Auburn’s Mustapha Heron has been impacted by gun violence. Now he’s working for change

In 2015, five players from the New York Renaissance (Rens) AAU team had a brush with gun violence. One teammate on the 16U team was simply going to the movies with a few friends when he was shot in a drive-by shooting. He laid injured on the street until authorities came. Luckily, he survived the incident.

The incidents hit too close to home for Mustapha Heron, the former Rens star who is now leading Auburn in the NCAA tournament.

“One week they’re in Vegas playing together in an AAU tournament. The following week at home you find out that your friend had been shot,” Mustapha’s father, Bryan Heron, said.

The Herons are from Waterbury, Connecticut, which is “more dangerous than 84.8% of cities in America,” per city-data.com

In fact, Mustapha told me that stopping gun violence is a topic he’s very passionate about because if it weren’t for basketball and education, he may not be around today.

“I’ve been affected by gun violence tremendously,” Mustapha said. “I’ve lost friends, lost family [...] cousins, uncles, best friends from middle school, high school.”

Bryan said if Mustapha hadn’t worked in the gym so long, he easily could be among the wounded.

“If you don’t have a direction, you’re gonna fall,” Bryan said. “It’s easy to follow others.”

So, Mustapha decided to become a catalyst in preventing future acts of gun violence in his hometown. By the time he was a senior at Sacred Heart High School, Heron was responsible for convincing the Rens and his high school team to wear orange patches to raise awareness about gun violence in the area.

“Hopefully they start asking questions, like ‘What does that orange patch mean?’ And I can tell them, we want to make a push to end gun violence for the streets,” Heron told Lindsay Gibbs of ThinkProgress in 2015 after the patches made the news.

But Mustapha knew that he had to do more than make a fashion statement. In high school, he would volunteer 2-3 times a week at local elementary schools and the Boys and Girls Club, emphasizing the importance of pursuing education to all those with whom he interacted.

Two and a half years later, amidst a sea of basketball accolades, Heron cares just as much about stopping gun violence. He and Bryan, a life-long social worker assisting juveniles on parole, established curriculum and incentives to help youth in Waterbury avoid gun violence.

Mustapha went on to organize a rewards-based reading program. If Waterbury youth read a book and wrote a book report deemed “quality” by Mustapha and Bryan, then they earn a book bag. When a child reads enough books, they receive a pair of basketball shoes.

The Herons have woven basketball and education seamlessly together, understanding that most teenage boys want nothing more than a pair of new kicks. They developed this idea by partnering with the Rens who decided to donate shoes and other basketball gear as giveaways.

Mustapha went a step further. He and his father decided to make a full-fledged violence protection program. The initiative will include written handouts and more after-school programming. Mustapha has already formed the Mustapha Skills Academy and Reading Program, located at his alma-mater, Sacred Heart. He knows the advantage of getting involved in local politics, so he’s talked to folks at City Hall and worked to implement a gun buy-back program by meeting with the police.

“I think [the current situation] is bad,” Mustapha said. “We have to make a change.”

If it was up to Mustapha, he’d suggest the government to implement “more screening when people are trying to buy guns.”

At the end of the day, Mustapha’s passion for this issue signifies just how important athletes taking a stand is. Due to his connections in the Connecticut and New York area as well as those in the SEC, Mustapha is able to make a bigger impact than most regular people would.

“He is a social activist, and I think he would like to try to do more,” Auburn head coach, Bruce Pearl, said. “He’s not afraid to right wrongs.”

Heron is clearly more than his sophomore year 16.6 point and 5.5 rebound stat-line. He’s not only changing the reputation of Auburn basketball, he’s changing the notion that athletes are just athletes. Mustapha Heron isn’t going to “shut up and dribble” anytime soon.