This was no tiny decision

December 4, 2023 Andy Furman

Tiny Adams with a student. Photo courtesy of Tiny Adams

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Decisions. They don’t come easy in life — or in the world of sports.

Fourth-and-one on the opponents five — field goal or go for it? Decision.

Star player has four fouls with eight minutes left in the game and you’re trailing by 12. Play him or sit him? Decision.

Pinch-hit for your pitcher who is throwing a three-hitter — but you’re trailing by a run in the seventh with two men on and one out. Another decision.

Corin “Tiny” Adams had a decision to make, and perhaps it was the toughest in her young life.

She decided to walk away from her love — basketball.

Tiny was a basketball star at James Madison High School, where she averaged 21 points, five rebounds and four assists for the Golden Knights as a senior.

Her jersey remains retired at Madison, where she was named to the all-Brooklyn team following both her junior and senior seasons.

At Morgan State, she was a star, and she still holds the record for career points. Just three short years ago, Adams was hired as an assistant coach for the men’s — that’s right, men’s — basketball team at Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland.

But basketball is a thing of the past these days for Tiny Adams. And that was a real tough decision.

“I saw that students needed support beyond athletics,” she told the Brooklyn Eagle. So, she started a nonprofit that provides tutoring, life skills and mentorship.

“I actually started the Leader Breeder program before I even started my career at Loyola,” she said. “I thought about it for a few months, but I kept thinking of family, and wanting to help the youth of Baltimore. Yes, it was a real tough decision.”

But a good one.

“Coaching,” she admits, “was an amazing experience. But I could only help 18 guys on a team. Now I’m helping over 250 kids.”

She says since May, her work has been based out of a community center, but she quickly adds, “We’re hoping to open our own space sometime in early 2025.”

That community center is the Rita Church Community Center of Baltimore. The late Rita Church worked as a teacher, case manager, corrections officer, community outreach workforce developer and employment specialist.

Almost as many hats as Tiny Adams wears during the day, while she oversees game nights, cooking classes as well as sports competition. “I don’t know where we’d be without the community center,” she said, “They’ve opened their doors to us.”

And Tiny Adams has opened her heart to the youth of Baltimore.

Her staff includes six members, and four additional volunteers, she says. In fact, Tiny does substitute teaching to help finance her dream and her own budget.

“I just want to expose these kids to different opportunities,” she said. “We had a basketball camp this past summer, tutoring, volleyball and mentoring junior high school students. We’re planning a literacy program in January.”

Her work has not gone unnoticed in the community. She’s a recent recipient of the Baltimore Weaver Award.

The Weaver Awards support what is going right in Baltimore, rather than trying to stop what is going wrong, she says.

For the third-year in-a-row, M&T Bank and The Aspen Institute’s Weave-Social Fabric Project have honored 20 Baltimore residents with $5,000 grants and a network of support to help them in weaving their neighborhoods and the city together.

The grant, she says, will directly support the LB Mentor Program.
“The one thing I’m learning in this nonprofit space is that the better you do, the more support you’ll receive,” she said.

All Tiny Adams really wants to do is present the opportunities to Baltimore youth that she may have missed growing up.

And that’s not such a bad decision when you think of it.

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] Twitter: @AndyFurmanFSR.