One local sports hero is doing his part to help Akron Public School students achieve excellence through academics.

On the 1590 WAKR Ray Horner Morning Show, former SVSM athlete Willie McGee, who serves as the Area Director of the Akron Group Excellence says that this program is instrumental in getting children on track with their schoolwork.

Willie of course was part of the SVSM "Fab 5" with LeBron James, Romeo Travis, and Dru Joyce III  that won a state and national championship and 2003.

He says that the program is beneficial for all involved.

"We come in and try to get the kids' test grades up, the OGT's, the OAT's for the younger kids and things like that."

Group Excellence was started in Dallas, Texas in  hopes that by inspiring and motivating  at-risk youth , they could achieve their dreams by doing well in school.

Willie says that the organization is reaching out in the community to get qualified tutors.

"We reached out to the University of Akron, as well as Kent State University and we're trying to get the word out to engineering as well as education students," he said.

"We're paying $10 an hour up to 15-20 hours a week, so it's a little extra money for someone who wants to help out a kid that really needs it."

Requirements for tutors are at least two years of college education or a teacher's certificate or tutor's license, and the passing of an FBI background check.

Group Excellence is looking to launch October 18th with pre-testing to see where the children are at academically, and then starting with tutoring. Sessions will be three days a week, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and Saturdays, if a student is absent during the week.

Akron Schools that Group Excellence hopes to make their imprint on are Barrett Academy, Findley CLC
Roswell Kent Middle School, Litchfield Middle School, and Perkins Middle School among others that fall into the category of "academic emergency."

Willie says he heard about the opportunity to join Group Excellence through his football teammate at Fairmont State in West Virginia and said that he wanted to be in a position to help youth as he was helped growing up.

If you are interested in enrolling your child in Group Excellence, go to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or if you're interested in the tutoring program contact Willie at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Here is the complete list of schools Group Excellence is involved with.

1.Barrett Academy
2.Findley CLC
3.Hill CLC
4.Mason CLC
5.Rankin Elem
6.Robinson CLC
7.Schumacher Elem
8.Seiberling Elem
9.Akron Opportunity Center
10.Bridges Learning Center
11.East CLC (Grds 7-12)
12.Hyre CLC
13.Innes CLC
14.Jennings CLC
15. Roswell Kent Middle School
16.Litchfield Middle School
17.Perkins Middle School