Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 18, 1991                   TAG: 9103180097
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CHURCHES MUST HELP STOP DECAY OF FAMILY, COLLEGE COACH SAYS

"I think that is a slap in my face, in the face of parents, of the American public. We are in a bad fix."

Gaines, who is America's winningest college basketball coach, is also known for his community work with youth in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Sunday, he came to the Men's Day program at Roanoke County's Bethel A.M.E. Church to talk about the crisis in America for young black males - and for families.

Gaines, who has been a coach and teacher at Winston-Salem (N.C.) State University since 1945, said it's up to parents and churches to step forward and do something about the crisis.

"The home is the first line of defense," he said.

Of raising his own two children, he said, "I knew where they were every minute." Both ended up earning master's degrees. His son, Clarence, 33, works in management and scouting with the pro-basketball Chicago Bulls team; and his daughter, Lisa, 36, works in marketing in the health-care field.

To fight drugs, Gaines said, parents have to teach children that "knowledge is power."

"We can stop the flow of drugs into our bodies," Gaines said. But "I don't think this slogan, `Just Say No,' is enough."

Youth need in-depth drug education to make them aware of the dangers, he said.

And adults have to teach youngsters that when you're behind in life - just as in a basketball game - "you can't catch up in a hurry. And you can't get rich overnight."

But that's hard to do with the get-rich-quick mind-set that the drug trade spawns. Gaines, who works in a program for youths who have had brushes with the law, has had young boys hand him $400 or $500 and say "Hold this for me" while they go swimming.

He said churches must become the center of the community again and hold programs for youths two or three nights a week.

Before his son and daughter were grown, "every summer they were in somebody's camp. . . . The churches were the leader in this sort of thing," he said.

Gaines' coaching career has taken him around the world twice. He's seen countries with caste systems that leave people in virtual slavery: "You're born poor; you stay poor."

Many blacks in America are slaves to poverty and drugs, he said, but there are opportunities for people who want to work hard and educate themselves.

"A whole lot of learning is dangerous to whoever is the ruling class."