Chamber speaker encourages becoming 'a part of the solution'

Brittany Wagner never expected to be famous.

Coming from a small town in Mississippi where she pursued a degree in education, it was the last thing on her mind. She didn’t even know what Netflix was before starring on the original series “Last Chance U.” But she did know she had a passion for helping others.

“I always dreamed of making a difference in other people’s lives,” Wagner said at the quarterly Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Sept. 26. She could even trace her dream back to fourth grade.

She recalled a boy in her class named Henry Whitehead, who was always in trouble and never did his homework. It bothered her that he was always in trouble, so as a fellow fourth grader, Wagner tried to help him and continued to do so for the following years.

He later went on to be a quarterback for the University of Louisiana Monroe. 

Wagner saw him not long ago, where he said, “I made it because you befriended me in the fourth grade.”

The reunion occurred shortly before the release of the first season of “Last Chance U,” during which Wagner shares her experiences as the “mother to the most dominant junior college football program” in the country, East Mississippi Community College. 

There, she was an academic counselor who worked with the school’s 200 student athletes, particularly members of the football team. Many of the football players were there as a “last chance” to raise their GPA which could lead to recruitment to a major college and the possibility of the NFL.

The show has since taken off, reaching 85 million people and signing for three seasons. Wagner left the show after season two but said the team and EMCC’s town — Scuba, Mississippi —left a great impression on her.

“Ironically enough … those players changed my life,” she said. “I learned the real value of effort; I learned the real value of education; and I learned the real value of myself in Scuba, Mississippi.”

During the luncheon, she shared stories of her interactions with former athletes, some of whom had negative experiences as children or came from less fortunate communities.

“When we would bring some of these players in from inner city cities, we wouldn’t allow them to go home because you wouldn’t know if they would come back,” she said. “Not because they didn’t want to, but because they wouldn’t make it out alive.”

Throughout her talk she talked about her players, many of whom have become professional athletes after their time at EMCC. One in particular, Quinton Dial, who now plays for the Green Bay Packers, is a Birmingham native.

When Dial was 10, his mother died in a house fire and his father turned to drugs shortly thereafter, leaving him effectively homeless. But Dial played football and had teammates in Birmingham whose families took him in. 

He was recruited by Nick Saban to play for the University of Alabama, but because he didn’t have the grades, worked with Wagner at EMCC first. He then went on to play for Alabama, the San Francisco 49ers and now, the Green Bay Packers. 

“I am proud of Quinton Dial,” Wagner said. “Quinton Dial decided to be a part of the solution and not the problem, and when he got to San Francisco, he started a foundation called [QD’s Kids], where he gives back to kids just like him.”

Wagner then asked, what if at some point, she, or the community, had decided to not be a part of the solution and leave Dial to fend for himself?

“There are thousands of kids that have been totally changed by Quinton Dial in the San Francisco area, and it could have all played out differently if someone had decided to not be a part of the solution,” Wagner said. “So even when you’re changing one person’s life, you have no clue that you’re changing a community at some point because of that one person.”

Since leaving “Last Chance U,” Wagner named the Birmingham metro area as her new home. To remain active in the community she created the company 10 Thousand Pencils, which provides counseling services to schools and student athletes.

“And I’m asking you, Mountain Brook and Birmingham, Alabama,” she said, “to stand with me in the commitment to this community and to this country and this world to be a part of the solution.” Her request was met with a standing ovation.