About

Our founder and President Deon Tolliver was born and raised on the Westside of Chicago where he attended Resurrection Elementary School. He continued his education at De La Salle Institute graduated in 1996. At De La Salle, Tolliver participated in the boys’ basketball program for four years. During his time in the program he was a two year starter on the varsity team. His basketball accolades at De La Salle Institute include: 2 time All Chicago Catholic League All Conference performer, and Most Valuable Player at the Taylorville Shoot- Out.

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Also during his prep basketball career, Tolliver competed on the A.A.U. circuit with the Team Illinois Hawks A.A.U. basketball team. In 1995, Deon Tolliver was a member of the 17 and Under A.A.U. National Championship team.

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Tolliver received a basketball scholarship to attend Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, IA.  He then transferred to Morton College in Cicero, IL.  While at Morton College, Tolliver was a two year team captain and starter.

 

His accomplishments include:

1998

• 2nd Team All Skyway Conference

• Region IV Men’s Basketball All-Tournament team

• Morton College Leading scorer at 20.5 points per game

• Morton College “ Athlete of the Year”

1999

• NJCAA Division II 2nd Team Preseason All American 

• Apache Classic All-Tournament Team

• 1st Team All Region IV

• 1st Team Region IV All-Tournament Team

• NJCAA Division II 3rd Team All American

• Teams Leading scorer at 23 points per game

• Finished 5th in the Nation in scoring

• Morton College “Athlete of the Year”

• Became the 10th player in Morton College Men’s Basketball history to score 1,000 points

• 2nd All-time leading scorer with 1,386 points in school history

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He has also created and hosted several grade school events such as the Sting Classic grade school boys and girls basketball series and girls volleyball camps, tournaments and leagues. In just four years at Seton Academy his teams’ accomplishments include:

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• 2  Chicago Catholic League Conference Championships – Baseball (2012, 2013)

• 1  Chicago Catholic League Conference Championship – Boys Basketball (2012)

• 4 I.H.S.A. Regional Championships – Boys Basketball (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013)

• 2  I.H.S.A. Sectional Championships – Boys Basketball (2012, 2013)

• 2  I.H.S.A. Super Sectional Championships- Boys Basketball (2012, 2013)

• 1  4th Place State Finish – Boys Basketball (2012)

• 1 2nd Place State Finish – Boys Basketball (2013)

• 3 McDonald’s All American Nominees (2013)

• 2  Girls Catholic Athletic Conference Champions –Girls Basketball (2012, 2013)

• 2  Girls Catholic  Athletic Conference Tournament Champions- Girls Basketball (2012, 2013)

• 3  I.H.S.A. Regional Championships- Girls Basketball (2012, 2013, 2014)

• 3  I.H.S.A. Sectional Championships – Girls Basketball (2012, 2013, 2014)

• 1  State Championship 4 X 1 relay – Girls Track (2012)

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Deon Tolliver is a member of Black Coaches and Administration Association, Chicago Catholic League Board of Control, Illinois Athletic Directors Association, and the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. He still serves as a volunteer at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northwest Indiana.

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Tamara Somerville has a history of being involved in sports for over 35 years. Tamara’s passion for sports began at a young age when she had the desire to play basketball & train to enhance her own personal physical fitness. By college, she used her zeal for sports and physical abilities to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education from Tennessee State University and a Master of Science degree in Sports Administration from Valparaiso University. 

In addition to Tamara’s personal interests and educational background, she also had strong aspirations to motivate young people to be active and care about their general health. This led her to the interest of becoming a Physical Education Teacher. Tamara has been in this field since 2005 until the present.  She is currently a Physical Education teacher at Southland College Prep High School in Richton Park, IL. She served as an Athletic Director for 6 years where she developed and oversaw the curriculum and sports programs; communicated between the school management and athletics department to determine policies/goals and arrange finances. Tamara hosted multiple basketball and volleyball tournaments to help raise money to cover the cost for team apparel, tournaments and any other team expenses. Lastly, she has over 15 years of basketball coaching experience for a variety of sports and levels.

Tamara is also an active member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc., Sigma Theta Zeta Chapter in East Chicago, IN. She serves on the Executive Board and is also the Chair of their Fundraising Committee.

 

 

 

Sheena Davis Croston, M.Ed Professional School Counselor 

Ms. Croston is a professional educator and counselor with more than 14 years of demonstrated experience working in the fields of education and human services. Ms. Croston is an empathetic change-agent who’s dedicated to positively impacting diverse populations through youth development, and restorative practices. Ms.Croston is passionate about helping people fulfill their potential in life. Team leadership, administration, organization, group facilitation, counseling, restorative justice, and advocacy are among Ms. Croston’s diverse skills and interests. 

 

It is Ms. Croston’s passion to help young people learn the life skills necessary to reach their full potential in life. Her mission is to provide a comprehensive, restorative, student-centered counseling program, in
collaboration with community partners, that fosters academic growth, promotes prevention, and provides interventions and advocacy to support the academic, social, emotional, and post-secondary readiness needs of youth.

Ms. Croston believes that all youth can learn and become global citizens. Her theoretical orientation to counseling is cognitive behavioral therapy. While school practitioners can't provide therapy in the school setting, CBT is a framework that analyzes youth behavior by looking at the thought processes
of youth. Ms. Croston applies this philosophy in the counseling setting. For reasons of practicality and application, Ms. Croston also integrates a solution-focused approach while providing individual counseling. In short, Ms. Croston is passionate about working with youth, identifying student
needs and developing programming to ensure youth success.

Ms. Croston has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Aurora University. She also has a Master of Education in Counseling from DePaul University and a Master of Ministry from McCormick Theological Seminary. Ms. Croston is a Chicago naive, born and raised on the southside of Chicago.
She used to root for the Chicago Bears, but now Ms. Crsoton is a lifetime honorary Packer’s fan in honor of my late husband, Robert E. Croston, Jr.,-former Principal of Jenner Academy of the Arts who taught his students to be the N.E.S.T. - which means to, Be Neighborly, Stay Engaged, Be Scholarly,
and Use Teamwork.

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Theresa LaSalvia received her real estate license during the real estate crash of 2005 and has been involved with distressed real estate ever since.

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Her extensive expertise in the foreclosure arena is unmatched. She has worked on many aspects in the foreclosure arena to include short sales, bpo's, REO broker sales for Wells Fargo & HUD, provided auction mentorships for investors, was a bank owned foreclosure closing coordinator for one of the top foreclosure law firms in downtown chicago where she coordinated the closings of over 40 residential bank owned foreclosure properties a month.

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In addition to her mostly distressed property background, she holds her title agent license for the state of Illinois, she has also has had a heavy focus on property management as shes helped, manage over 600 doors on the North Side of Chicago, and is currently involved in national asset management where her team buys and flips residential property nationally and in Mexico!

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In addition to all of that, lastly, she is also an Auction Coordinator for the nation's leading online marketplace for the sale of residential bank-owned and foreclosure properties via online auctions and live auction events. She has been assisting investors in purchasing foreclosures directly from the auction steps in Texas and Illinois for the last 4 years!

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Over 15 years of experience in this business, she has worn many hats!

She is now laser-focused on keeping wealth in the communities where it originated, and strives to educate and empower underserved community members as much as possible.