[1.7.10] Spawn player with items?

Hello everyone!  I'm making a minecraft mod right now which requires me to have my character spawn with an item for now lets say its a stick.  I saw another thread and i was like "Yes! This is perfect" so i tried the code it had there thinking it would work(i dont understand why its not tbh but i dont have the slightest clue where to start with making it spawn with the character) here's the code:
 

 @SubscribeEvent
public void onPlayerJoin(PlayerLoggedInEvent event)
{
if (!event.player.worldObj.isRemote)
{
	event.player.inventory.addItemStackToInventory(new ItemStack(Items.stick));
}
}

and that didnt work, so i scrolled down a bit more to see "Maybe you should keep up to date on teh versions, minecraft 1.7.10 is no longer supported" or something along those lines.  The problem is i dont want to make my mod in a version above 1.7.10 yet :\ so can anyone explain to me how i could make this happen?