Adam Bender - inspiration goes national

Back in November we published a story on the inspiring young man, Adam Bender.  Adam lost his leg when he was one year old but that has never held him back.  He plays baseball, football, soccer and wrestles.

ESPN writer Jeremy Schaap recently filmed a short story on Adam that airs on E:60.  This is a wonderful piece that all should enjoy.

You can read the text of Jeremy’s story - The Power of One.  A short excerpt of Jeremy’s story is below:

A year ago, when Adam Bender was 7 years old, he found a wheelchair in his family’s garage.

Standing just outside the garage, the door open, he called out to his mother, Michelle. “Mom,” he said, “come here.”

Pointing inside at the rusty, folded-up wheelchair, he said, “What’s that doing here?” Anger was floating in the air.

“That’s here just in case of an emergency,” she said. “We might need it if you hurt your leg.”

“Get it out of here,” Adam said. “Get rid of it.”

“What do you want me to do with it?” Michelle asked.

“I don’t know. Get rid of it. I’m never using it.”

The Senior: 59 yearl old linebacker writes book

Mike Flynt was swapping stories with some old football buddies in the summer of 2007 when he brought up the biggest regret of his life: getting kicked off the college team before his senior year.

So, one of his pals said, why not do something about it?

Most 59-year-olds would have laughed. Flynt’s only concern was if he was eligible.

Finding out he was, Flynt returned to Sul Ross State 37 years after he left and six years before he goes on Medicare as a player on the Division III team.

Flynt gave new meaning to being a college senior. After all, he’s a grandfather and a card-carrying member of AARP. He was eight years older than his coach and has two kids older than any of his teammates.

“I think it was Satchel Page who used to say, ‘How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?’ I’d be in my late 20s or early 30s, because that’s how I feel,” said Flynt, who has made a living out of physical fitness. “That’s been my approach to this whole thing. I feel that good. I just wanted to be able to perform and make a contribution to the team.”

A longtime strength and conditioning coach at Nebraska, Oregon and Texas A&M, he’s spent the last several years selling the Powerbase training system he invented. Clients include school systems and the military. His colorful life story includes being the son of a Battle of the Bulge survivor and having dabbled in gold mines and oil wells—successfully.

Flynt’s life was supposed to have been slowing down. With his youngest child starting at the University of Tennessee, he and Eileen, his wife of 35 years, were planning to take advantage of being empty-nesters for the first time.

Instead, they moved to a remote patch of West Texas so Flynt could mend an old wound and inspire others.

He became emotional discussing his goal of “helping a bunch of young men to make up for those guys that I let down.” Then he laughed about the reality that fellow Baby Boomers are getting the most out of his comeback.

“People were kind of in awe. They kept comparing me to themselves and where they are physically,” he said. “If I helped anyone out by what I did, then it was all worth it.”

Mike not only made the team, but he played the last half of the season on a regular basis at linebacker and on special teams.  He is the oldest contributing member of a college football team in NCAA history.

“I told him he was an idiot,” said Jerry Larned, who coached Flynt at Sul Ross in 1969 and counseled him at the start of his comeback. “I said, ‘Gosh, dang, Mike, you’re not 20 years old any more. You’re liable to cripple yourself.’ He understood all of that. But he had a burning desire to play. … He is in great physical condition. He still runs a 5-flat 40 and bench presses I-don’t-know-what. He’s a specimen for 59 years old.”

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There’s not much video on Mike but here is an interview he did for the 700 Club

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Back in the day, Flynt was quite a player.

In 1965, he was on the first state championship team at Odessa Permian, the high school featured in Friday Night Lights. He was offered a partial scholarship at Arkansas when the Razorbacks were among the top teams in the land, but instead went to Ranger Junior College.

He wound up at Sul Ross in 1969. An NAIA school then, the Lobos were in the Lone Star Conference with East Texas State, which at the time had future NFL stars Harvey Martin and Dwight White, and Texas A&I, which was starting a two-year run as national champs. The highlight of Flynt’s two years at Sul Ross was sticking A&I with its only loss in ‘69.

Flynt was going into his senior year in 1971 when he got into a fight that was far from his first. School officials decided they’d had enough and threw him out of school. He earned his degree from Sul Ross by taking his remaining classes elsewhere.

