How much fun is it to watch Saquon Barkley play football? How do you knock this guy down? How do you stop him? Perhaps kryptonite? He is a 5-foot-11, 230-pound beast on the gridiron with speed, agility, power, strength, and football instincts that only a few of the elite players in the game possess. This young man is special.
With our old archrivals from Pitt visiting Beaver Stadium this coming weekend, Saquon, and his equally impressive teammates, will be looking to unleash a hurting on a Panther team that has had the upper hand in the past two meetings. I attended last year’s meeting at Pitt and a big win would be very satisfying to say the least. Especially given the grief that I endured from so many of my friends who are Pitt graduates.
The same could be said of watching Suzie McConnell-Serio when she played basketball at Penn State (1984-88) and in the Olympics (1988 and 1992). You just couldn’t stop Suzie. Her quickness, agility and tenacity combined with a soft touch and basketball instincts that were extraordinary. Suzie, who was also a former WNBA player and coach, is no less dedicated and determined in her current role as Pitt’s head women’s basketball coach. Oh, and she is the mother of four as well.
Saquon and Suzie are exceptional athletes, but more importantly, exceptional people. They are both well liked and respected by many, and most importantly by the people closest to them, who see them warts and all.
The harsh reality is that very few of us are born with Saquon or Suzie’s exceptional physical abilities and will never reach their level of success in football or in basketball. Both of these stars have God-given talent, amazing physical ability, an insatiable work ethic, a team-first attitude, and are so humble they are a breath of fresh air.
So I bet when you first saw the title of this article you were expecting a different story to follow. I really do believe if Saquon and Suzie can do it, so can you. But I am not talking about their physical abilities.
You may not have their physical ability or athletic skills, but you can certainly model their insatiable work ethic, their team-first attitude, and their humble demeanor, in anything you do. You can also model their commitment to family and community as well.
In May of 2015, writer Michael Blouse penned a story in the The Allentown Morning Call about the selfless act that then-Whitehall senior sprinter Saquon Barkley did for Saucon Valley hurdler Rachel Panek.
Barkley gave his gold medal from winning the East Penn Conference 100 to Panek after Panek lost her race… She had originally won the event, but a timing mishap forced it to be rerun. ‘It felt really good,’ Barkley said, ‘to do a good deed and put a smile on her face. I think I learned it from my mom [Tonya Johnson] and my family. It was the right thing to do.’
Watching Saquon’s mom getting interviewed on ABC this past Saturday was priceless. She didn’t want to brag about her son, she just wanted to enjoy watching him play. The interview was a tad awkward because of the poor timing and the poor choice of questions by the reporter, but she got through it. The pressures that come along with being a leading Heisman Trophy candidate must be heavy, but Saquon handles it with calm and cool.
While Saquon and Suzie epitomize what we all expect from our top athletes, I fear we are setting up a lot of kids for disappointment and families for financial challenges at what amounts to playing the lottery for most. It was getting out of control when I retired from coaching in 2006, it is even worse now.
A recent Time magazine article described how youth sports have become a $15 billion industry.
An excerpt from the article notes: “A range of private businesses are mining this deep, do-anything parental love. The U.S. youth-sports economy — which includes everything from travel to private coaching to apps that organize leagues and livestream games–is now a $15.3 billion market, according to WinterGreen Research, a private firm that tracks the industry. And the pot is rapidly getting bigger. According to figures that WinterGreen provided exclusively to TIME, the nation’s youth-sports industry has grown by 55% since 2010.”
I know first hand the lengths to which some parents will go and the money they will spend in the small hopes that a child will be one of the 2 percent of all high school athletes who will participate at the NCAA Division I level.
The Time report quotes Travis Dorsch, founding director of the Families in Sport Lab at Utah State University. ‘I’ve seen parents spend a couple of hundred thousand dollars pursuing a college scholarship. They could have set it aside for the damn college.’
I think far too many parents are living vicariously through their kids, throwing more and more money at trainers, clinics, academies, private lessons, and travel sports. I have absolutely no problem with investing a certain amount of time and money on additional training, but more and more research is showing the negative impact of this obsession with sports success. It’s especially disconcerting when the experiences turn out negative from out of control and abusive coaches and instructors seeking only to increase their reputations for their own financial gain.
I see the kids in our town who are naturally gifted in athletics who it makes sense for them to consider special training at a certain point in their progression. It assumes the kids show desire and have the instincts and aptitude to be successful before parents should invest the time, energy and money.
My advice to any parent is a common sense approach. Don’t put all your eggs in the athletic scholarship basket because the odds are still against the vast majority of kids. I would also want to be a part of a program where part of the development includes an emphasis on academics, including time management, study skills, coping skills and goal setting. Proper sportsmanship and behavior should also be a part of the curriculum.
Youth Sports organizations that are run properly know this. They aren’t trying to sell parents a bill of goods and false hopes. Sports done right can develop positive character traits but they also reveal character as well.
My challenge to teenagers and their parents is to do your research and take the common sense approach to making informed decisions. Regardless of how your performance in your sport may turn out, remember that even the elite athletes like Saquon and Suzie distinguish themselves with their behaviors and attitude.
So aspire to carry yourself as a ‘Saquon Barkley’ or a “Suzie McConnell-Serio” of your sport, educational experience and even your job by having an insatiable work ethic, team-first attitude, and a humble demeanor in anything you do.
Have a “Saquonesque” or “Suziesque” attitude every day. If they can do it, so can you.
