As a high school English teacher for almost thirty years, I used to get frustrated by the misconception about young people. Based on newspaper reports and TV news, the only stories readers and viewers often saw about the young were reports of teenagers getting into trouble. As a teacher, I saw so many really terrific young students, who far outnumbered the troubled ones, that I thought it unfair when people spoke of the “youth of today”.
This week offered up two very good examples of what I am talking about. On Thursday night, the 45th annual McDonald’s All-Star Football Classic was held. This event is held every year to raise money for the many McDonald charities including the Ronald McDonald houses that offer a residence for the families of their hospitalized children. The game has been responsible for raising close to a million dollars.
This year, 90 senior football players, cheerleaders, and their volunteer coaches suffered through two weeks of practice in extremely hot, humid, and wet weather in order to prepare for the game. Their only “compensation” was a plaque signifying their participation and the RCN banquet on the eve of the game to thank them.
Their assignment is three-fold – have fun, play competitively, and fill the stands. They met all their goals.
On Thursday afternoon, I was introduced to George Pektor. He had just finished his sophomore year at Blair Academy. George, also, attended Moravian Academy prior to this past year. George Pektor is a special person.
He understands that he is a person of “privilege”. He attends elite schools and has had many opportunities not afforded to many and, most importantly and most impressively, he knows it. He, also, loves the game of basketball. That love has taken him to a number of expensive AAU and travel basketball programs. And, despite his young age, he came to realize that there are potentially many good inner city athletes who have not been offered the opportunities he has had. He felt a duty to do something about that.
During the next two weeks, at the Jewish Community Center in Allentown, the very first GO PRO SKILLS CAMP will take place. 120 boys, ages 13-17, who would not be able to afford or participate in such a program, will learn basketball skills. In addition, the program will offer both motivational and inspirational messages from both pro athletes and renowned coaches. Athletic development, as well as personal development, for these young people, were George’s primary goals for the program.
This camp, like all the ones George attended, is expensive. There were transportation costs, equipment costs, and unforeseen meal costs (the Jewish Community Center required more expensive kosher lunches be served). Suffice it to say, George needed sponsors. No problem. He found seventeen of them!
The years in teaching and in athletics have taught me there are plenty of really good young people out there.
I met 91 of them this week alone!
ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)
- The US Open was professional golf at its most dramatic. The course was controversial, prime time TV, the play exhausting to watch at times, the finish spectacular. ABC coined the phrase – “The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat”. For this tournament it was the opposite – “The agony of defeat (Dustin Johnson’s missed putts) and the thrill of victory (Jordan Spieth wins it in the clubhouse).
- I suppose that the ending of the US Open should have been bizarre considering that the golf course looked nothing like a golf course, but more like 30,000 people landed on Mars to watch greens become “browns”, water become “sand traps” (the color was the same), and golfers become lightheaded (Jason Day’ vertigo). Add the new and unfamiliar voices of FOX Sports, the inability, at times, for the cameras to follow the ball, and the overuse of the shot “tracker” and the entire event was most bizarre, indeed.
- Dustin Johnson’s awful three-putt finish at the US Open did not come close to his final 11-over round in 2011 which included a triple-bogey and double-bogey on consecutive holes.
- No one was more frustrated with Chambers Bay than Bill Horschel. Watch:
- The “deflategate” suspension appeal by Tom Brady is this week. Roger Goodell will hear the case.