“I actually grieved for more years than I can remember the loss of that senior year,” said Flynt, who’d been a team captain and the leading tackler as a junior. “What really got me was I felt that was my football team and I had let them down. … I don’t know if I ever got over it, but I finally learned to live with it.”

Then came word of a reunion of former Sul Ross students from the 1960s and ’70s. Randy Wilson, who has been best friends with Flynt since they met as college roommates in 1969, talked a bunch of his former teammates into using that event as an excuse to get back together.

During several days of reminiscing, Flynt’s pain became fresh as ever, especially when one of the guys said their ‘71 season went down the drain without Flynt.

That’s when he told them of his remorse. And, he added, “What really gets me is that I feel like I can still play.”

“You might as well give it a shot,” Wilson told him. “The worst thing that can happen is you get your head knocked off and come home.”

When Flynt returned home to Franklin, Tenn., his wife wasn’t as fired up by the idea.

“I feel like I’m married to Peter Pan,” she said.

It took time to accept that instead of joining their daughter at Tennessee’s home opener she would be watching her husband hit kids one-third his age.

Eventually she came around. They sold their suburban Nashville home and moved to Alpine, a town of about 6,000 residents near the Big Bend National Park, a three-hour drive from the nearest major airport.

“I told her, for me to know that I can do it and not do it would be worse than losing out the first time,” he said.

A devout Christian, Flynt sees many religious undertones to his story. He also believes it touts the benefits of strength training.

“People have asked me, ‘Mike, what is the fountain of youth?’ Well, it’s strength training that builds muscle, increases bone density and burns calories,” he said. “It’s the one thing you can do in your 90s and benefit from.”

Just to be clear, Flynt won’t be playing football in his 90s.

He’ll be out of eligibility then.

Hoelzer strives to aid other child abuse victims

Margaret Hoelzer set a world record in the 200-meter backstroke at the US trials for the Beijing Olympics. At the Games this summer, she won three medals (two silvers and a bronze). She is a champion swimmer, but she has struggled for a long time with dark secrets swirling just below the surface. Secrets more than 20 years old. Secrets about child sexual abuse. And now she’s reliving her past to help other children.

The process is painful. Hoelzer, 25, couldn’t live by herself until last year, her childhood robbed by a playmate’s father who gained her trust when she was just 5 years old. The ripples created by the trauma haunt her to this day. But after returning from China, she decided to tell her story.

Advocates are grateful for her support. Researchers say 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 7 boys will be a victim of sexual abuse before their 18th birthday, according to the US Department of Veteran Affairs, National Center for Posttraumatic Stress.

“Margaret is so unbelievable; what she’s doing screams of courage,” said Catherine Hereford, the director of development for the National Child Advocacy Center, a nonprofit agency for which Hoelzer is a spokeswoman. Hoelzer wants to devote her life to the prevention of child sexual abuse.

Hereford calls her “amazing.”

“It’s extremely difficult to talk about something like that,” said Hereford. “A lot of people that have gone through it feel shame and guilt. She had an opportunity to share her story to make a difference, and that outweighed any hesitation she had about public humiliation or embarrassing herself.”

Hoelzer, tall and personable, pulls out a photograph of herself when she was 6: a blue-eyed girl in a sky-blue bathing suit, with a beaming smile. Everything looked picture-perfect.

But something horrible was going on. And her parents never knew.

Today when she talks about her playmate’s father, she shrugs.

“This happened to me, and I went to the Olympics. If I can help just one child, it’s worth talking about. Maybe some 8-year-old kid will read this and say, ‘Yeah, I can get over this. I see light at the end of the tunnel.’ ”

Read this powerful story from Stan Grossfield of The Boston Globe - Belated Crusade

Margaret swam collegiately for Auburn and now trains, professionally with King Aquatic Club in suburban Seattle, WA.

Recently, Margaret competed at her second Olympic Games where she won 1 bronze and 2 silver medals. At the US Trials, she posted her first World Record swim in her signature event, the 200m Backstroke. The record was lowered in Beijing by Kirsty Coventry.

Margaret is a National Spokesperson for the National Children’s Advocacy Center. She is available for speaking engagements. Please contact PMG Sports for more information.

