While its a collegiate fact of life that student athletes are generally known more for what they do than what they say, a unique outreach project from West Virginia University is out to reverse that score.
And this fall, youngsters in every public middle school across the state can get straight talk on goal-setting and motivation from Mountaineer football players Mike Dent and Tito Gonzales; Joe Alexander and Alex Ruoff of the mens basketball team; soccers Ashley Banks; and Halimah Bashir, the womens track captain.
Student Athletes Speak Outis the name of the project that features the above in a six-DVD set that is being distributed to the schools free of charge.
The six wrote and publicly delivered their talks in recent semesters for their final assignment in Dr. Carolyn AtkinsSpeaking to Communitiesclass in the College of Human Resources and Education.
Dent and Gonzales discussRespectand Self-Confidencein their talks. Alexander dismissesDrugsin his presentation while Ruoff talks upCourage and Responsibilityin his.
Banks celebratesAcademicsin her talk.Caring and Compassionare the themes Bashir takes on in her presentation.
An accompanying Web site (http://saso.wvu.edu) provides classroom guides and related links to help teachers integrate the presentations into state-mandated character education classes.
These arent �€~speeches,Atkins said.Theyre life-stories and lessons.
And that was a happy byproduct of the class she created in 1990. She geared it to student athletes, she said, because theyre among the most visible members of the University population.
Plus, theyre the ones who talk to the press in the locker room.
It didnt take her long to realize that the class was going to be just as much about direction as it was diction.
Each student was charged with writingthen deliveringa five-minute motivational speech. Craft was the original focus: the elimination, once and for all, of those dreadeduhs,umsandyou knowsthat permeate everyday speechespecially in those post-game interviews.
But it evolved into an avenue that offered up revealing glimpses into studentslives, Atkins said.
Some of our kids came up with rough circumstances,she said.They grew up in poverty and the inner city. They lost family members to violence. Some of them didnt know their fathers. Others watched their single parents work multiple jobs to provide for them. They started talking about the importance of avoiding peer pressure and taking their education seriously. They started talking about being responsible and compassionate human beings.
Seventeen years later, theyre still talking.
The Morgantown law firm of Bowles, Rice, McDavid and Love is sponsoring the project, along with WVU s College of Human Resources and Education, the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and the Office of the Provost.
For more information, contact Atkins at carolyn.atkins@mail.wvu.edu or 304-293-3461.