(S20) - PT2 - Role Model

[rapideagle]

Meeting my role model, Brian Dawkins

[KillKillKill]

Growing up in Oakland CA presents its own challenges for a young man trying to stay out of trouble and excel in their own right. There's a limited amount of viable resources and options that provide the means to be truly great. One athlete that actually came from my city and also provided myself and many kids like me a beacon that we could aspire to be, was Rickey Henderson. Coming from humble beginnings, Rickey always pushed himself to succeed and, in doing so, lent himself to the notion that hard work and perseverance would not only pay off, but could also be the makings of greatness. Rickey was a hometown kid that turned into one of the greatest baseball players of all time. His attention to detail and natural talent became a perfect mixture in creating his success. Simply put, you could not outwork Rickey, you could only hope to emulate the dedication to your craft as he had demonstrated.

Rickey was a bright spot when you look back at a time in baseball where performance enhancement and shortcuts ran rampant league wide. He kept his body in time peak condition, demonstrated by his longevity in a taxing past time. Through his effort, he showed me that if I worked hard enough, stayed focused and kept on top of my health, I too could be great.

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226 Words

[MSombrero]

No-one inspires me more than Tommy Caldwell. A professional rock climber with an incredible story to tell, he’s faced trauma, physical and mental, and turned it into a drive that has conquered the unconquerable. Caldwell is a professional mountain climber. Years ago, he and friends travelled to Kyrgyzstan to establish new routes when civil war broke out. Caldwell and his friends were captured by rebels and spent days practically imprisoned in the mountains, growing more desperate. They only escaped when Tommy pushed a guard off a cliff (at the time it was thought he died in the fall, they later learned he’s survived). After he returned to America, he completed many great routes in Yosemite valley before disaster struck again, he cut an index finger off during a DIY accident. The climbing world mourned, thinking that was the end of his career, but he had other ideas. He turned this event and his divorce with his wife into motivation that was unrivalled, and he threw himself at an impossible task, The Dawn Wall in Yosemite valley. He spent years abseiling down and looking at every nook and cranny of this basically blank 3000 ft slate of rock. Climbing partners came and went, as did the years, until a couple of years ago, Tommy Caldwell and his new climbing partner Kevin Jorgenson spent 3 weeks on the wall, agonisingly working their way up one of the most mesmerising rock faces in the world and came out as victors, the first people to conquer The Dawn Wall. A monumental achievement made even more special by what came before.
Looking at his achievements, it makes me believe that whatever setback you face, you can overcome it. Suffer a harrowing event, make it the fire behind your passion. Physical injury that should end your career; Adapt, overcome, let that injury just be an extra reminder of what you can do regardless. Show that you too can overcome any adversity, and spark the fire in millions of others.

(Seriously watch The Dawn Wall or read his book, The Push – both incredible)

[scorycory]

There are many great role models in the sports world but one of them resonates with me more than any other and that person is Eric Berry. Not only did he play for my favorite team the Kansas City Chiefs, he was an incredible person in just about every way imaginable. After being drafted fifth overall in the 2010 NFL draft Berry immediately became a dominant player. He has made the Pro Bowl 5 seasons including his rookie year and has been a first team All Pro 3 times. Even more impressive than his stats is his story though. On December 8, 2014 he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. He missed the rest of the season and went through chemotherapy in the offseason. Nobody expected him to come back and play again, let alone come back in the fashion that he did. During his chemotherapy he continued to work out to keep himself in shape, which is something that is just insane to put yourself through. He recounted how it was a struggle to just do five pushups at times and how working out after chemo would leave him so drained and in so much pain that all he could do was sit and cry in disbelief that he had actually made it through another workout. He went into remission having gained a pound while going through chemotherapy. When he came back to the football field less than a year after being diagnosed he came back with a vengeance. His first game back he basically single handedly defeated the Atlanta Falcons. First he picked off a pass in the red zone and returned it for a touchdown, essentially keeping the Chiefs in the game. His parents were conveniently sitting in that endzone and he gave that ball yo his mother. Afterwarss the Falcons scored a touchdown to take a one point lead with very little time left in the game. They went for two to extend the lead to three in case the Chiefs managed to get a field goal. Eric Berry picked off another Matt Ryan pass on this play and took it to the house as well, giving the Chiefs a 1 point lead and the victory. This ball he gave to his father in the same end zone. He went on to be named first team All Pro and Comeback Player of the Year that season.

