The Agassi lesson
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: A river of money flows down the famous Las Vegas Strip...
MAN: This is the ghetto, this is the baddest part of town.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW:..yet very little reaches here - the city's poor west side.
MAN: Every other day someone gets shot around here....When summer comes, oh, man, all you hear is pow, pow, pow, yep.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: It's gunfire?
MAN: Yep, it's gunfire all over the streets.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: But here among the gangs, guns and drugs of the Vegas badlands one school is transforming thousands of lives.
Andre Agassi: You know, this is where it all started.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: And the man responsible is an unlikely hero.
Andre Agassi: How many of you know my name?
ALL: Mr Agassi.
Andre Agassi: How many are you going to college?
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: Everybody.
Andre Agassi: Oh, nice.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: Andre Agassi, a one-time bad boy of tennis, in a role no-one ever expected. A high school dropout, Andre is now leading a teaching revolution that's sweeping America. Las Vegas is where Andre was born and raised. But in its grim back lots, battered by economic depression and decline, Las Vegas can be a bad place to grow up.
Man: Every night someone shooting, I don't know what for, you know. Shooting at somebody or just coming outside shooting their guns.
Andre Agassi: I've watched the inner city change. I've watched the impact of those economic realities on the community and that's why I picked this area to put the school because these are the children that society says don't have a chance. I didn't believe that.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: Where others had given up, Andre brought love - tough love. I'll just read something out to you, I believe you helped write it - something you know very well. I believe you helped write it.
Andre Agassi: Yeah.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: "The essence of good discipline is respect."
ALL: Respect for authority and respect for others. Respect for self and respect for rules. It's an attitude that...
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW:...begins at home......is reinforced at school.. ...and applied through life. and applied throughout life.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: Respect and discipline are totally at odds
with the Andre you used to be.
Andre Agassi: Yeah, I've...
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: You were a rebel!
Andre Agassi: Yeah, I was. And I was always passionate, regardless of what I felt but it took me a while to direct in
a positive way, unquestionably.
COMMENTATOR: Agassi called for a violation.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: This is the Andre Agassi most of us remember - UMPIRE: Game, set, match, Agassi. On the court, charismatic,
colourful, creative. He's a showman, he's an entertainer. One of the greatest tennis players ever had no choice but to succeed.
Andre Agassi: I was raised in an environment where tennis meant everything.
INTERVIEWER: Andre, how do you like tennis?
Andre Agassi: Fine.
INTERVIEWER: Do you want to be a tennis player when you get big?
Andre Agassi: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: How long have you been playing tennis?
Andre Agassi: I don't know.
Andre Agassi: My father, he was very clear on what success was to him and success to him as a parent was to create a future for his children that he didn't have. Success for me as a child,
to my father, was monetarily succeeding, making money. I got sent away from home at 13. There was a sense of abandonment
with it. I didn't even know who I was, yet I'm being told who I was so there was always this disconnect, inherent disconnect
with my own life.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: Andre dropped out of school in Grade 9 but on the court he got straight A's, winning the first of eight
grand slams at Wimbledon in 1992. The mullet, the denim shorts, the earrings, do you look back on those days and shake your head and wonder what you were thinking?
Andre Agassi: No, I don't. I look back and I see somebody
searching, trying to figure out who they are. That took me a while to come out.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: 'Cause it looked like fun, in fact it was the total opposite.
Andre Agassi: Yeah, what better way to hide from who you are
than wear a mullet, right?
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: Andre was hiding more than anyone knew. In 1997 he failed a drug test but avoided a ban by lying to officials. Later, in his autobiography, he admitted he'd tried crystal meth. Off and on the court his life was spiralling.
Andre Agassi: I got pretty desperate in my life, found myself relatively depressed for lack of a better term and realised I needed to do something about it.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: In fact it was when you were at rock bottom
that the idea for this school came to you?
Andre Agassi: Mmm, that's right. I started to really resent the fact that this was something I never chose for myself. I always thought I'd be better in a team sport so it occurred to me
in sort of an epiphany moment what if I created my own team?
And once I set about building my own school and that became something that grew on its own.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: Andre raised $US40 million to build his school in the toughest part of town. It opened in 2001.
Andre Agassi: These are the children that society says don't have a chance. When they wake up in a life that they don't choose that unfortunately historically means gangs, it means prisons it means in some cases not waking up at all, you know, it's a harsh reality. This is so cool. Education is something that I always felt the profound lack of in my life and to see these kids now and be able to provide that to them, it's overwhelming. Tennis that gave me this opportunity and it far exceeds anything on the tennis court.
