The Best Is Ahead

This past weekend, The Best Is Ahead Foundation (TBIAF) hosted several Maryland Football alumni events including a sold-out golf outing, a football social at GrillMarx Steakhouse in College Park, and an alumni reception at the Red-White Spring Game sponsored by Mission BBQ. 

According to Dan Crowley, one of the foundation’s co-founders, the primary goals for the weekend were to engage former Maryland football players, spread awareness of TBIAF by sharing success stories, and showcase NIL to loyal and passionate Terps fans.

Those goals were met—and then some. 

“There is an air of excitement, enthusiasm, and positivity around this program under the leadership of Coach Michael Locksley,” Crowley said. “The events that TBIAF hosted this weekend, in conjunction with the Spring Football game, helped keep this positive momentum moving forward. As Coach Locksley always says, the best is ahead for Maryland football, and TBIAF is excited to be part of taking this program to the next level. Even more importantly, we are proud to be working hard to improve the lives of so many young people in the DC and Baltimore areas.”

The close to 100 alumni who were back in College Park for the weekend felt that same energy.

“Mike’s made a massive effort to connect with all the alumni,” said D’Qwell Jackson, a former star linebacker both at Maryland and in the NFL. “I think in the past some of the alumni have felt like we’re on the outskirts, but that’s not how it’s been under Coach Locksley. It’s only going to get better, it’s only going to build, and more and more guys are going to buy into this program and the great things it's doing right now.”

“This is super special,” added Brian Cummings, a former quarterback who played from 1994 to 1997. “We don’t normally get a chance to see each other as much as I think we would like to. And what’s really cool is that, the more people I talk to, the more people say how fired up they are to see Locks, to see some of this new team.”

The Maryland football program was equally as thrilled to welcome all the alums back with open arms. 

“The most valuable commodity that we have is our time,” Locksley said as he addressed the alumni before Friday’s golf outing. “For us to have 88 golfers that showed up, for you guys to give your time back to Maryland football, it means the world to me. This is what it’s all about.”

For the various alums in attendance, a large focus of the weekend was to support TBIAF, both financially and through giving their time and energy to the program and its players. 

TBIAF was founded in the summer of 2022 by Jeff Leventhal and Crowley, with the support of Maryland Athletics. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to improving the lives of young people in the Washington, DC and Baltimore metro areas. Through acts of service and partnerships with local communities and businesses, TBIAF is coaching and educating young people on the importance of mental health awareness, literacy programs, gun violence education, and drug and alcohol prevention.

The community outreach aspect of the NIL organization is particularly appealing for some former Terps, making them even more eager to put money into the foundation. 

During Maryland’s Spring Game when the alumni gathered together on Gossett Patio, Madieu Williams, who established himself as one of the best safeties in the country during his time as Terp from 2001-03, spoke to that very point.

“A guy like myself, I remember doing quite a bit of community service when I was here and Coach Locksley was on that staff,” Williams said. “It did wonders for not only the community, but also for us because a lot of us went into the nonprofit sector after we were done playing football. There’s a great carryover from the service we were doing to life after football and it’s really cool that the young guys now get to see that themselves.”

Since its founding, TBIAF has held nearly 40 highly successful outreach events in the DC and Baltimore regions. Senior defensive back Tarheeb Still and four of his Terps teammates read to third graders at JoAnn Leleck Elementary School in Silver Spring last December. Maryland football players also participated in a reading event in Washington, D.C. for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. And last January they hosted a March football camp for youth in Baltimore County and enjoyed lunch with students at Glenridge Elementary School in Landover Hills.

“What it comes down to is that if we can support these guys and do some good in the community, that’s the best of both worlds,” Jackson explained. “It’s an honor to be part of a foundation that is more than just pay-for-play. There’s a mentorship element, there’s financial literacy. The pinnacles to this foundation allow young men to be successful and take advantage of the DMV area from a business and service standpoint. For alumni, I think it’s important we drive that part home to each other.

“That's the only reason I’m involved,” Jackson continued. “If it was only about collecting as much money as we can to pay top recruits, without any of the financial literacy, without the mentorship, without the lessons about gun violence and mental health, I wouldn’t be involved. That would be a waste of time for me. We’re doing it right here.”

Over the past year, TBIAF has assisted over 40 Maryland Football players with lucrative NIL deals.

Still, the job is not done by any means. TBIAF needs continued financial support to both keep providing the student-athletes with important opportunities and to keep pouring important resources into the surrounding communities.

“The Best is Ahead Foundation has merely scratched the surface,” Crowley said. “We have some of the finest young men in the country on our roster and they are making a significant positive impact in the community.  We are positioning ourselves to take TBIAF to another level as we prepare for the 2023 football season.  We need the support of Terp Nation now in order to achieve the goals set by Coach Locksley and to compete for the Big Ten Championship.”

For the Maryland football alumni in attendance this past weekend, one message was clear: they need to keep showing up for the program—and also get more and more alumni to be involved in the same way. 

“My number one focus is supporting Locks,” Cummings said. “Just for everything he’s done for me personally, and then everything he’s done around Maryland. I think the energy around the program is going in a really good direction. I know a lot of guys feel the same and I’m hopeful more and more of us are going to keep showing it through stuff like TBIAF.”

Jamie Wu, a stalwart on the Maryland offensive line in the late 1990s, talked in detail about the necessity that is now NIL in college sports and alumni’s role in assisting with it.

“The network of former Terps is vast,” Wu said. “Getting that network back home, being involved in the program, and helping Coach Locks raise the money it needs to be competitive, it’s so important in this current landscape of NIL.

“If we’re going to stay competitive, it’s something we have to do,” Wu continued. “We have to raise the money. Not only to keep our current players, but to go out and keep recruiting more top players.”

An unmistakable aspect of the Alumni Weekend? The palpable buzz around the program, Coach Locksley, and what Locksley is building in College Park.

“We love to see this,” Williams said of the excitement. “We love how many people have come back, how excited everyone is about the program. There’s definitely been a rallying cry for all of us to get behind Mike Locksley and all the great stuff he’s doing here and all the guys that have been doing great things here. The level of excellence that he’s building is really exciting to be a part of.”

The enthusiasm around the program’s upward trajectory was reflected in messages from both Locksley and Athletic Director Damon Evans.

“The landscape of college athletics has changed, and it’s changed drastically,” Evans said to the group before the golf outing. “But here at the University of Maryland, we have to learn and adapt to that change so that we can keep improving our football program and get it to where we all want it to be. We know we can win championships here because we’ve done it before. And Locks has us on the right trajectory to do just that.”

“With the support that Damon and all my bosses have given me, it’s allowed us to get this program back to where it’s respectable,” Locksley added. “But I’m not about being respectable, I’m about winning championships. And we can do that here, with your support.”

A big step of that support was illustrated over the weekend as alumni showed up in big numbers.

In fact, Wu reunited with a former teammate he hadn’t seen in 23 years. To Wu, the reunion spoke volumes about the state of the program. 

“For him to come back and show his commitment to the program, it's really telling where Locks has the program currently. This program is in a really terrific place and it’s just going to keep getting better.”