Staff Spotlight: Steve “Coach Steve” Backmon — Expanding What’s Possible

Meet Steve Backmon, Manager of Healthy Lifestyles at the Baltimore Ravens Boys & Girls Club

There is a difference between giving a young person something to do and giving them something new to imagine for themselves. Steve “Coach Steve” Backmon understands that difference. At the Baltimore Ravens Boys & Girls Club, his work as Manager of Healthy Lifestyles goes far beyond organizing sports, leading activities, or encouraging young people to be active. At the center of his approach is a belief that exposure can change the way a young person sees their future. A child cannot know they love tennis if they have never held a racket. They cannot picture themselves rowing if they have never been near a boat. They cannot develop confidence in the water if swimming has never felt accessible to them. So, Coach Steve creates opportunities to try. Pickleball. Golf. Swimming. Tennis. Rowing. Lacrosse. Yoga. Dance. Flag football. The activity itself may change, but the purpose rarely does. He wants young people to discover more of the world—and, in the process, discover more of themselves.

That philosophy is what Baltimore Ravens Club Director Ashley Hill describes as one of Steve’s greatest strengths.

“Coach Steve’s impact at the Baltimore Ravens Boys & Girls Club is difficult to capture through a list of programs because the most important thing he offers young people is larger than any single activity,” she says. “He expands their sense of what is possible.”

That mindset comes from a life shaped by education, athletics, creativity, and service.

Long before joining Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Baltimore, Steve was surrounded by educators. His grandmother and several of his aunts were teachers, making education a constant presence throughout his childhood. His grandmother, one of Calvert County’s first Black teachers, left an especially powerful example.

Steve once joked that with so many educators already in the family, he would never need to become one himself. Life had other plans. Since high school, nearly every chapter of his life has involved working with young people. He has been a dance instructor at summer camp, a track coach at the high school and college levels, and a special education teacher.

“Working with youth is in my blood,” he says. “I just hope I am making my grandmother proud.”

When Steve began considering a move away from the classroom, he did not want to move away from young people. Finding the Healthy Lifestyles position at Boys & Girls Clubs gave him an opportunity to serve differently. Instead of teaching within a traditional classroom, he could use sports, movement, relationships, and new experiences as his curriculum. And Coach Steve’s version of Healthy Lifestyles is intentionally broad. For him, wellness is not simply exercising or eating the right foods. It includes confidence. Curiosity. Discipline. Emotional wellbeing. Self-expression. Learning how to take care of yourself and understanding that growth can happen in unfamiliar places.

He wants Club members to develop what he calls a “thirst for always learning more.” That perspective can be traced back to his own experience as a college athlete. His track coach often used unconventional techniques and lessons gathered throughout his career, showing Steve that growth does not always come from doing things the way they have always been done.

Today, Steve brings that same curiosity into his work with young people. His Sports Pioneering approach deliberately pushes beyond the limited group of activities young people are often expected to know. The goal is not to introduce something different simply for the sake of being different. It is to remove barriers to experiences that can sometimes feel inaccessible.

Swimming has become an especially important part of that vision. Steve has become increasingly interested in expanding access to water safety and swimming for Club members, recognizing that comfort around water is not only a recreational opportunity but an important life skill. Ashley sees that work as a reflection of how Steve thinks. He notices where young people have historically had fewer opportunities, considers what the consequences of those gaps can be, and begins thinking about what the Club can build in response. That ability to see possibility is also evident in the smaller moments.

One young Club member wanted to join the other kids playing flag football but had never thrown a football before. He worried he would not be good enough and that the other children would not want him in the game. Whenever the opportunity came up, Coach Steve worked with him.

Passing.

Catching.

Trying again.

Eventually, the young member began playing regularly with everyone else. The story is not really about football. It is about the moment a young person stops standing on the outside of something because they no longer believe they belong there.

For Steve, watching that confidence develop was the meaningful part. Those moments also explain what he wants the name “Coach Steve” to represent. Not simply the person running the gym. Not simply the adult who knows the rules of the game. A constant.

“I want all our youth to know they can come to me with anything,” Steve says. “I want ‘Coach Steve’ to mean, ‘I am safe here.’”

That idea of safety is central to the way he shows up. Coach Steve believes young people need accountability, but they should never confuse being corrected with being rejected. They should know that even when an adult is challenging them to make a better choice, their wellbeing still comes first. That consistency creates trust.

And the example he sets can sometimes teach as much as anything on a program schedule.

Ashley describes Steve as offering young people—particularly boys—a broader picture of what adulthood and manhood can look like.

He can be competitive without making everything a competition. Strong without needing to be hard. Creative without apology. Playful, disciplined, compassionate, physically active, emotionally present, and willing to care openly about other people.

He can coach football and soccer and then talk about nutrition. He can lead relays and introduce yoga. He can encourage a young person on the field and make space for another to express themselves creatively.

In that range, young people get to see that they do not have to fit inside one definition of who they are supposed to become.

Steve's own life reflects that same range.

Outside of his work in education and youth development, he is DJ Steezy. Music has been part of his life since childhood. His father was a Baltimore DJ during the era of the Original Power Plant, PT Flags, and O’Dell’s Disco Club, giving Steve an early appreciation for the craft. Steve eventually began DJing himself in 2018 and has since performed throughout Baltimore, produced original music and remixes, and built another outlet for bringing people together. It might appear separate from his work with young people, but Steve sees the connection clearly. A teacher helps someone understand. A coach helps someone push forward. A DJ understands the room and creates an environment where people feel comfortable enough to let go and enjoy themselves.

Coach Steve pulls something from every one of those identities when he walks into the Club.

“I want them to be confident, learn always, and just have fun along the way,” he says.

Perhaps that is why his work is difficult to reduce to one program or one title. Healthy Lifestyles is what he manages, but possibility is what he creates. He wants young people to leave an activity knowing more than they knew before. To try something they never imagined themselves doing. To gain enough confidence to join the game. To understand their bodies. To feel safe asking questions. To see adults modeling healthy relationships, creativity, respect, and self-care. And eventually, he hopes that philosophy can reach beyond one Club.

Steve wants to continue collaborating with Healthy Lifestyles Managers across BGCMB, sharing ideas and developing an approach that future staff can build upon. “I want us to set an example and provide a blueprint for future employees,” he says.

For Ashley, however, Coach Steve’s impact is already visible.

“He is widening the landscape of their lives,” she says. “He is showing them new ways to move through the world, new things they might love, new places they might belong, and, perhaps most importantly, new possibilities for who they might become.”

That may be the best way to understand Coach Steve.

He teaches sports, but the lesson is rarely only the sport.

He teaches young people to try.

To stay curious.

To take care of themselves.

To move forward.

And to believe that there may be more places for them in the world than they ever realized.