Coach’s Corner

The headline says it all, so I’m not even going to discuss the details of this case. If you’re interested, they can be found here.

From the time that I was young, my father hammered home the concept that in life it is critical to surround yourself with good people. This axiom has always been recognized in the business world, but sometimes we forget it in our personal lives. Like it or not, the world was going to categorize me as a member of a particular class, and that class was going to be defined by the company I kept.

When we’re young, the classes are broad and shallow; the smart kids, the jocks, the loners, the freaks, the delinquents. It’s not surprising that the ‘80’s movie The Breakfast Club was so popular – it captured the essence of what it is like to be pigeonholed into a category that in reality only described a small part of who you are.

The young kids that I coach, the kids that we focus on here at Spec-taters, haven’t even gotten to the “Breakfast Club” stage of their lives. They haven’t made the kind of judgments about their peers that even allows them to categorize them yet. A delinquent to them is a kid who talks back to the teacher – not exactly “Rebel Without a Cause” material. That being said, my father’s advice still rings true, if only to lay a foundation for what is inevitably going to come down the road. Eventually, these young athletes will be judged by the company they keep.

Parents and coaches, it’s never too early to start talking to your kids about the consequences of hanging with the wrong crowd. Those consequences can manifest themselves in myriad of ways. Early on, grades, performance on the field, and disposition tend to be affected by peer group. As the kids get older those are all still in play, but criminal behavior starts to be a possibility as well.

Those three young men had an opportunity of a lifetime. They were playing football and going to college on a free ride. At the University of Tennessee there are ample opportunities to surround yourself with the right people; people who are going to make something of themselves, people who can make you better just by being around them. Those young men instead chose to classify themselves as delinquents. Unfortunately, this time it’s going to cost them a lot more than spending a Saturday in detention with the Breakfast Club.

Coach Potato
Spec-Taters.com

Filed under: Parenting on November 13th, 2009