We recently connected with Tahnesia Richmond and have shared our conversation below.

Tahnesia , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Often the greatest growth and the biggest wins come right after a defeat. Other times the failure serves as a lesson that’s helpful later in your journey. We’d appreciate if you could open up about a time you’ve failed.

2 seasons ago, we we entered into a new league that was bigger than any we had joined before. It was very professional and had a lot of requirements including significant travel. For the first time in my team’s history, we were not able to finish the season. Our numbers for out of town games were dwindling, and while the guys out there had heart, they were playing all 3 sides of the ball. Yes, we could have played the last 2 games to save dace, but I wouldn’t let my ego step in front of my desire to make sure that my players were always safe. It simply did not feel safe asking players to play out of position or play the entire game, and that’s what they would have had to do, had we played the last 2 games. It was by far one of the most disappointing things that I’ve ever experienced primarily because my biggest fear is failure. I initially looked at it as a failure, but then realized it was an opportunity for me to regroup and start to come up with better ways to support my guys and develop different programs for the organizations.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

A little over a decade ago, I had the pleasure of being a foster parent and through the program that I fostered with, I eventually had the opportunity to adopt 2 children. My son was a football player, but had been in the system throughout his entire high school career, causing him to have to transfer multiple times. As a result, he didn’t get to develop his football skills the way that we would have liked and his grades suffered. So we decided to have him spend a year at a community college to build up his grades so that he could eventually enter into a 4 year school and play sports. In the midst of doing that, while playing a pickup game with some friends, he was noticed by a local semi-professional football team. They asked him to join and he did. Very quickly, I realized that I could use that level of football to get him some film to be able to provide fresh new film for schools that he tried to go to after he finished at the community college. However, the teams nor league were set up to do that at that time. I am an “if I want to do it right, I’ll do it myself” type of person. And that’s what I decided to do; Do it myself LOL. However, at the time I didn’t have the resources, nor people to make that happen. So for 2 seasons I worked with another organization to learn the ropes, develope relationships, and set the foundation for what would become Nashville Elite. From our beginning, it was our goal to be different and to make sure that we created an atmosphere that cultivated excellence and provided young men with an alternative route to go to school to play ball or play professional football. What has always set us a part is that nothing that the organization does is about me. It is solely about the young men and women who come through our program looking to go elsewhere. As a result of that desire to focus solely on that, we have since gotten rid of the typical league concept for our organization and are now calling ourselves a showcase team in which we will host 2 to 4 games a year that will be viewed by scouts, collegiate and professional. Players are essentially getting real time, on field tryouts and can also utilize that film to make highlight tapes to send to teams. They will have player profiles to make it easier for coaches and scouts to find them and we are hoping that this model will streamline our efforts and help our players get to the next level, whatever that may be. We also have dancers that we hope will be able to get eyes on them as well so that they can be able to continue their careers.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Simply doing what I said I was going to do is the primary reason that we have been successful over the years. I do not sell dreams nor do I make promises that I cannot keep. I simply put, in the work to try to find opportunities for my guys and provide an environment for them to take advantage of those opportunitwe. I also make sure that when players leave our organization and go elsewhere, they are properly prepared to do so, so those organizations can continue to utilize our players that may come behind them.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

That can be difficult at times, especially when the season may not be going as planned. The way that I have found to overcome, that is to make sure those who work with my organization are truly passionate. Not only about the game of football but about enriching and changing the lives of the young people that come through our program. When you love what you do and the reason you’re doing it, it makes it easier to continue to do it, even when things may not be going according to plan.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Nashvilleelitefootball
• Facebook: Nashville Elite Amateur Football Team
• Youtube: Nashville Elite Football Team
• Email: [email protected]

Image Credits
William Jones