May 19--Trey Songz had never played volleyball before he joined the Boys Girls Clubs of America as a kid. The R singer and Virginia native -- who was inducted into the Boys Girls Clubs of America's alumni hall of fame Wednesday at the Hilton Chicago hotel, along with WWE chairman Vince McMahon and Buffalo Bills great Andre Reed -- said volleyball wasn't exactly a popular sport in the urban area where he came from.
"I actually got really good at it," said Songz (real name: Tremaine Neverson), laughing, at Wednesday's ceremony.
Songz credits the Boys Girls Club in Panama City for teaching him many skills and life lessons, as well as giving him a place to turn to when he was the new kid in a new city. He went to the Boys Girls Club every day after school until his mom was done with work.
"When we moved to Florida, I was about 7 years old," said Songz, who can be heard on the new Jennifer Lopez ballad, "What You Mean to Me." "I'm from Virginia. I was an only child at the time. It was an opportunity for me to have a safe haven after school. It was an opportunity for me to learn to diversify -- something to keep me out of trouble. A young kid, new guy in school, 500 miles away from my family -- it just was a blessing to be able to have somewhere to go where there was love in the air, where you have a support system, where I could play sports, where I could be a child, where I could be a kid and not worry about other things going on in my life.
"Being away from my family, being away from my cousin -- I had a cousin that we grew up like brothers and little cousins that were like my little brothers -- this was my first time in my life being away from them. The Boys Girls Club gave me a support system that I wouldn't have found anywhere else."
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