Margaret is nominated for ‘Female Athlete of the Year’ at the upcoming Golden Goggle Awards

Boston Globe, Margaret Hoelzer website

The Spirit of The Marathon (movie)

More than a million people enter The Marathon each year. These are the stories of 5 of them.

Spirit of the Marathon is the first ever non-fiction feature film to capture the drama and essence of the famed 26.2 mile running event. Filmed on four continents, the movie brings together a diverse cast of amateur athletes and marathon luminaries.

As the unique stories unfold, each runner prepares for and ultimately faces the challenge of the Chicago Marathon. More than a sports movie, Spirit of the Marathon is an inspirational journey of perseverance and personal triumph; a spectacle that will be embraced by runners and non-runners alike.

Inspirational Golfers Draw Attention to Tournament’s Mission

Some of the world’s top golfers are in Florida this week for the Professional Golfers’ Association of America Tour’s last official money tournament of the year. Sponsored by the Children’s Miracle Network, the event also raises money for the network’s mission - funding 170 children’s hospitals around the United States and saving and improving the lives of children. Dave Maier profiles two golfers who personify that mission.

At first glance, playing several days of grueling, high-level competitive golf may seem like an unusual method of rehabilitation for the recipient of a heart transplant. But for 28-year-old Erik Compton, it’s becoming a habit… or at least a trademark. This week, Compton is among 128 golfers teeing up at the PGA Tour’s Children’s Miracle Network Classic outside Orlando, Florida.

It’s not often that a golfer’s life experience so closely reflects the mission of a tournament sponsor. But in this case, Compton knows what sick kids can accomplish when they receive the right care at the right time.

“Obviously, it’s a very fitting event,” he observes, “considering everything that I’ve been through, I kind of know what kids are going through because I’ve been there.”

Where Compton had been was on an operating table, where he received not one but two life-saving heart transplants. The first came in 1992 at age 12, after he was diagnosed with heart disease. Then - following a major heart attack 14 months ago - Compton received his second transplant in May and was out playing competitive golf again by October.

In between the transplants, Compton was a national junior golf champion and a two-time all-American at the University of Georgia. Although he played a number of other sports, Compton says golf seemed the most natural fit for his competitive nature.

“Golf was an individual sport,” he explains, adding that a lot of the kids his age were stronger than he was. “And being able to shoot low scores with the health condition I had, it was a way for me to prove that I was stronger than some of the other kids.”

Also on hand this week is 16-year-old blind golfer Matt Cooper, who has lived with nearly total vision loss since he had most of a brain tumor surgically removed at age 3.

Read Full Story - Inspiration Golfers on VOA News

Seve Ballesteros vows to fight brain tumor

After a golf career full of miraculous shots — including one from a parking lot during his first British Open victory — Seve Ballesteros was preparing for the “hardest challenge” of his life Sunday after announcing he has a brain tumor.

The 51-year-old Ballesteros, who retired last year, was set to undergo a biopsy Tuesday before doctors determine how to proceed.

It was unknown whether the tumor was benign or malignant.

“Throughout my career I have been among the best at overcoming challenges on the golf course,” the five-time major winner said in a statement released by Madrid’s La Paz hospital.

“Now I want to be the best confronting the hardest challenge of my life, with all my strength, counting on all of you who are sending me encouraging messages.”

Related Posts:

• Seve Ballesteros has brain tumor (Los Angeles Times)
• Seve Ballesteros: a man who transcends his sport (Times Online)
• Career Stats - PGA Tour Online

The Express Movie

Based on a true story, The Express follows the extraordinary life of college football hero Ernie Davis, the first African-American to with the Heisman Trophy and led Syracuse to its first national championship in 1959.  He was the first selection in the 1962 NFL draft, picked by the Cleveland Browns, but died of leukemia before playing a game in the NFL.  His fight for equality and respect forever changed the face of American sports and his story continues to inspire new generations.

Raised in poverty in Pennsylvania coal-mining country, Davis hurdled social and economic obstacles to become one of the greatest running backs in college football history.

