Four months after 11-year-old Davon McNeal was shot and killed in his Southeast D.C. neighborhood, his former football team welcomed a new van that pays tribute to him, courtesy of Pittsburgh Steelers player Anthony McFarland Jr.

On Sunday, about 100 people gathered at a football field behind Kendall Baptist Church in Maryland, where the Metro Bengals practice, to celebrate McNeal’s life with the memorialized van, a scrimmage, and a pizza party.

After McNeal was killed in July, McFarland, who grew up in Prince George’s County, heard about the incident, and reached out to the coach of the Metro Bengals, a nonprofit football organization for local youth, to ask what the team needed.

“I really would like to have transportation to keep the boys together,” Kevin ‘Coach K’ McGill, lead coach for the Metro Bengals, remembers telling McFarland. The NFL player sponsored the van, and the logistics were handled through All Challenges Mastered, a non-profit for D.C.-area youth run by his mother, Toni McFarland.

Before being gifted the new van, McGill would often pick up the team for practices, games, and team outings in his five-passenger truck, but didn’t have enough seats to accommodate the 20 players. The 13-seat van is one of two new vehicles for the group: Davon’s mother, Crystal McNeal, also raised funds to provide a van this summer.

“When we in them cars, that’s the best part of [coaching],” says McGill. “You get to talk to them. … You get to laugh. You get to really get into their mindset in them rides.”

While on these car rides, McGill remembers talking to McNeal about video games, working out, leadership, and football. McNeal had aspirations of joining the NFL, according to McGill and McNeal’s grandparents. McGill says with the new transportation, he hopes to continue mentoring players.

When the van entered the parking lot on Sunday, the players charged towards their new ride. One player, a pre-teen, quipped, “I need driving lessons.”

The van is decked out with photos selected by McGill and Toni McFarland. The images include McNeal during his last game before the tragedy, after competing in the National Championship Tournament last year, at his baptism, with his family, and with McGill. There’s also a scripture on the side of the van — Deuteronomy 31:6, which reads, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”

McGill, an ordained pastor, also referenced that passage when giving the eulogy at McNeal’s funeral. He says it “described ‘Day Day’ to a T because he was strong, bold, courageous, and he wasn’t afraid of nothing.”

Another statement on the side of the van is: “Everyone deserves a chance to make it.” McNeal once said this after reciting a speech by Fredrick Douglass speech in English class. He improvised that statement at the end, says Crystal McNeal, Davon’s mother. “He wanted everybody, all of his friends, everybody in Cedar Gardens to make it from out the hood,” she says.

Adrian Thompson, 11, says that statement on the bus stands out to him the most. McFarland donating the bus is an example of reaching back out to help others make it.

“It was a cool van to see. I’ve never seen a creative van like that before in my life,” says Thompson. He remembers McNeal every day, and wears a dog tag that has a photo of McNeal in uniform. “I want him to be here so bad. So I just got a necklace, so I could think about him all the time,” he says. He also wears a face mask with McNeal in his football gear, gifted to him by McNeal’s mother.

McNeal was killed on the Fourth of July, after being struck in the head by a bullet shortly after 9 p.m. outside a community cookout at Cedar Gardens, where he lived until shortly before his death. D.C. Police have made four arrests related to the shooting.

After his death, his neighbors — many of them children — remembered McNeal at community vigils. Earlier this fall, Washington Football Team starting quarterback Dwayne Haskins wore a sticker bearing McNeal’s name during the team’s first game of the season.

Toni McFarland, a native Washingtonian, says the van is just one of many ways her son and All Challenges Mastered plans to give back to McNeal’s teammates.

All Challenges Mastered is designing a separate program for McNeal’s teammates that will be launched in January, Toni says. Much like other programs from her organization, the program plans to provide resources and a support network for the team and their families to overcome challenges including housing insecurity, education fees, transportation and more. Toni also hopes to raise funding so that each player receives $100,000 to attend a private high school of their choice without financial worry.

She says Washington Football player Joshua Wilson covered all of her son’s tuition fees at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville. Wilson, a DeMatha alum, saw potential in Anthony and wanted him to have a chance to develop skills at a top-ranking high school popular with recruiters.

“I told my son if you ever have the chance to give back, you’re going to do the same thing that Joshua did for you, but you’re going to do it for more.” Toni says. She has only one hope for McNeal’s teammates: “All I ask is that they come back and give back.”

Previously:
Davon McNeal’s Family Has Long Worked Toward Resolving D.C. Violence
‘I Really Loved Him’: Children In Anacostia Mourn 11-Year-Old Davon McNeal
Davon McNeal’s Teammates And Family Share Their Memories Of The Slain 11-Year-Old At Vigil