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ABOUT ME
Kirthmon F. Dozier Jr.
WHERE I COME FROM
An important story has unfolded quietly in Detroit over the past seven years. Detroiter Kirthmon Dozier Jr. graduated from Oakland University with two passions: baseball and a desire to help other young Detroiters succeed. In 2015 he married those passions, founding the non-profit Full Count Foundation (FCF).
He started small working with partners such as the Holden Boys and Girls Club, the Boll Family YMCA, Detroit PAL, and the SAY Detroit Play Center. He persuaded his high school alma mater, University Preparatory Academy, to allow FCF to operate the school’s high school and middle school baseball teams. FCF developed an afterschool program with SAY Detroit that featured picking up students from school, feeding them, an hour of homework, baseball training, and a ride home. He now oversees baseball for the Harper Woods School District and surrounding east-side Detroit Communities.
With the help of local volunteers who had played ball in high school, college, or professionally, FCF began hosting camps and clinics across the city to teach skills. The organization fielded teams that began traveling to tournaments—often as the only Black team—and began winning. FCF created and hosted showcase camps and college tours that gave the boys national exposure. FCF members have received thousands of dollars in scholarship money. Over 10 kids have committed to Power 5 colleges to play baseball. One was drafted this year by the Toronto Blue Jays. Three of the younger kids are MLB draft prospects for 2023. Over 80% of the kids are honor students. And 100% graduate from high school.
Kirt has operated FCF on a shoestring, capitalizing on his own labor as both Executive Director and Program Manager to keep the organization running. FCF now has a little league program called D.R.I.L.L (Detroit Regional Impact Little League) that serves boys and girls ages 4-8 in t-ball, coach pitch, and softball. He has raised over $200,000 in the last three years for his youth programs while adopting and maintaining five inner-city baseball fields throughout the east side of Detroit.
MISSION STATEMENT
Equality Meets Opportunity
The mission of FCF is straightforward: Provide more safe, supportive after school places for Detroit children to develop academically and socially while learning to play baseball. The city’s fiscal challenges had forced the closure of many community centers and other afterschool venues for Detroit young people while African American participation in baseball at all levels from high school to the Major Leagues continued to plumet despite a proud tradition of Black baseball dating back to the Negro Leagues. Safety, academic progress, and self-confidence for FCF participants came first. But Kirt also had an eye on catalyzing a baseball revival among inner-city youth in an era when football and basketball dominate young Detroiters’ athletic dreams.