By Lorrie DeFrank
Raised by a single mom, grandmother and village, former NFL linebacker Lonnie Marts Jr. is helping boys who are also growing up without a dad excel in life.
Marts is CEO/Co-Founder of Level the Playing Field Leadership Academy, a nonprofit he started in 2020 to empower young male athletes of color to become successful on and off the field. A free agent from Tulane University, he played 10 seasons for NFL teams in Kansas City, Tampa and Tennessee before retiring from Jacksonville, his home. Over the next 10 years he coached youth football, all the while yearning to do more to help the developing boys score big in what really matters.
“My heart wanted to give back to the young men in the community, to help them grow into good solid citizens that Jacksonville could use,” he said. “They were told they could be great athletes, but were they told they could be great doctors, attorneys or other things outside of sports? There’s a bigger game being played off the field.”
Also feeling an urge to give back to the community where he had done well, Marts followed up on a suggestion from a fellow church member and reached out to Carlton Robinson, Chief Innovation Officer of JAX Chamber, for advice. “I knew that what I wanted to start was not a large school but more of a program that teaches boys who don’t have fathers present in their lives and whose mothers are doing the best they can,” said Marts, whose father died when he was 7. “We’re going to walk alongside of their moms.”
Robinson invited Marts to join Cohort 11 of JAX Bridges in the fall of 2019, a decision that ended up impacting many lives.
“JAX Bridges is all about bridging the gap between small entrepreneurs and bigger corporations and I learned a great deal about building relationships to get the resources we needed,” he said. “The nonprofit world is all about relationships. Carlton helped me with that and I still stick by his side. JAX Bridges has blessed our organization and I have met so many people and built so many relationships.”
Being a career athlete himself, Marts conceded that he doubted having the transferable skills to advocate for the resources needed to start a nonprofit. He credits Robinson and Anamaria Contreras, JAX Chamber Foundation’s Executive Director, with helping him cultivate the communication skills to be able to eventually serve on the Chamber’s board and to discuss funding for his endeavor with community leaders.
One notable example of his JAX Bridges networking is connecting with Patty McElroy, senior vice president of VyStar Credit Union and president of VyStar Foundation, who was instrumental in finding a home for his academy in the VyStar retail garage downtown. Through Robinson, Marts met McElroy’s boss, VyStar President and CEO Brian Wolfburg, at a partnership brunch where the two men bonded over good-natured but competitive football banter. Wolfburg later sanctioned McElroy’s offer of the space.
“Everyone else in my cohort was an entrepreneur and I was the nonprofit,” Marts said. “Carlton tweaked that business model canvas to show me what to look for in funders instead of sales.”
In addition to donors, Level the Playing Field is funded by local grants and the City of Jacksonville, Marts said.
“Partnering with JAX Chamber and JAX Bridges is the best move that I’ve made,” said Marts. “And JAX Bridges is even better now because Carlton and Anamaria are the go-betweens who know exactly what entrepreneurs need to do to connect with larger corporations. Being a part of both pulled our organization into the limelight and provided opportunities to do even more for our boys.”
Although Marts is the only employee so far, the leadership academy has a couple of consultants and about 10 volunteer mentors for the 16 current boys who qualified for the program, which offers scholarships and teaches social and life skills. They are not required to be athletes. “Boys come into our program at 10 or 12 and we’ll take them all the way through their developmental period to 21, when they get into corporate America or whatever they are going to do so they give back. It’s a cycle,” Marts said.
Marts said the program is in need of more mentors. “It’s up to us as leaders to step in and guide. We’d love to have them go to our site and apply. We want excellent men,” he said.
To contact Lonnie Marts Jr.:
Level the Playing Field Leadership Academy
34 W. Forsyth St.
Jacksonville, FL 32202
(904) 323-3202 lonnie@leveltheplayingfieldla.org www.leveltheplayingfieldla.org