Student-Athlete Character Development & Positive Focus Training at its best! This Amazon Best Seller helps student-athletes understand that the same passion & effort put into a particular sport, is the same passion & effort that must be put into academics, learning, behavior & everything done in life! *Important youth sports issues, solutions to those issues & outstanding youth stories that applaud & uplift our youth that are achieving in academics, sports & life!
The Seven (7) "Plays" of THE STUDENT-ATHLETE PLAYBOOK!
GOALS - FOCUS - EFFORT - FAMILY - ACADEMICS - CONSISTENCY - SACRIFICE - PERSEVERANCE - RESPECT - CHARACTER
Jabari Parker - The Nations Best High School Basketball Player!
Thoughts by: Coach Brown
When I saw Jabari Parker's picture on the cover of Sports Illustrated (May 21, 2012), I said, "Oh no, here is another young man being hyped up." Man was I wrong after reading the article about Jabari! Take basketball out of the equation, and the young man is still an outstanding person, period!
You see, it's very rare for a young man receiving the kind of attention that he is receiving being humble and more importantly, openly acknowledging his focus and commitment to his religious beliefs. After a game when he almost had a triple double, "The other varsity players were out in the hallway, talking to girls by the snack stand," says Flannigan (filmed every in-state basketball game played by Chicago's Simeon Career Academy during the 2011-12 season). "The best player in the city was being the water boy for the jayvee. It's hard to root against a kid like that. He's on top of the world, but he's incredibly humble."
The Sports Illustrated (May 21, 2012) article was written by Jeff Benedict ...
Last season, the 6' 9", 220-pound junior led Simeon to a 33-1 record and a third straight Class 4A state championship. In April he was chosen the Gatorade National Player of the Year, becoming only the fourth non-senior to win the award (after James, Greg Oden and Brandon Knight). Three months earlier USA Basketball had named Jabari its male athlete of the year for 2011, succeding 2010 winner Kevin Durant, an NBA All-Star. Jabari got the nod after leading the U.S. to the gold medal and being named MVP of the FIBA Americas U16 championship in Cancun, Mexico, last summer.
... Jabari belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. "Basketball is what I do," he says. "It's not who I am."
Jabari's father, Sonny, who played for the Warriors from 1976 to 1982, is not a Mormon, but Jabari's mother, Lola, is a lifelong member of the, their four children have been raised as Mormons.
After Jabari completes his first and most likely only year of college, he will have to make a decision about whether or not he serves as a missionary (customary for all Mormons if they choose to do it) and be away from basketball for two years. It will be a tremendously tough decision, but because of his unique maturity at his age and his positive family structure, he will make the best decision possible for his life!
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