[Bubba Twatford]

The great role model I decided to write about is Fred VanVleet. If you didn’t know already he sports #23 on the Toronto Raptors basketball team. I think I connect with him because he went undrafted in 2016. However, the Raptors picked him up and in 2019 we all witnessed a Championship team ascend.

Overall, I think I resonate with the Raptors because they go in underrated, get so much flack, and never the attention they deserve. But they persevere and they all grind to become the best they can be. So many of them have great stories of struggles, conflicts, and tragedies, but they keep on going and play insanely smart basketball.

Fred sticks out because he went in and showed the world he is now a starter-level point guard. What makes him even more respectable, is he goes in hard to provide for his family and newborn. I want to become someone like that.

I want to provide for my future family, and against all odds succeed in what I want to do. Especially, because I have no formal graphic design education or training. I’m going to work my hardest and do better than everyone expects. Mamba mentality.

[GoonerBear]

SHL PT

[Briedaqueduc]

SHL PT Affiliation

[fballturkey]

My role model growing up was Byron Leftwich. I grew up down the road from Marshall and my dad and I didn't miss a home game for close to a decade. We didn't know it at the time but the Byron years were the end of the dynasty.

His most iconic moment was getting carried down the field. If anyone isn't familiar, Marshall was having a good season and had a road date against Akron that was expected to be an easy win. Things started poorly though, and got worse when Byron took a shot to his leg. He tried to play through it but Coach Pruett eventually made him go get an x-ray. There wasn't one on campus, so they drove to a nearby hospital.

Byron came back and told Coach that the x-rays were negative. This was a lie; his shin was broken, but his team needed him, and Leftwich went back in to the game. He was clearly hobbled and Akron was targeting the leg, but he did get a comeback rolling. Late in the game he completed a long pass and began to try and limp down the field. Two of his linemen saw the pain he was in and, one on each side, lifted up their quarterback and carried him down the field for the next play.

And it wasn't enough. Marshall lost. The perfect conference season and any hope of being ranked any time soon were gone.

The next week Byron couldn't play; his damned shin was broken. And Marshall had a home game against bitter rival Little Miami (Miami Ohio), with their all time QB Ben Roethlisberger. I remember my dad driving us to the game and listening on the radio, with the super-homer guys on the pregame show saying "whatever happens, the sun will come out tomorrow."

But the team rallied behind backup Stan Hill and delivered a last second victory that led to one Little Miami coach tearing up the press box while another assaulted a fan and got arrested on the field. And yours truly had seats right behind the Chickenhawk bench and got to yell at the QB with the weird name that he'd be selling used cars in two years. I even got him to turn around.

Byron taught me the immeasurable. Had he come back and won against Akron you could measure it. They were this bad without him, they were this good with him. But I am 100% convinced that had he not come back the team never would've had the spark they needed to win the next game. They saw their guy leaving everything he had on the field, and when he had no more to give they picked the team up and carried it until he could return. I'll carry the lesson around always, that even if the effort doesn't lead to the result you want immediately, you never know how you're impacting the future.

[Mooty99]

There are a number of people that I would consider as a sporting role model but as I only have 200 words I will just do 1. The 1st would be for soccer player Gary Lineker while today people remember him as the match of the day present and star of crisp adverts his approach to soccer was something to really look up to. Firstly his achievements are some times diminished as a man who just scored easy goals but you have to remember this man has the joint record for most England goals ever, he was a success at every team he played for, when he played for Barcelona he became fluent in Spanish, at the end of his career in Japan he learnt Japanese. But one of the biggest things that stand out are the number of cards he received in his career, 0. That is right he played 567 times and scored 330 goals and in all that time never received a card. That is amazing, he played the game so clean and without malice and this is an achievement that is so often under played. He played a sport for 16 years, was considered as one of the best in the world when he played and he always played so fair he was never carded.

(WC 219)

[Get_Right]

As a person who watched a lot of sports throughout the years the player with the biggest influence on me has been Ray Lewis. The first time I ever saw Ray Lewis play was in 2008 as a kid and even though I still didn't understand a lot about football I couldn't help but notice how hard and ferocious he played. As I grew older and started to actually learn football I started to realize that Ray was a truly special player who not only played his hardest on the filed but studied the hardest in the film room too. Ray is truly a great example of a leader who could rally his troops together and get them to play at a high level, he even won a championship being the leader of a defense carrying the god awful offense that was lead by Trent Dilfer. His passion and fire for the game was something I had never seen before and it has helped me give that extra bit effort towards things I do whether its something I enjoy or not because that extra bit of effort could mean everything. Ray Lewis was the first of many players I look up to and a person ill never forget.


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