“Kamal Tucker has a unique gift of facilitating child/adolescent development and empowering them with positive coping skills. I have no doubt that the Urban Diamonds Incorporation will provide your child with well-balanced enrichment experiences that he/she will remember for years to come! If you are looking for a program focused on promoting after school academic excellence, this is it!”

Dr. Dale L. Sanders

I had the opportunity to serve with Kamal Tucker at Khepera Charter School. Kamal, aka “Brother Kamal” called by Khepera’s staff and young scholars demonstrated a selfish investment into the lives of our students. Brother Kamal cultivated character, recreational excellence, and provided keen guidance to support our youth’s navigation throughout this expression we call life. I definitely believe there’s a calling on Kamal’s life to serve and support the development of youth as they prepare to lead in their respective places.

Marquez (Marq) R. Montgomery

I have played almost every sport since I was a child and played for several teams/organizations. I say that because I have, at this point, had interactions with about thirty or more coaches. Kamal Tucker is a coach that is extremely hard to forget. The determination and standard of excellence, in all aspects of life, that he carries/embodies is what makes him a coach that students/athletes naturally gravitate towards. Some of the most impactful conversations I had with him were not even about sports, they were about life.

He has a special superpower of breaking down tasks and objectives that seem extremely difficult into methods that are approachable. Along with that great skill, he has the ability to articulate his strategies/methods into various ways that allows the information and knowledge to be properly processed, conveyed, and easily digestible regardless of age/education level.

He also understands the macro and micro level how instrumental proper guidance and sports can be for individuals from a life perspective beyond the arena. His passion, his drive, his will, his words, his ability to motivate, energize, inspire, and empower anyone around him…that is why Kamal is a coach I will never forget.

Kaseir Archie

Prior to high school, playing baseball only happened to stay in shape and to keep me out of trouble. I was not good at any skill in particular, but I was always the “fast kid” which meant being a base runner. Coming to high school I expected this same narrative to exist. However the head baseball coach, Kamal Tucker, thought otherwise. As I thought about the first practice, the only thing on my mind was “ I do not know how I am going to get this baseball from 1st to 3rd”. As the time for me to throw to first base came, I threw the ball 10 feet over the person's head. Everyone laughed, but Coach Tucker saw a strength. Moving forward he worked with me, not to fix the throw but to throw it harder.

He saw something neither my teammates nor I could see. We began to play games. Prior to the games we would gather around to hear the coach announce the starting lineup for the game. Being a freshman, I never expected my name to be called nor did I want it to be called. As I hear my name called to play left field, I see many of my teammates confused just as I was. Eventually, I was finally able to see what he saw as I thrived in that position. Instead of focusing on a weakness, put your players/people in the best position to succeed. Kamal Tucker has instilled that philosophy in me as I apply it everyday. I currently teach 2nd grade, coach Junior high baseball, Varsity Football, and Junior high basketball.

I found that using this philosophy in all of these situations allowed me to build stronger relationships and instill confidence in individuals, just like Kamal Tucker did for me. I often show my gratitude because without Kamal, I would not have had the confidence to continue to play sports. After receiving the baseball coaching job, Coach Tucker was the first person I reached out to. While I have grown and created a path for myself, I will always be forever indebted to Coach Tucker for believing in me when everyone else saw me as the “Fast Kid”.

Derrick Mclean

My name is Victoria Maloney, and I was one of Kamal Tucker’s former student-athletes at the Snider Hockey Foundation. I have been with the program for a little over a decade now, and Coach Kamal was a big part of transforming me as a student, an athlete, and a person. I used to play out of Simons Recreational Center for Snider Hockey’s after-school youth hockey program, and Coach Kamal was one of the first coaches that immediately offered help to my family and I. Whenever my brothers and I would struggle in school, he would sit down and help us with our homework and explain core concepts of the topics we were going over so that we truly learned the material. Even when my brothers and I became consistent Honor Roll students, he would still checkin with us and my dad and offer aid if we ever needed it.

He also helped pioneer Snider Hockey’s Reading Buddies program, which was dedicated to encouraging students to read by having coaches and older students read to younger students and go over academic and essential life lessons. Reading Buddies would be set up prior to each practice in a separate room, and he made sure to constantly communicate with parents and kids about the program, as well as sit with students and read with them so that they felt more confident in their literary skills.            

He is also well-versed in dealing with students and families from various backgrounds and bringing them all together despite their differences. As a current employee and alum of the Snider Hockey program, I understand the effort and commitment needed to bring people together in order to be successful as athletes, students, and people. Snider Hockey has thrived off of the fact that we have employees who are able to do this, however Coach Kamal is one of the few that set that high bar for us. He never gave up on students, and made sure that they understood that being involved with Snider Hockey and having the opportunities our program offers are rare. To this day, I try to instill the very same lesson that Coach Kamal taught me to my current students at Snider Hockey: When you pursue something, you give it all of your effort and you never give up, because the opportunities life provides can be taken away.            

Despite not having been coached by Kamal Tucker in a few years, I still consider him one of the greatest coaches and role models I ever had due to his unrelenting efforts to see students within Snider Hockey succeed. His success with students in the Snider Hockey program is only one part of his story, and I am excited to see what he does in the future with his talents. To this day, I still use tactics and material I learned from Coach Kamal and see the success that he had accomplished with me and my peers, and I know that he could offer the very same success to more people. His impact on Snider Hockey students is profound, and his legacy still thrives today through the alum who had the honor of having him as a coach.            

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via email at vicannmaloney@gmail.com. Thank you for your time and I hope you have a great day!

Sincerely, Victoria Maloney

Victoria Maloney