Executive Director/Coach. Coach Diago has volunteered and worked in Pierce County for over 26 years. Diago has mentored youth in the community through sports and education. Diago Hunter has been a valiant contributor for Pierce County youth and continues to do more..
Derrick 'Bumpy' Pleasant has trained and Coached with Tacoma Shine Youth Athletics for over ten plus years. Derrick is also the V.P. of Operations for Tacoma Shine and helps coordinate events and social programs. Derrick is a Iron worker and has done great things in Pierce County for our Youth. Derrick is a former Semi-Pro football champion with Pierce county Bengals and The Jets. Derrick welcomes you.
Tacoma Shine is destined to “SHINE “. Tacoma Shine is an athletic program that is used to motivate and develop positive life skills in todays at risk youth. Tacoma Shine was established in 1992 in order to detour youth into a positive safe haven. In 1992 the city of Tacoma as well as today was suffering from gang violence, increased drop-out rate and teen pregnancy. In order to save Tacoma from complete destruction, I believe we needed to plant some seeds of greatness and nourish them with positive values.
We developed Tacoma Shine!! Over the years, Tacoma Shine has accomplished greatness. We have helped lower the teen-drop rate and teen pregnancy. We have motivated youth to stay in school and helped them prosper as positive role models in the community.
“Tacoma Shine has helped me stay away from negative groups and has surrounded me with positive people, so all I want to do is something positive.” 6th grader Matayza
“Tacoma Shine has taught me how important it is to take care of my community. We did the eastside clean sweep and it felt good to clean up my neighborhood.” “Now it is beautiful!” 8th grader Heidi
Our graduates have accomplished great feats. Alex Montgomery played for our program from 6th, 7th and 8th grade. She graduated from Lincoln High School and received a four year scholarship to play basketball for Georgia Tech University. Cal-Jean Lloyd also played for our program in 7th and 8th grade and is now the Head Girls basketball coach at Lincoln High School. Most young athletes that play for our program in middle school have gone on to play varsity as freshmen. We have enlightened the city of Tacoma by helping to build a great community through its youth.