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Sports Illustrated HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE OF THE MONTH
Presented byTHE U.S. MARINE CORPS
While most high schoolers were likely sleeping, Daijon Smith—a 6-foot, 182-pound senior shooting guard and small forward from Harper Woods High, outside Detroit—huddled with a group of elementary schoolers on a recent Saturday morning. The varsity co-captain, 17, was there as a coach for N.U.M.E.N. (Neighborhood United Maximum Effort Now), a youth-basketball organization that he helped to transform from a youth camp with 40 kids into a full-fledged league that now boasts 150 members; he recruited many of the players as well as more than a dozen of his peers to serve as coaches and refs. Daijon also volunteers as an assistant for the Harper Woods Middle School teams, sprinting between their practices and his own after school. Says N.U.M.E.N. founder Will Smith, "He's a young man you can depend on." For more of Daijon's story, visit SI.com/HSathlete
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ALEXANDRA FENWICK FOR SPORTS ILLUSTRATED (SMITH)
