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Life lessons

Professional athletes encourage youth to shoot for stars

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Eight-year-old Samantha Rensvold didn’t realize all the accomplishments the tall man, teaching her to dribble with her head up, had made in his life. But she did learn the most important thing in basketball — have fun.

“Be focused, be serious, but have fun,” said Otis Birdsong, a former four-time NBA All Star who spent seven of his dozen NBA years with the New Jersey Nets as he towered over most of the participants in the Big 3 Sports Clinic held at Salish Kootenai College last weekend. 

“Michael Jordan got cut from his team in ninth grade because he wasn’t good enough,” Birdsong told the players. “Just because you’re not good enough now doesn’t mean you’re not going to be better later.”

Birdsong was joined on the court by former NBA player Michael Ray Richardson. Richardson played basketball for the University of Montana before he was drafted by the New York Knicks in 1978. He also became an NBA all-star and continued his career in Europe and the Continental Basketball League.

“I played until I was 46 years old,” Richardson told the audience at Friday night’s meet-and-greet event at KwaTaqNuk Resort. “I have no basketball left in me.”

But the former stars still had hearts to coach as they challenged the youths in fundamental drills on the court, and encouraged them to always work hard.

Jeyani Tenas, 12, took the advice to heart as she hustled up and down the court, putting what she learned into practice.

“Always guard the ball, always go for the shot when you’re open,” she said.

Tre Heath, a St. Ignatius fifth-grader, said playing basketball makes him happy.

Five boys preferred the gridiron to the court, so NFL Hall of Famer Mike Haynes led drills on the Two Eagle River School football field Saturday morning. Still considered one of the best cornerbacks in NFL history, Haynes earned nine Pro Bowl trips during his NFL career with the New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders. During the 1983 season he helped the Raiders beat favored Washington Redskins 38-9 during Super Bowl XVII.

Haynes’ motivation for helping with the kids’ clinic was to give back.

When asked one thing he learned in his NFL career, he said it was to set high goals, citing the difference between two high school football coaches. One coach might tell his team they were going to have the “best season ever,” while the other coach set a goal of winning the state championship five years in a row.

“I used to say, ‘set realistic goals.’ I don’t believe that anymore. Set goals high,” Haynes said. “You are in charge more than you think.”

Haynes also stressed the importance of nutrition, regular exercise, and getting rest — an important factor that sometimes gets forgotten.

Haynes told his young crew that every time an opportunity comes up to play a different position, take it and learn as much as you can.

Big 3 Sports Clinic organizer Monty Morengo has put on the clinics for 25 years. Opportunity to meet professional athletes came during his time as a sports photographer in Santa Barbara, California. Ten days after the Los Angeles Lakers became the 1985 world champions, Morengo had three Lakers — Michael Cooper, Byron Scott and Kurt Rambis —  in the Polson gym for a clinic.

“The kids went nuts,” Morengo said. “They were (just) watching them on TV.”

The clinic was sponsored by a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grant that provided scholarships for the first 100 kids — and they were gone in just three days.

Forty-five girls and 55 boys signed up to attend the clinic, although rescheduling of high school football practice to Saturday, due to unhealthy air quality earlier in the week, may have kept some from attending, according to Morengo.

 

 

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