Fort Dale and Crenshaw Christian Academy students gave their full attention as former University of Alabama running back Siran Stacy took the floor to speak.

From the very beginning, Stacy tried to make it clear that he was speaking out of concern for the student’s lives.

“I’m here because of you,” Stacy said. “Not to fill a date in my calendar.”

Stacy’s message was an encouraging one-identify your dreams and strive to fulfill them.

“All of your dreams lie somewhere in the future,” Stacy said. “You actions now should tell those around you where you want to go. Line up your actions to where you are going.”

Stacy’s discussion of dreams began by calling volunteers to the stage. He let the students share their own dreams with the audience and used this to lead into a discussion of his early life.

“I grew up poor, used to not having what my friends had,” Stacy said.

Although he had little money to speak of, his football skills were already earning him scholarship offers to football power-schools.

His life took a turn for the worse, however, with one bad decision. Stacy’s cousin had an idea-rob a local jewelry store.

Stacy’s instincts told him it was wrong, and he declined. Stacy had put the idea into the back of his mind until one morning at 3 a.m. when he heard a knock at the door. His cousin had followed through on the heist, and now offered Stacy another chance to get in on the cut.

“He told me he’d give me some of the jewelry if I sold it,” Stacy said. “I told him I was in.”

Small town life being as it was, however, it didn’t take long for word to get around to the police. Stacy was arrested, and sentenced to three weeks in juvenile detention.

Stacy spent his first three days in confinement 23-hours a day.

It was here that Stacy made the decision to take an active role in his life. His legal troubles had drove most of his scholarship offers away. One lone school in Kansas still wanted him to play football.

“I showed my dad the letter from Kansas and he told me I needed to get a job and grow up,” Stacy said. “My guidance counselor told me I was not college material.”

Stacy saved $100 to pay for his Greyhound ticket to Kansas. After a 33-hour bus ride, his dream was on its way to being realized.

It took a year of hard work and training before the rest of the country started to notice Stacy again. Suddenly everyone wanted to know where this top-rated running back would be playing next year.

“I told them I wanted to go back to Alabama,” Stacy said.

He recalled the first time he stood in the tunnel of Legion Field.

“There were 80,000 fans going absolutely crazy,” Stacy said. “It was twelve years in the making but my dream of playing for Bear Bryant had came true.”

Stacy used his own life as an example.

“If a poor boy like me can overcome all that I have to achieve my dream, anybody can do it.”