Wednesday, January 23, 2019
By Brian Foley, Web Content Specialist
Julian Schmidt was calm, cool, and collected as he sauntered into his Friday night drums class at Beulah Brinton.
Most - if not all - 13-year-olds would crumble when placed in a class with other adults, but Beulah Brinton is Schmidt's turf. He has been participating in Milwaukee Recreation classes at the Bay View location for nearly nine years, and currently leads the Brinton basketball team on top of his weekly drumming duty.
In his drums class, Schmidt grabbed his typical seat at the front of the five-student class, casually pounding on his practice drum pad to the instructor's song of the day: Grand Funk Railroad's "Bad Time." And when the class shifted from the practice pad to the actual drums in the back of the room, Schmidt's passion for recreation poked through as he easily played along with the music.
"I like playing sports and doing fun activities," Schmidt said. He just completed his third drumming program at Brinton and is in his third season on the community center's basketball team. Schmidt provided a career-high 14 points, three assists, and two rebounds in his team's first game of the season, and even though Brinton took the loss, the Trowbridge Street School seventh grader hopes to play high school basketball one day. Joel Symons - Brinton's recreation supervisor and basketball coach - calls Schmidt his best ball handler and one of his most indispensable players.
Through the classes and leagues that Schmidt has participated in, he has seen first-hand how recreation positively impacts his surrounding community.
"[Participants] get to socialize with other people, experience different things, and interact with people you might not normally hang out with," he said.
Congratulations to Julian, our featured customer! Keep an eye out for the budding drums and hoops crossover star over at Brinton!