Detroiter Reginald Ayala II comes from a family that believes in the power of education.
His grandmother, Rowena Ayala, earned a Ph.D. in education, and her contributions to Detroit have included being director of the Crockett Vocational/Technical Center, during which time she provided testimony to Congress regarding the importance of vocational education to her city. And his mother, Iris Ayala, also was a longtime educator in Detroit, where she earned the admiration of students and staff at Redford, Henry Ford, Detroit International Academy and East English Village high schools.
Education also played an enormous role in the life of the man Ayala was named after, his grandfather, who was the first African American to play varsity basketball at Michigan State University (then Michigan State College) in 1951; a graduate of Michigan State’s hotel management program, and later the president and CEO of Southwest Detroit Hospital, which was created by the merger of four hospitals (Trumbull General, Delray General, Burton Mercy and Boulevard General), which had served predominantly Black patients.
While 29-year-old Reginald Ayala does not have a college degree attached to his name, he does possess a title of a different kind — business owner. And true to his family’s longtime connection to education, the community-minded entrepreneur gives back to Detroit students by coaching the elementary and middle school chess teams at Ralph J. Bunche Preparatory Academy on Detroit’s east side. Ayala says the school, named after Detroit-born Bunche, the first African American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, provides him with the perfect landscape to instruct and motivate students that he views as family.
“I was a below-average student and an average chess player, but I’m not an average person,” said Ayala, who has been his own boss in the real estate industry for the past five years and is now the owner of The Second Consulting & Development LLC, a Detroit-based firm that specializes in project management service, real estate investment consultations and wholesale real estate investments. “Chess saved my life, to a certain degree. I didn’t know what my gift was, but chess opened up my thought process and taught me how to think. And that’s what I want for my team.”
For Ayala, the decision to coach chess at Bunche Academy this school year was highly personal and intentional. The school’s address, 2715 Macomb St., is the same address of the old Duffield Elementary/Middle School, which Ayala attended for seventh and eighth grades.
“Duffield gave me camaraderie, Duffield gave me friends, it gave me culture, it gave me a purpose,” Ayala said. “Everyone at Duffield was into chess; we all were on one page and it boosted the school and it boosted everyone’s morale and confidence. We’re trying to re-create that now.”
When Ayala talks about his Duffield days, he also is describing a period where he began to develop life skills that he says still serve him well today. Ayala tells a story of coming to Duffield in the seventh grade and needing to repeat the grade because during the previous school year, while attending Nataki Talibah Schoolhouse of Detroit, he had made up his mind that he was not going to turn in any homework. Years later, after being diagnosed with ADD (attention deficit disorder), Ayala said he had a better understanding of his school struggles and frustration during that period. But prior to the diagnosis, on his own, Ayala said he applied the thinking skills he picked up from the game of chess to his real-life situation and developed a strategy centered on using his natural “gift for gab” and power of persuasion to get others around him, including students and school staff and even administrators, to give him a helping hand when needed. His game plan got him all the way to Cass Technical High School’s graduation ceremony in 2011, after a two-year stop at what was then called West Side Academy Alternative Education High School.
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And he said the same approach and skills helped him to find his calling in real estate.
“I’m a ‘finesser,’ but it’s more than getting by, it’s innovation,” Ayala explained. “It’s really about the thought process, to know how to think and overcome that adversity that’s in front of you. That’s what I have done my whole life, and that is what chess is all about. Chess is just a tool to teach this process to kids at Bunche, and it has been good to see them grow and see their minds turn on.”
Early results indicate that Ayala’s lessons have been well received by the chess players at Bunche Academy, who already have qualified for two upcoming national tournaments — the National Middle School K-8 Championship, April 29-May 1 in Grapevine, Texas, and the National Elementary K-6 Championships in Columbus, Ohio. But perhaps an even better indicator of Ayala’s impact was the calm, joyful, but still disciplined atmosphere that was on display Tuesday morning at Bunche Academy where Ayala’s team put off sleeping in during winter break to practice alongside five other schools (Cass Tech, Bates Academy, Chrysler, Edmonson and Greenfield Union) in preparation for Saturday’s Michigan High School and Junior High Team Chess Championships at Oakland University.
“I’m looking forward to Saturday,” said Travell Harrison, a sixth grader at Bunche Academy. “What I like most about the chess team is meeting new people and playing.”
Harrison and his eight teammates at Bunche Academy — Delano Green, Wendell Smith, Landon McClain, Jmya Jones, Jordan Robinson, Mariah West, Sha’ria Boyd and Josh Robinson — will be stepping up in competition on Saturday at a tournament with older students. In the process, they will continue to create a new chess tradition at their school rivaling the one experienced by Ayala during his Duffield days. Also along for the ride is a gentleman who knows even more than Ayala about the spirited chess players that have come out of the school building at 2715 Macomb St. His name is David Carthen, affectionately known as Coach Dave. And his watchful eye was present in the Bunche lunchroom on Tuesday during the practice session, just as it has been for roughly the past 20 years as a volunteer assistant coach for both the Duffield and Bunche Academy chess teams, while also being employed as the school custodian. Carthen, 58, has been called the unsung hero of Detroit youth chess by Detroit City Chess Club founder Kevin Fite, for Carthen’s ongoing support, including financial assistance, to chess players in the Duffield-Bunche programs. And true to his reputation, the unsung hero chose to shine the light on Ayala at the practice session.
“I taught him (Ayala) and now he’s giving back; it makes me feel real proud,” Carthen said. “I’m like the middle man now, because he’s young and I’m dealing with the parents until he figures that out. But he’s doing an excellent job.”
What: 2022 Michigan High School and Junior High Team Chess Championships sponsored by the Michigan Chess Association
When: 9 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 26
Where: Oakland University
Local connection: Fourteen Detroit schools will be participating according to Kevin Fite, founder of the Detroit City Chess Club.
Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and lifelong lover of Detroit culture in all of its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at: [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott’s stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/.
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