In 2005 Carl H, Sharperson, Jr. noticed that DW Daniel High School had a great football team but was not sending any athletes to College. Having benefited from the help of Coach Sparks, who was his high school football and baseball coach in Spotsylvania, VA., during the same time as the movie, Remember The Titans, Carl saw an opportunity to intervene and fill a void. Coach Sparks sent a recruiter to Carl's high school to recruit him to play football ad Navy, and Carl did not know what the Naval Academy was, and it was only 90 mile up the road. Carl has a burning desire to help young people, just as coach Sparks poured into his life and changed his life trajectory. Carl approached Dusty, the Athletic Director and Dr. Thorsland, the principal and asked why more of the school’s athletes weren’t getting scholarships to participate in college sports.
They recognized that the NCAA clearinghouse was part of the problem, so Carl gathered some community volunteers to help. (Jeff Davis and Harold Coleman, who were leaders in the community, along with the school counselor; were on the initial leadership committee). They all met and started brainstorming about ways to get the student-athletes ready for college. Carl and the leadership team created an after school tutoring program that was mandatory, and it was staffed by students and teachers that volunteered their time to help student athletes in all subjects. The program also monitored the classes that the athletes enrolled in to ensure that they were taking the right courses, and that they could pass the NCAA clearing house standards in order to get into college. Too often, people see problems and just complain about them – Carl helped solve a problem, instead.
Some of the student athletes that benefited from the program and went to D1 schools to play football; on an athletic scholarships are as following; Nuke Hopkins, Jarvis Jenkins, Shaq Lawson, Dashawn Williams, Duval Young, CJ Davidson, Jerrod Williams, JD Davis, Judah Davis and many others graduated from Clemson University and other D1 schools. The first four, previously listed; were drafted by the NFL. Nuke Hopkins was the highest paid WR in the in the NFL in 2019. Carl has a crystal-clear mission in life, which is to give guidance and mentor young people and help them to be all that they can be, just as his coach did for him when he was in high school. Many of Carl's life lessons are documented in his life changing book, Sharp Leadership, Overcome Adversity To Lead With Authenticity.
Carl is an honorary MISTER from the program Call Me MISTER which was founded in 2000. This program was designed to get African American males into the elementary schools in the state of South Carolina. Carl was instrumental in training and developing the young men during their summer seminar training classes. When his book Sharp Leadership was launched in 2018, the MISTER students gave input and the MISTERS get a copy when they enter the program as freshman.
Carl is a mentor in a program that was started for student athletes/football players at Clemson University called PAW Journey. P.A.W. Journey is a leadership initiative that focuses on football student-athletes on and off the field. P.A.W., stands for “passionate about winning,” and the initiative represents how our student-athletes continue to compete and use the transferable skills of football. P.A.W. Journey aims to cultivate leadership in student-athletes through three main pillars, personal growth, life skills and professional development.
