Shea Garland-Stewart, second left, poses with former Valley High basketball players and former head coach following a graduation ceremony for Metro Police correction officers at the Orleans Thursday, May 27, 2021. From left: Charles Jackson Jr., a player and later an assistant coach, Garland-Stewart, former Valley High basketball head coach Brian Farnsworth (2002 to 2015) and Nick Brannon. Jackson and Brannon are corrections officers with the City of Henderson.
Sunday, June 6, 2021 | 2 a.m.
Shea Garland-Stewart beamed as he collected his diploma during the recent graduation ceremony for Metro Police corrections officers.
The smile on the mentor who pinned a badge on Garland-Stewart was just as wide. A big hug followed.
Garland-Stewart, 24, was the fourth Valley High School basketball player from a tight-knit group who has gone on to become a law enforcement officer in the Las Vegas area.
Listen to the four former basketball players and their coach, Brian Farnsworth, describe their relationship, and you will repeatedly hear the words: “lifelong friends,” “brothers” and “family.”
The man who pinned the badge is Henderson Police Corrections Officer Charles “Chuck” Jackson, 33, who played under Farnsworth and later returned to be an assistant coach on the teams when Garland-Stewart was playing. Jackson also did the ceremonial pinning a few weeks earlier at the Henderson Police academy graduation of Garland-Stewart’s teammate, Officer Nicholas Brannon, 24.
Jackson’s Valley High teammate Officer Josh Rivers, 34, is a colleague at the Henderson jail.
After the May 27 corrections officer graduation, Garland-Stewart said his “emotions were all over the place” and that he was ready to begin his new journey. Asked what Jackson told him as they hugged, Garland-Stewart said he congratulated him and said that “he’s always been proud of me.”
Farnsworth and Brannon cheered from the crowd at The Orleans.
Lessons in basketball, leadership
Jackson and Rivers befriended each other as young boys. They went from sports rivals in middle school to playing together at Valley under coach Tom Farnsworth and his son, Brian Farnsworth, who was his assistant.
The Farnsworths, particularly Brian, didn’t limit their coaching to basketball; they also taught the young players about leadership, Jackson said, noting that they helped push “myself to limits I didn’t know I could push my life to.”
Jackson, who grew up with a single mother and financial hardships, welcomed the father figure, he said. While playing for Tom Farnsworth, Rivers said he learned about dedication and loyalty.
“It didn’t matter where we were from, no matter how much money we had...he treated us with respect,” Rivers said. “He respected us, and he always looked out for everybody, not just one single person.”
Brian Farnsworth, who’s since stepped down from the program but still teaches at Valley and coaches track and field, expressed not wanting to take his players’ limelight.
He said he’s excited to see his former players do something positive with the values they learned on the court.
“It’s like my own kids. I’m so proud of them,” he said. “Them being successful and watching them be successful is the reason I got into this profession.”
The seeds of serving in law enforcement were planted at a young age in the older two Valley High teammates. Jackson said he had wanted to be an officer since he was a boy, while Rivers grew up with a father who was a juvenile probation officer in Clark County.
Jackson and Rivers went onto play collegiate ball, and at one point went to school near each other in Illinois. They never lost touch and spoke about their future, specifically about possibly joining law enforcement.
Brain Farnsworth continued mentoring them along the way.
They would talk about wanting “to help the community just like my father did,” Rivers said, and to “be a possible example for the youth in the community.”
Rivers went to play professional basketball overseas after graduating, while Jackson, who earned a degree in criminal justice, came back to Las Vegas, vying for a profession with police.
When Jackson found that no agencies were hiring, Valley High administrators and Farnsworth recruited him to teach and be an assistant on the basketball staff. Rivers eventually also made his way to his old high school stomping grounds.
That’s where they met Garland-Stewart and Brannon — two boys, whose paths through school weren’t much different than theirs.
Inseparable
Garland-Stewart described training “grind” sessions at the weight room and the court, which helped mold the boys.
They were taught determination, to respect each other and their opponents, to not complain about fouls during games, to never give up, and if officials called a foul, to not complain, Garland said.
The coaches were “role models to us, always putting us in the right path,” Brannon said. “(They) always were there when we needed help with anything.”
When the players were ready to plan their collegiate careers, the coaches were there every step of the way, Brannon said.
Thinking about what awaited them after college, Garland-Stewart said he and Brannon would ask each other: “What are we going to do now that we’re done with school?”
They didn’t need to look further than Jackson, who had landed a job with the city of Las Vegas’ department of public safety shortly after their graduation. “Seeing him in it,” Garland-Stewart said. “It really helped motivate us.”
Garland-Stewart said he and Jackson endured similar hiccups in their upbringings.
He noticed that Jackson’s new career had changed his life; given him “a different glow” and financial stability, Garland-Stewart said. “He’s living his best life. That’s what I wanted.”
Rivers also joined the city’s department of public safety. Both he and Jackson moved onto their jobs in Henderson about two years ago.
Stewart-Garland, the newest law enforcement academy graduate, said he owed his new career to his coaches. “Without them, I don’t know what I would have done.”
Outside work, the former players and Brian Farnsworth are practically inseparable.
When they’re not spending time together, gathering their young families for cookouts and pool parties, Brian Farnsworth and the four officers are speaking on the phone. They have a text message group that serves as a sort of therapy tool. They discuss their friendship, careers and life. Farnsworth, who is the father of four daughters, said of the four former players, “These are like my sons.”
“I could say, ‘It’s all me, it’s all me.’ I’ll take all this success,” Jackson said about Farnsworth and his other mentors. “But it’s really not. It’s been a journey, and it took a village to put me in the position that I am now.”