President John F. Kennedy followed Davis’ career and in 1963, when Davis’ hometown of Elmira, N.Y. chose to celebrate his life, Kennedy sent a telegram, reading:

“Seldom has an athlete been more deserving of such a tribute. Your high standards of performance on the field and off the field reflect the finest qualities of competition, sportsmanship and citizenship. The nation has bestowed upon you its highest awards for your athletic achievements. It’s a privilege for me to address you tonight as an outstanding American, and as a worthy example of our youth. I salute you.”

What about the view of Davis by people in today’s NFL?  Bill Belichick recently spoke to 100 students about Ernie Davis and The Express.  In a great article from Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe, Belichick talked about Davis and is quoted as saying the following:

“It’s a sad story, because he was such a great player and such a great person, and loved by everybody,” said Belichick. “He never really got the chance to play pro football.

“When he was diagnosed, he had been asked a couple of times if he felt sorry for himself, was he mad about what happened, was it fair that it was happening to him? I thought what he said was very profound. He said, ‘I’m 23 years old, and I think I’ve lived a fuller life in my 23 years than most people do when they live their entire lives. I’ve had such great experiences in my life, so I don’t have any regrets.’

“That’s kind of the way he lived his life. It’s really a tremendous story.”

Related Posts

• Boston Globe Article - Day at Film School - recommended reading
• Rob Brown article - Co Star of Film

Universal, Boston.com, Amherst College

Teenager becomes first female to win tour event

Zakiya Randall, 17-Year-Old teen golf star, fondly known by fans as “Z” makes history and becomes the only and youngest female to win on the Golf Channel Georgia Tour.  After already qualifying for the Georgia Golf Channel Championship by placing in the Top Percentile on the most difficult level of play on the Golf Tour, she goes on to win the final tournament of the season on September 7, 2008 at Arbor Springs Golf & Resort Club also known as the Coweta Club in Newnan, Georgia.

“I am excited to be able to win on one of the most challenging golf courses in Georgia against some of the best Adult-Men Amateur players on the Georgia Golf Tour,” Randall said. “I have been working on some swing mechanics for further improvements so this win on the Tour in the Final Tournament of the season is really special.”

The field included approximately 50 of some of the best adult-men amateur tour players in Georgia. She now joins an elite list of amateur level golfers that has also qualified to play at the national level on the Golf Channel Tour.

Zakiya has been in Sports Illustrated, EBONY Magazine, on Public International Radio, The Golf Channel TV Show, nominated as a finalist for outstanding talents and have been featured in numerous magazines, newspapers and on-line journals around the globe.

Randall took up golf at the age of 10 and after winning a series of tennis tournaments she was immediately successful in golf, winning ‘Player of the Year’ Honors.

Houston Rockets buy supplies for Hurricane Ike victims

The reminders are everywhere.

Nearly one week after Hurricane Ike tore through southeast Texas, its destructive presence still lingers like a loathsome black cloud extending a pall over the affected area. Everywhere you go there are fallen trees, broken homes and traffic lights rendered inoperative due to the massive power outage.

Of course, far more troubling is the toll this storm has taken on the area’s residents. More than one million Houstonians are still trying to cope without the benefit of electricity. Getting gas or groceries remains a cumbersome chore. Then there are those who lost absolutely everything to Ike. Amidst so much devastation and destruction, it’s easy to be overwhlemed by the bleak landscape before us right now.

Yet the city and its residents are already starting to regroup and rebuild. It’s a process that begins, as it always does, with the healing power of hope and hard work. So with that in mind, the Houston Rockets reached out today in an effort to provide plenty of both.

In conjunction with Feed the Children, Leslie Alexander and the Rockets organization purchased several semi trucks loaded with pre-packaged, non-perishable food and basic essential toiletries which were distributed to area residents Thusday at the University of Houston’s Robertson Stadium. Rockets’ players and staff took turns handing out the goods.

“We’re just trying to help and contribute as much as possible,” said Rockets’ forward Mike Harris. It was a very unfortunate situation and I think we can do a great job giving back to the community and trying to help those that lost a lot of things – things that you can’t make up for and things that they’ll never get back. So we’re just trying to help in any possible way that we can.

