PHILADELPHIA, PA - Basketball season does not get underway for another month but on Saturday morning men's and women's players, their coaching staffs and alumni players from all Big 5 member schools converged on La Salle's University's Student Union Ballroom for the NCAS/Big 5 Sportsmanship Breakfast.
The event, which is coordinated through the National Consortium for Academics and Sports (NCAS) whose Mid-Atlantic Regional office is based at Big 5 headquarters, featured the them "There is Life After Collegiate Sports" and was moderated by Philadelphia television mainstay and ESPN 950 radio host Don Tollefson.
"I think this is a unique opportunity to allow our student-athletes a chance to join together and develop some valuable life skills," said Dr. Thomas Brennan who hosted the event, is a member of the NCAS Board of Directors and has been named to the NCAA Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical conduct. "It's also important that our current student-athletes have this sort of access to those who have been in their shoes and get an opportunity to learn how they handled the college experience and how they continue to conduct themselves in life after basketball."
Over 200 student-athletes, coaches and staff members from each of the programs heard Tollefson's remarks on Jackie Robinson's pioneering efforts and the desegregation of athletics in America and then broke down into separate groups of men and women and held a question and answer session with the alumni players in attendance.
A male and female alumni player represented each school; Diana Caramanico and Ugonna Unyekwe (Penn), Ann Gallagher-Till and Craig Conlin (La Salle), Jonathan Haynes and Shanette Lee (Villanova), Wil Johnson and Jane Meade (Saint Joseph's) as well as Cynthia Jordan and Dion Dacons (Temple) were in attendance and shared their thoughts with the current student-athletes.
"People know us from seeing us battle on the court and compete as basketball players, so they recognize you and in some ways look up to you," said former Hawk player Johnson. "They will see you out of season in the grocery store or on the street and want to relate to you and it's important that you conduct yourself respectably and appropriately."
La Salle's Conlin, who is now and boys basketball coach to fellow Explorer alum Jim Fenerty at Germantown Academy expanded on Johnson's thoughts, "People look up to you and notice what you do on the court and so when you get the chance to speak with them and address them it is important that you conduct yourself in a manner that would make future potential employers want to be involved with you after college."
Student-athletes also got to hear stories from the former players and the life lessons they took from the experience.
Penn's Diana Caramanico told a story of what she learned from a particularly harsh post-game tongue-lashing during her playing days, "I think it's important that when you have a coach or someone else in authority being `tough on you . . . it's important to actually listen to the message and not the manner I which it's delivered or how many times it's repeated. But understand that there is truth to what you are being told and try to focus on the message and what that person is saying to try to make you better."
Tollefson, who has dedicated his life to working with inner-city kids and runs a charitable organization called "One Child Saved", then held his weekly radio show live from the event where La Salle and Saint Joseph's men's coaches Dr. John Giannini and Phil Martelli commented on the day's events.
