North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Student-Athletes Lead Middle School Conference
3/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
BY TIM PEELER
The twins were born a month prematurely. Jake had problems with his ears, which eventually required surgery. Luke had undeveloped muscles in his mouth, his chest and his abdomen. While most children begin talking at the age of 2, Luke would not speak. Doctors told his parents that he had a mental disability, and would never grow out of it.
When it came time to go to kindergarten, Jake went to public school while Luke went to a special educational school near the family’s home in
“My mom and dad were very upset and discouraged,” Lathan recalls. “My dad wanted a different future for me. He saw [older brother] Calvin and Jake and how they were doing. He just didn’t think my future should be different from theirs.
“So my parents sat me down and told me they were going to help me through this. They were not going to let this be part of my legacy the rest of my life.”
So every night, after Calvin Lathan Sr. worked two jobs and went to night college classes, he would do sit-ups and push-ups with Luke. His mother, a substitute teacher, would work on his speech.
“My dad was a Navy power lifter for many years and we just started doing all this stuff to strengthen my chest and abs,” Lathan says. “My mom helped me with my speech, every night. Halfway through my year at special ed, the teachers realized I wasn’t the kid they had labeled me.
“I started excelling at school.”
Doctors admitted that their diagnosis was incorrect. Soon enough, Luke was talking as much as Jake, though he spent six years in speech therapy class to correct problems caused by the undeveloped muscles in his mouth.
Monday, Lathan recounted his story, which he rarely talked about publicly during his five-year playing career with the Wolfpack, during four sessions of a leadership conference with Raleigh-area middle school students. It would have been hard to convince any of the more than 100 students, teachers and chaperones that Lathan ever experienced any developmental delays.
His topic? Perseverance.
At 6-4, 290 pounds, Lathan remains a hulking figure, even though he’s no longer training to maintain his playing weight for football. Lathan finished his five-year career with the Wolfpack last season. During that time, he was a starter at center for 2 years, a member of the ACC Academic Honor Roll and an Academic All-America. He graduated in December with a degree in Agricultural Business Management, with a minor in Economics.
In February, Lathan was one of 40 athletes to earn a $5,000 Post-Graduate Scholarship from the ACC, joining NC State cross-country standouts Chris Kollar and John Crews and football teammate Stephen Hauschka.
Lathan says he will eventually go to graduate school, with the hopes of earning a global MBA. But in April, he will begin a year-long sales training position with Syngenta Global, a world-wide agri-business with American headquarters in
His story clearly had an impact on the middle school students he spoke to, especially when he told them to pursue their dreams no matter what labels other put on them.
“No one knows what you are capable of, except yourself,” Lathan told them. “No one knows how passionate you are, how driven you are, how dedicated you are, except yourself. I was passionate about football, and my dad helped me become a good player, just like he was. You are the only person who knows your abilities. If you have a dream and you persevere, you can do anything in this world.
“To this date, I know that the doctors counted me out. They wouldn’t believe that I could persevere. So many times in our society, kids are labeled by social classes, by what their parents do, their abilities on the outside. It’s like the old saying goes, don’t judge a book by its cover.”
The leadership conference, hosted by the NC State’s Academic Support for Student Athletes program and the NC State Student Athlete Advisory Council at the McKimmon Center, was an expanded version of one hosted in the fall. More than a dozen other student-athletes joined Lathan in leading four half-hour discussions on perseverance, integrity, self-discipline and courage.
Cross country runner Todd Smallings worked with Lathan in the perseverance group, while Keri Demar (volleyball), Georgia Davis (cross country/track), Jess Ward (women’s swimming and diving), Taryn Shelley (women’s swimming and diving), Taylor Seaman (gymnastics), Jason Zinzer (baseball), Marilyn Angell (track), Brian O’Boyle (wrestling) and Nadia Aboulhosn (women’s soccer) also led discussion groups. SAAC president and soccer player Ronnie Bouemboue coordinated the student-athlete volunteers.
More than 100 student leaders and student-athletes from 17 Wake County public and private schools attended NC State’s second leadership conference, and gave positive feedback about the experience, according to Demetrius Marlowe, who organized the event along with assistant athletics director for community outreach Tonya Washington.
“They liked that it was a professionally done conference,” said Marlowe, an academic advisor for football. “It was a big deal that they got selected from their school, and we hope they take the good character traits that they learned here back to their school and share them with their classmates and teammates.”
From Lathan, they were left with a powerful message. He told them how, two years ago, he went to
Standing in the back of the class, Lathan was approached by several parents who wanted to know if he had a child in the class. No, Lathan said, I am a former student here. They asked him what he was doing now, with low expectations of his response.
He told them he had earned a Division I football scholarship, was studying business management and hoped to earn a global MBA someday.
“Every one of the mothers came up to me in tears,” Lathan said. “My parents had been in the exact same boat. I was an example of what can happen.”
With a little perseverance.
You can contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
