Today we’d like to introduce you to Darmetreis Kilgore.
Darmetreis, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
As a fatherless and troubled youth in South Bend, Indiana, I lost my way such as carrying an illegal firearm, gang involvement and going to jail for stealing. My behavior became so exacerbating that my mother began making arrangements to send me off to boy school. At the end of my 7th-grade year, my grandparents became heavily involved. Nana was very patient and introduced me to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; my Papa was former military and a pastor that owned a lawn service. I was bullied in school, so I would work during the summer to earn money to help with school clothes and my grandparents would match my earnings.
The following year I started playing basketball, which added to my refuge. I would eat, sleep, and think basketball, which lead to low academic performance. After being ranked the 7th best shooting guard by USA Today, McDonald’s All American Candidate, and 1st team All-State, I didn’t have the grade point average or SAT score to accept any of the major division one scholarship offers, so Junior College was my only option. I attended Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas becoming the #1 Junior College in the country and projected the 37th pick in the 2001 NBA Draft.
My decision to forego the NBA and attend Purdue University was one of the best choices I could have made. The reason it was a great decision is that I would have destroyed myself and those around me due to the lack of maturity. Hindsight is truly 20/20. I went on to graduate from Purdue University with a Bachelors Degree in Sociology and participating at the NBA Philadelphia 76er’s free agent camp. My relationship with God gave me direction and encouragement to overcome the vicissitudes of life.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Retiring at the age of 27, I began working with troubled youth and volunteering at Heroes Camp in South Bend which sparked a passion to help kids. After teaching 3rd and 6th grade, I relocated to Dallas trying to find my purpose in life in corporate America.
Going through a divorce in 2014 and contemplating suicide, I called my spiritual father Pat Magley who gave me words that would forever change that course of my life. He said, “Be honest in prayer,” so I went on a 3-day fast drinking liquid only, stopped telling God what I thought He wanted to hear and began praying my heart. I always sensed a pull that was greater than chasing money in my life, so I started chasing my purpose.
God told me to step out on faith and commit to His vision full time. And I did just that, it started with basketball training and life skills on the weekend with a core group and now impacting over 300 student-athletes throughout Dallas/Ft. Worth in less than 3 years.
Finding Me Academy Global – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Finding Me Academy Global is a non profit after school and summer program dedicated to the global development of student-athletes who are committed to discovering their purpose. The FMA Global objective is to efficiently create a myriad of purposed paths for student-athletes as they build towards life evolvement.
Through hard work, perseverance, commitment, family, faith, and attention to their foregoing paths, academy participants will be equipped for all obstacles. Examples of these purposed paths would include (but not limited to) curricula developed to assist with the following: financial planning, organization skills and development, life skills and competency, relationship building and sustainment, cultural awareness, and much more.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My proudest moment happened when my spiritual eyes were healed and I could see my path that God laid before me, which sparked the vision to help others find their purpose.
Pricing:
- $4200 Annual World Changer Partnership
Contact Info:
- Address: 3010 Mustang Drive Grapevine, Texas 76051
- Website: www.fmaglobal.org
- Phone: 972-854-4500
- Email: dkilgorefma@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fmakilgore/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FindingMeAcademy/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/dkilgorefma
Image Credit:
Clarence Hodrick III & J McClure Photography
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