun Violence
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Athletic leaders in the South Florida community gathered in Miami to bring attention to gun violence and work to offer solutions.
High school and optimist coaches held a press conference Thursday afternoon to speak out on the latest series of attacks that claimed several lives.
Also there was local football legend, Randal Hill, who played for the University of Miami and in the NFL, including the Miami Dolphins.
Like many across Miami-Dade, Hill is fed up with the rampant, and often deadly, gun violence involving children and teens.
He said one solution to the problem is readily available for everyone -- sports.
"A lot of people complain a lot of kids have no family or a father figure. Well, the coaches are right there," said Hill. "Take the iPads and the phones out of the kids' hands and put them back into sports where it's a lot of discipline. It's teamwork. It's working together to achieve a goal."
We're barely through the week and we've already seen several shootings, including a 6-year-old who was killed in alleged crossfire between two teenagers.
Irwen Pressley, 17, and Leonard Adams, 18, turned themselves into police in the killing of little King Carter on Saturday.
Two more teens were shot within blocks from each other on Wednesday night.
David Gouldbarne, 17, was shot and killed in front of his own sister -- the shooter, a young kid she says got out of a car and just opened fire.
Gouldbarne was related to 15-year-old Alder Hill, who was dragged from his bike and executed in a vacant lot last month.
Also Wednesday night, Daquan Gordon, 16, was shot when a gunman opened fire from a car, shooting Gordon in the leg.
Hill pointed out the community needs to be proactive to get in front of the gun violence problem, with sports and coaches being an integral part of the solution.
"The idle time, if spent with a coach who's been trained, that time is taken up, therefore, it's less time for you to get in trouble. Even when I was playing at University of Miami they made sure all our time was taken up and we didn't finish our meetings until 11:00 at night."