New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
Meet A.J. Tavares, a 30-year-old teacher, basketball coach, and owner of A1 Skills, Development and Training.
A.J. started playing basketball at a very young age, falling in love with sports at the Boys and Girls Club. He played sports throughout school, playing varsity football, basketball, and baseball his senior year.
After his time at New Bedford High School, A.J. went on to UMass Dartmouth, where he majored in Business and continued to play all three sports. He initially didn’t want to attend the school but his professors and coaches made him feel at home and contributed to his growth as a young and athlete. His senior year became a pivotal one as he helped lead the team to a 20-0 start reaching #2 in the country, ultimately finishing 25-4 and ranked 10th in the country, losing in the 2nd Round of the NCAA Tournament.
After switching into the Criminal Justice program, he graduated from UMass Dartmouth. He turned down a position working for campus police and pursued a sales position in Boston. After 8 month of working there he realized that isn’t what he wanted to do for the rest of his life and began working as a youth life coach between Boston and New Bedford. He saw the impact that he was having on the kids and wanted to focus that on the community.
A.J. recently became a 4th grade teacher at Devalles school, where he is able to help kids at such a vital age, where they start forming habits that will stick with them throughout the rest of their lives. Not only does he teach elementary students, but coaches boys junior varsity basketball for New Bedford High School and runs a company called A1 Skills, Development and Training.
A1 Skills, which stands for Adversity First, is focused on training youth with the fundamentals of basketball, like footwork, handling, and shooting, as well as physical fitness and sport specific training. He picked the name Adversity first because he’s a firm believer that it’s only through the adversity in life that you become the person you are.
“I try to believe in everybody like I would want people to believe in me.”
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Faces of New Bedford is a project by Colton Simmons. If you are interested in booking a shoot or getting prints from the series email all inquiries to colton@coltonsimmons.com.
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Read more of the Faces of New Bedford series here.
Wow! Our community is fortunate to have this man… ” I want to believe in people like I want them to believe in me” … He made the decision to come back here and do just that. Our kids need immediate, accessible role models to look up to, to counteract what they experience, see and hear around them. Thank you…