North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Athletes Help Build 'Champions in Community'
10/1/2007 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH Football player DaJuan Morgan got his best advice from his older brothers keep up with your grades early so you won’t spend all of your high school years making up for freshman mistakes.
Freshman Dejon Bivens learned about integrity on the tennis court. He fell in love with a game that forces opponents to be their own line judges and referees.
Marilynn Angell figured out early on if she was going to earn her degree in Chemical Engineering, run track and keep up with all the other activities that make college life interesting, she would have to manage her time well just to get everything done.
These are just a few of the lessons that these NC State athletes have learned during the course of their college careers. And they hope to impart some of that knowledge to more than 70
It’s a phrase that’s recognizable to anyone who has heard first-year coach Tom O’Brien talking about his goals for NC State football. From the day he was first hired 10 months ago, O’Brien said he wanted his players to be “champions in the classroom, the community and on the football field.” Those words are emblazoned on the front of the 2007 football media guide.
It is a sentiment that is common with all Wolfpack athletes. They hope to share that with the morning-long conference that will feature Morgan as the keynote speaker, as well as breakout sessions led by Angell, Bivens and distance runner Georgia Davis, who will talk to the young athletes about time-management, integrity and perseverance, respectively.
Demetrius Marlowe, an academic coordinator for football at NC State, will also address the nine fall-sport athletes from eight Raleigh-area middle schools who were invited to participate in the first of two leadership conferences this academic year. The second will be held in the spring and will include mostly spring sports. The events are made possible by a grant from the NC State Extension and Engagement office.
For Morgan, participating in the conference gives him another chance to share his story about overcoming adversity Morgan’s senior season at
“I enjoy talking to the young kids because I was once in their shoes,” Morgan said. “A little guidance from someone who has been there before is very helpful. If I can help just one kid, then it will be worth it to me.”
Morgan learned from his three older brothers how important it is to be focused on academics if you want to play sports in high school or college. It’s a lesson he passed on to his youngest brother, De’Andre, who just made his first career start at cornerback for the Wolfpack.
“You have to be focused on something you really want,” the elder Morgan said. “You have to be aware of how important academics are. You have to know how to go about making the right decisions. These kids are just at the age where they need to know how important academics are if they want to get a college scholarship. Freshman year in high school is the most important time of their academic career, as far as getting ready for college.
“You don’t want to start your grades in a hole and spend the next four years digging out of that hole.”
Bivens, a freshman men’s tennis player, will talk to the group about integrity, which he learned on the tennis court. He could just as well discuss perseverance, which led him on his long, remarkable journey to NC State.
Bivens had never picked up a tennis racket before he entered the eighth grade. Yet he was somehow drawn to the sport, even though his first official lessons came from eavesdropping from the bushes of a Charlotte-area park during a summer tennis camp. Bivens eventually became so enamored of the sport, he left his family, was adopted Deborah Foster-Smith, a Charlotte-area tennis teacher and USTA official, and became one of the state’s most accomplished and decorated junior players while at Charlotte Country Day High School.
“This is the reason I think tennis is an awesome sport: you are not only competing against someone else, but you are also fighting battles within yourself,” Bivens said. “We have to make our own line calls and that sort of thing. It takes a lot of integrity to be a tennis player.
“The one thing I really want to emphasize to the kids at the conference is to work on building character, being honest, trustworthy and ethical. It’s all a part of good-sportsmanship.”
For Angell, a sprinter and hurdler on the women’s track team, self-discipline is a must as she completes her final two years of course work in the demanding major of Chemical Engineering. She wants to let the younger athletes know it’s not enough just to be proficient at athletics or academics. They also have to manage their time to refine all of their skills.
“Self-discipline is about giving up certain things that you want now for the benefit of gaining something better in the end,” Angell said. “You might have to make the sacrifice of not going out with your friends on this night, but in the end you will get a good grade.
“I just want to show them how I have tried to apply that to my life.”
And, as the athletes hope to show in Monday’s conference, there is nothing better than seeing living examples of how integrity, perseverance and self-discipline leads to success.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