Dwight Sanders: You start on second semester. You start on second semester. All right, you start.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: The only qualification a pupil needs to get into Andre's school is to come from a low-income family. A rich education awaits...
Dwight Sanders: You going to be good, straight A's?
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: But they have to work hard, spending two extra hours a day in class. It keeps them off the streets and those hours add up. By the end of their school lives, they've had an extra four years of education.
Dwight Sanders: This is it, this is it, being strong, being strong.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: "Respect obedience, discipline." I think any parent watching this would like to see the same thing in their kids. Is this what this school's built on?
Dwight Sanders: Absolutely, code of respect. All of our students must respect each other.
ALL: Respect of others, respect for authority, respect for others, respect for self...
Dwight Sanders: Our job is to figure out what will it take to get you to go to the next level and that's what we strive on.
I don't think that they understand the magnitude of what they have and opportunity that they have. That's well above the average student in America.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: Students are also encouraged to be involved in sports, families encouraged to be involved in school...
Dwight Sanders: Oh, yes, good defence.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: That includes Andre's family. He married Steffi Graf more than a decade ago, the same year the school opened. The great love of your life - not tennis - Steffi Graf.
Andre Agassi: H'mm-mm.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: Stephanie, she prefers Stephanie, doesn't she?
Andre Agassi: Her mum calls her Steffi, I call her "Baby" so she gets... I might just stick with Steffi,maybe not "Baby", that could be a little awkward.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: She didn't seem when she first met you, to really have a bar of you? Did you have to try hard?
Andre Agassi: I did. I worked hard. I was persistent.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: How did you convince her to fall in love with you?
Andre Agassi: Kind of just trying to arrange a practice with her
and maybe hit some balls and maybe get some time to chat. And then made her a birthday card when her birthday came around
and sent her flowers and did all this stuff.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: The traditional part of it?
Andre Agassi: Yeah, the traditional part of it.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: You're a bit of a romantic?
Andre Agassi: I think so, yeah, you know, I'm passionate.
You know, I just can't help it.
Andre Agassi: Is she your better half?
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: Yeah, she's - I count on her for everything.
She allows me room to be a better parent, to be a better - I mean she makes me better across the board. I hope she feels half as much as what I feel so it's been a great journey so far. We've been together 12 years now, 10 years married and our kids are thriving and we're happier than ever so it's all good.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: What does she think of the school?
Andre Agassi: Oh, she loves it.She has a real connection and appreciation for children who are at an inherent disadvantage
so she just - she cries. Every time we are at the school, it's just - she cries.
Student: There he is.
Student: Hello, sir.
Andre Agassi: How are you?
Student: Good. Hello.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: What is truly humbling is just how humble Andre is.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: It's him.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: To these kids, though, he's a bigger star
than he ever was on the tennis court.
Student: Nice to meet you.
Andre Agassi: How you doing?
Ian: All good, my name's Ian.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: What's it like, Ian, to finally meet Andre?
Ian: It's like meeting Jesus, I would say - I'm serious. That's how it feels. Like, I have butterflies for some reason, like,
I finally get to meet him.
Dwight Sanders: What's magic about this school is that we are transforming a community.
Student: Please don't let nobody fall
or do anything stupid today, Lord.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: And how about this as a measure of success?
Student: We're happy that we're graduating today, Lord.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: Every single student who has graduated from here has been accepted into college.
WOMAN: You are about to embark on a new life. Carry yourself as if you are kings and queens.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: And that success hasn't gone unnoticed.
Andre has now raised $US500 million to build more schools
and has the backing of President Obama.
Andre Agassi: We opened our first one in Philadelphia last August. We'll have 12 to 15 now over the next few months. We'll have 75 over the next three years now. So tens of thousands of children who otherwise wouldn't have a future of their choosing
so it's really exciting stuff now, what's going on.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: Before leaving school Andre's students cross a bridge high above the mean streets they've left behind. Eight grand slams, some amazing moments in tennis, but to watch them graduate, is that a more proud achievement for you?
Andre Agassi: Oh, yeah. When you change a child's life and you change their future, you know, you change the world. The impact that that has has far more relevance than how many trophies
you have sitting up on a shelf.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW: They have a lot to thank you for but do you owe those kids a lot too?
Andre Agassi: I do. They gave me my purpose, you know,
I mean, they're my team.
