On the last Monday in October, more than 50 New Orleans-area high schoolers sat in rapt attention during an evening class at Tulane Law School. Eric Blevins, the university’s sports law program manager, played a clip of Steve Gleason’s infamous 2006 blocked punt against the Falcons during the Saints’ first game at the Superdome since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city just a year earlier.
When the clip ended, Blevins addressed his newest cohort.
“People coming together in the face of the greatest adversity — that’s what sports is about,” he said. “It can be a real force for society and community.”
Creating a strong community is one of the primary goals of the Starting Block, a multifaith nonprofit founded in 2021 by several prominent local families that prepares New Orleans high schoolers from diverse backgrounds for careers in the sports industry.
The program, which operates alongside organizations like the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, imbues professional training with culturally-relevant lessons that acknowledge the city’s rich history, particularly that of its Hispanic, Jewish and African American communities.
The third and largest cohort
The Starting Block’s purpose is twofold, according to co-founder Arnie Fielkow: give local high school students interested in a career in sports management a leg up, and bring youth from different cultures together to learn from one another and connect over their shared love of athletics.
“We help them with the substance of these topics, and we try to help them navigate the educational process,” Fielkow said. “It really is gratifying to watch these kids bond with each other.”
This is the third and largest cohort to embark on the 18-month course, which Fielkow believes is the only one of its kind in the nation.
During the first class Monday, students, many accompanied by parents, spent the first hour of the lesson breaking into groups to learn about one another — where do you go to school? What sports do you play? Why are you here?
TJ Green, a student athlete and sophomore at St. Martin’s Episcopal School in Metairie, said that, like most of the program’s participants, he was drawn to the course simply because of his love of sports. While he already recognized some faces in the room, Green said he was quickly becoming acquainted with his new classmates from other schools.
“It’s definitely a new experience,” he said. “It’s good to get out of the school environment and get to know people from different areas of the city.”
A new idea
Fielkow was inspired to create the Starting Block when searching for ways to honor his good friend, celebrated author, activist and Creole chef Leah Chase, after her death in 2019.
Fondly recalling the countless hours he spent chatting with Chase in the kitchen of Dooky Chase’s, the restaurant she co-owned alongside her husband that also served as a cornerstone of New Orleans’ Civil Rights Movement, Fielkow said that he hoped to do something that would carry on Chase’s legacy by passing on her love of her home city and its diverse communities to younger generations.
And as an attorney and former executive with the New Orleans Saints and the National Basketball Retired Players Association, Fielkow also wanted to find a way to pass on his own expertise.
“I wanted to create a program that would incorporate Leah’s interests with mine,” he said, “and the one common element of that was bringing people together from different walks of life.”
Fielkow approached Chase’s children, Edgar and Stella, as well as philanthropists Morris and Melinda Mintz, to broach the idea of starting a program that would do just that. Soon, everyone was on board.
With the help of the Tulane Center for Sport, the Starting Block held its first-ever class in the fall of 2021. Since then, Fielkow said, the program has graduated two cohorts and has quickly grown in popularity.
A leg-up in the industry
To apply, students are asked to submit a one-page essay explaining why they want to take the course. Once accepted, they attend a 90-minute class every other month for a year and a half, where different instructors cover various topics pertaining to sports law and career development woven into lessons on local history and culture.
Students will eventually take a field trip to Birmingham, Alabama, to visit sites important to the American Civil Rights Movement, including the oldest baseball field in the United States, Rickwood Field. During segregation, Black teams could only play on the field during the day, while White teams played at night, Fielkow explained.
While most colleges have sports management programs, he noted that the Starting Block is unique because it’s geared toward high schoolers, adding that another important aspect of the course is that it gives participants an opportunity to network with industry professionals whom they otherwise may not have a chance to connect with.
“I was blessed with a 25-year career in professional and college sports, so this is my way of giving back to young people,” Fielkow said.
This program “will give New Orleans-area youth a leg up in the industry, because they’ll already have learned a lot of the basics.”
An investment in the future
Back in the classroom, Stella Chase, daughter of Leah Chase, observed the evening’s activities. Despite the late hour, she was pleased to see students enthusiastically getting to know one another.
To watch the program grow into what it is today has been a rewarding experience, she said.
“Not only do we learn about sports, which uniquely bring everybody together to cheer for our home team,” Chase said, “but it also gives us a way to learn a little bit more about each other.”
Jewel Annette Devall Rodgers was born on September 29,1954 to Harman and Marcy Devall in Beeville, Tx. She entered Heaven’s gates on December 26, 2025, with her mother, sisters, and children by her side. She was 71 years old.