Full article on HoustonRockets.com

Related Articles

Rockets buy loads of supplies (AP)

Rockets buy food, water, toiletries for Hurricane Ike Victims (ESPN)

Photo slide show of Rockets on Yahoo Sports

Houston Rockets Community Services

Tony Romo changes tires, too

Tony Romo had been somewhat of an NFL opening-week quarterbacking exception, enjoying a great Sunday in Cleveland, except, of course, for that bloody chin thing.The weekend had also gone very well for Bill and Sharon White of Irving, who were returning late in the evening after an out-of-town trip.

The national news was about a day of QB disasters around the league, even at the elite level. Tom Brady, down and out for the season. Peyton Manning, looking feeble and lost. Carson Palmer, his once stellar reputation taking another plunge.

And for pure weirdness, there’s Vince Young, a young man in obvious need of either a good shrink or a good butt-kicking.

Meanwhile, even as devout football fans, the Whites had been on the road and out of touch with the NFL events. They particularly didn’t want to know the Dallas Cowboys’ outcome. The TiVo at home was waiting. Bill planned to watch the Cleveland game immediately, with suspense attached.

But a couple of miles from the house, while driving on MacArthur Boulevard, the Whites had their own mini-disaster. A tire blew on the Mercury.  Bill, luckily, managed to nurse his wounded ride off the street and into the lighted parking lot of a strip mall.

For troubling news on a Sunday, it didn’t rank up there with taking a direct hit to the chin from the helmet of linebacker Willie McGinest, but Bill became a bit woozy himself when he discovered his jack was malfunctioning. Never a good thing at midnight.

Plan B kicked in, however. One of those cigarette-lighter-plug-in air compressors was available. Except it was leaking more air than it was pumping.

“I don’t know, a hundred cars, probably more, had to go by. Nobody was stopping,” said Bill. “That’s just kind of the way it is in today’s world.”

And then …

“Bill was fooling with that tire, and I was standing beside the car watching him,” Sharon said. “The next thing I know, a nice-looking young man, very well-dressed, but with something strange on his chin, he walked up, smiled, and said, ‘Hey, you need some help?’ ”

Sharon hadn’t even noticed a car pull up.

So now it’s Bill and the well-dressed young man both bent over a flat tire at midnight on a Sunday, trying to figure out why a faulty air compressor plugged into the cigarette lighter was leaking more than pumping.

“I didn’t get a good look at him at that point,” Bill said. “We were both trying to get the tire pumped up.”

Sharon, however, took a second look. “You are Tony Romo,” she said. No reply, just a smile, and then it was back to work on the compressor.

Finally, they got the tire aired up. Enough, anyway, to make a slow drive home.

“I didn’t want to bother him,” Sharon said, “but I asked again, ‘You’re Tony Romo, right?’ ” I knew it was him by then. But he smiled and said, ‘Yes, ma’am.’ ”

Sharon: “I did something no 50-year-old woman should be doing, but I screamed real loud, and then jumped up and hugged him.”

Bill’s immediate response was “Don’t tell me how you guys did. I’m going home to watch it.”

By the next day, after seeing what the “something strange on his chin” was about, that made the Whites appreciate Romo’s gesture even more.

“He gets almost knocked cold in that game, and I read it took 13 stitches to close the cut, and then there’s a long flight home [the Cowboys charter arrived at around 11 p.m.] and Tony’s got to be dog tired, but he still was a good enough person to stop and help us,” Bill said.

“Look, we’re driving a 10-year old car that is sitting in a parking lot with a flat tire in the dead of night. He could tell by that we’re nothing special. But here’s a young man making millions of dollars, and he’s got all this fame and glory, and he does this?”

The Whites couldn’t thank Romo enough. “But if I ever had the opportunity, I’d also like to thank two other people. His mom and dad,” Bill said. “They obviously raised him right. We’ve got kids about his age. We know how difficult it can sometimes be in this day and age.”

(An e-mail from Sharon alerted me to Tony’s good deed. No Cowboys official knew about it even by Wednesday.)

Not that the Whites weren’t already Romo fans, but …

“After all this, what I realized is the athletic thing is Tony’s gift, yet it goes beyond that,” Bill said. “This was a good person we met. A good person with small-town values despite all the big-city fame and fortune.”

Shrug off a blow to the chin. Win a game. Help strangers fix a flat. It was a fine Sunday for the kid.

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