Ken DeLong: A New World for Troubled Kids

Ken DeLong: A New World for Troubled Kids

It’s cold on the mountain as Datwan and his brakeman, Elquan, settle into the bobsled. Datwan slides his fingers into the D-rings of the steering mechanism. Elquan positions himself to stay perfectly still during the rush down the icy track. His job waits at the end where he’ll pull the brake handles, bringing the sled to a halt.

Tim, their teammate, is in position to give the push start. Datwan pauses long enough to look up to his coach, Ken DeLong, for any last minute instructions. Thumbs up and they’re off.

These kids are not the average bobsled team. Their chance to participate in this activity wouldn’t have been possible without DeLong, recreational coordinator for Northeast Parent & Child Society, a home for abused and neglected children in Schenectady, N.Y. When Northeast hired him, he had to “create” his job, but he’s done more than that—he’s brought inspiration to many who pass through the home.

A quiet, soft-spoken youth of 13, Elquan says he saw his friend, Datwan, having fun, and asked if he could join the team.

“Ken is someone you can trust, more of a friend,” Elquan says. “He takes us to Lake Placid on his own time. He buys clothes and equipment that we need with his own money but never tells anyone, we just know.”

Datwan, 15, says, “Ken is like a gentle giant. He’s just there, in the background always working for us. He’s really nice, never gets mad, even when he sometimes should. He’s open-minded to everything. All the kids know they can trust him and go to him if they have a problem.”

New to the program this year, 15-year-old Tim, doesn’t hold back. “I love it! The speed, everything, it’s great. Ken is like a big brother. He’s always there, solid, would do anything for us. He makes us feel safe. He never gets mad, he’s just cool.”

DeLong moved to Schenectady from Lake Placid, where he’d worked for five years as recreational specialist at the Federal Correctional Institution in Ray Brook. Before that, he was a strength and conditioning coach at Lake Placid’s U.S. Olympic Training Center.

“It was a bit hard to move from the mountains of Lake Placid,” DeLong says. A big man, 6-foot-tall, he was a competitive power lifter until his mid-20s, setting records in his home state of Virginia several years in a row.

The “Olympic spirit” in Lake Placid—where you can rub elbows with medallists turned coach and medallists of the future—encouraged DeLong to renew his connections to the winter sports community by becoming involved in the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation’s Youth Programs. Bobsledding and luge are his sports of choice. He’s a Continental Bobsled official and a National Luge official.

As assistant national director of youth programs for the federation, he decided to get some of the kids from the home onto the Federation’s Jr. Bobsled Team, believing the experience could be a motivational tool. On gaining approval from the home, his work began. He took the program to the staff counselors and, with their help, began enlisting youngsters.

The program has been successful—the kids not only have fun, they’ve won medals in state and national competitions. Elquan, in his first year of competition in 2000, won second in the Empire State Games and first in the Eastern U.S. Bobsled Championship. Datwan, no longer a resident at the agency but still competing with the team, won an Empire State Bronze in 1999 and gold at two other events.

Fellow counselors Chris, Kent, Fred, and Louie each speak of DeLong as a quiet man who cares; modest, who builds up the people around him; dependable, the father figure.

“I think of these kids as my own,” DeLong says. He enjoys following their lives and feels pride with each of their successes.

DeLong has taken troubled kids and shown them a new world, one few would have been exposed to. He’s shown them they’re as good as the rest of the world. He wants and takes no glory for this—his pleasure is in their smiles as they receive their medals.

And he stands tall in the background with a grin on his own face, the caring, gentle, giant.

Katherine Woodford is a freelance writer in Virginia.

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