The sidelines at the football field at Comiskey Park in Mid-City are where Anthony Bakewell says he does his best work. You’ll find him there on most weeknights moving up and down the field motivating young football players as the volunteer coach for the park’s youth football team. It’s a position and a team he’s grown close to over the past five years.

“Obviously, I do it for no pay, but this is something I would do until my existence leaves the earth,” said Bakewell. “It’s just the love for the sport and the love for the kids.”

Bakewell grew up in the neighborhood playing football at the same park. When he’s not on the field, he’s on the street, working as a property crimes detective in the NOPD’s Fifth District.

“I handle investigations from shoplifting to home invasion cases,” said Bakewell, who joined the NOPD in 2005.

Over the years, he’s developed a passion for mentoring young football players both on and off the field.

“I believe football is the closest sport to real life,” he said. “I mean, I had a football coach who used to tell me ‘I don’t coach football I coach life,’ so I took that philosophy.”

And when it comes to both of his roles in the community, Bakewell says there’s one thing that’s certain about his position as a coach.

“I’m a harder coach than I am a police officer,” he said.

Bakewell has no children of his own but he says he feels like a father to his young players. Many of them come from single parent homes. He says it’s why he believes football can help establish a strong foundation in the lives of kids between the ages of 11 and 13.

“When they’re younger, they’re learning, but when they become 12, 13 years old, that foundation starts to settle and their morals and their ethics become placed where they’re going to be,” said Bakewell. “I look at it this way, I’d rather deal with them here than on the street.”

Many of Bakewell’s players – like 13-year-old Cornerback Zayd Bethune – understand the lessons he’s trying to get across on the field.

“He shows us how football isn’t just about how you play but how you think,” said Bethune. “And what you do outside of football.”

However, if there’s one important lesson that Bakewell hopes to get across at each practice is the value of never giving up.

“I don’t believe in quitting,” said Bakewell. “I mean you start something you need to finish. It’s just like in life things get hard and you keep pushing. I try to instill that into the kids to work hard.”