Aazaar Abdul-Rahim - Head Football Coach at Friendship Collegiate Academy Honored

For Immediate Release September 9, 2011

Loundon County, VA – Today, the Washington Redskins named head football coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim of Friendship Collegiate Academy in Washington, D.C.the Redskins High School Coach of the Week for the week of September 1, 2011.
The Redskins High School Coach of the Week program is designed to recognize and reward excellence in high school football coaching.
Coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim enters his seventh season and serves as the first and only head football coach at Friendship Collegiate Academy Public Charter School (FPCS) located in the District’s Ward 7 an area identified as having one of the highest high school dropout rates in the city per capita. For this reason, Coach Rahim founded Positive Choices, Inc. a nonprofit servicing the academic, socio-emotional, health and wellness, and physical needs of youths in Ward 7.

Coach Rahim utilizes the vehicle of sports and the arts to engage youth and foster positive decisions making as alternatives to succumbing to the prevalent at-risk behaviors. For the past nine years Positive Choices, Inc under Coach Rahim’s leadership has hosted a free non-contact instructional camp for city youths encouraging them to make positive choices over the summer and for life. Coach Rahim also organizes groups of city leaders, business owners, and a host of sport professionals and collegiate level players to volunteer as mentors and instructors at the camp.

Coach Rahim’s passion for football and his ability to turn ordinary student-athletes into BCS recruited players on and off the field is astonishing. The FPCS Knights are currently 2-0 and ranked seventh in the Washington Post High School Football Rankings. In addition, 100% of FPCS football players receive acceptance letters to attend college. Coach Rahim raises the expectations of what student-athletes can achieve by providing multiple educational and athletic opportunities.
Each week during the 2011 high school football season, the Redskins will select one area high school head coach as the Redskins High School Coach of the Week. The selection is based on the coach's continuing commitment towards promoting youth football, developing motivated student-athletes, his overall community involvement and overall team performance and record.
Each of the coaches chosen throughout the high school season will receive a $1,000 donation from the NFL Youth Football Fund to their football program and a framed certificate signed by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Redskins Head Coach Mike Shanahan and Redskins General Manager Bruce Allen.
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Contact: Brittany Ginn, 703-726-7211/ginnb@redskins.com
= = = Friendship Public Charter School is the District of Columbia’s largest community of public charter schools, serving nearly 4,000 students in grades pre-k to 12. Friendship succeeds in preparing a cross-section of children as scholars, workers and citizens on five school campuses. The mission of Friendship Public Charter School is to provide a world-class education that motivates students to achieve academic standards, enjoy learning and develop as ethical, literate, well-rounded and self-sufficient citizens that contribute actively to their communities. To learn more about Friendship Public Charter Schools go to:http://www.friendshipschools.org/home/content.asp?section=our%20schools