“This is not a recruiting seminar, this is a take-the-training-wheels-ft-session” was the way the event began, and by the end of it, plenty of folks appeared to have been riding much more confidently down their path. So you think you know everything? You think you’ve got all the answers–and suddenly you realize you’re not even close. It’s that time of the year where hundreds of thousands of people are happily and nervously preparing for that next step in life. It’s that time of year where seniors are sprinting towards (and straight out) the front gates of their high schools like Usain Bolt while the parents are left to make sure their babies are going to be taken care of properly once they’ve flown from the nest.
Planning for the next four weeks–much less the next four years–is a daunting task in-and-of-itself. Going off to college–especially for those leaving their hometowns and the security they provide–can be a very nerve-racking situation, especially if you don’t already have the information and the answers to questions you didn’t realize were needing to be asked before leaving in the first place.
If you’re a parent, there’s no such thing as asking the “wrong” question when folks that have been through the process are doing the talking. If you’re a student–or in this case a student-athlete–there’s no such thing as a stone left unturned. The information needed to survive from a financial, to a media standpoint, to knowing the rules of the NCAA and knowing the laws of the land as they vary from state-to-state can be mountainous. Although some of the information won’t be needed as long as a little common sense is applied, it’s information that is needed nonetheless. If anything, the conversations need to be had about the absurdity that can ensue when Mom and Dad aren’t around on a daily basis.
BCP’s inaugural Senior Summit 2016 was held on a beautiful Saturday afternoon this past weekend in Ybor City at the Law Office of Swope and Rodante. The summit was created for seniors and their parents to come and hear four experts in the field of financial management, media, NCAA compliance, as well as the laws of our land as they pertain to DUI. There was a general assembly to start the event in which student-athletes and their parents were sent to four “breakdown” sessions in which the experts gave specific advice and answered questions. The event ended with a roundtable discussion and Q&A with the speakers and featured former Plant and University of Georgia standout Orson Charles.
Derrick Edmonds, Associate Director at the Transamerica Agency Network spoke to the parents and the players about the potential pitfalls regarding credit cards and student loans as well. Edmonds is a former player himself and was the Guy Toph Award winner at Hillsborough High School and then graduated from the University of Tennessee in the mid-90’s so his perspective was unique. Edmonds’ talk included five major bullet points towards successful financial management with emphasis on the credit side while also lending specific advice on how to land internships during the offseason as well. Edmonds also talked about leveraging all of the resources that will be available from meal plans and travel per diems as well.
Joey Johnston, formerly of the Tampa Tribune, who has covered countless Super Bowls and other major events in the city throughout decades has seen quite a bit in his days and even more in the recent years with the ballooning of media coverage throughout the multiple levels of the sport of football. Johnston advised the players and their parents on the importance of maintaining good relationships with the media. He urged them to enjoy every second of the interactions they have with the media–if they can.
Johnston’s message was also based on he hates having to write the negative stories about athletes that he does, but that it’s his job. He much prefers the good stories and that most of that will fall on the athletes themselves to make sure they conduct themselves in the proper fashion. He said that the media loves someone that’s personable and although some in the media have agendas, there’s ample opportunity to have great interaction with the media as a whole to balance out those types of media members.
Ryan Steinberg, Associate Director of Enforcement at the NCAA flew in from Indianapolis to speak with the players about compliance and all of the intricacies that go along with making sure the rules are followed. Steinberg’s message to the players was simply, if you don’t know or if you think you don’t know–then you’d better ask. Becoming best friends with the trainers and the compliance officers on-campus is just as important as anything else in this day and age.
From making sure that failing a drug test for taking simple over-the-counter meds doesn’t happen to understanding what and what-not to accept from boosters were just two of the points discussed. Needless to say, Steinberg’s expertise was greatly valued when it came to providing info for what seemed “mundane” in nature, but the precise kind of information that will keep a player from being ineligible or even worse–putting his school on probation with his actions.
Elizabeth Munro, Managing Attorney at Vanguard Attorneys in Ybor City was present to give unfiltered details about making decisions in a matter of seconds will cost you the rest of your freedom–or even worse? Your life. Her main point to everything she discussed–especially with emphasis on DUI’s–was don’t make one decision that’s going to ruin it all. During Munro’s presentation, she provided images from wrecks involving USF students and the gruesome aftermath in which multiple loss of life had occurred. Munro also advised anyone thinking about pre-law would also have to take into account the fact that you run the risk of even being allowed to practice to law for receiving a DUI while in school and that those types of arrests or expensive and stick with you for the rest of your life.
Following the event, we caught up with Chamberlain’s Deedrick Daniels, who is off to Charlottesville to play his ball at the University of Virginia this fall. Daniels was accompanied by his mother, Sontrivette Holton and his little brother. Both were asked their impressions about the first-time event. Daniels plans to major in Economics at UVA and finished his career at Chambo with 166 tackles and 5.5 sacks as a DB and also caught 23 passes for 470 yards as receiver during his junior season.
“I really did not know what to expect at the Summit, but it was so appreciated. I thank God for the people that put this together,” said Daniels’ Mother, Sontrivette Holton. “It opened my eyes up to such things like I’m getting ready to send my son with half of a medicine cabinet and they can’t really do that–it’s good to know these things before they get up there.”
Obviously with plans to major in Econ at one of the nations’ most-prestigious institutions, Daniels already has a good idea about what constitutes good choices–especially with money. Daniels goes on to reiterate that the financial management portion of the event was helpful, as well as the advice he received from Johnston.
“Piggybacking on what my Mom was saying mainly on the financial aspect of it about how things are dealt with as far as credit cards and loans and those types of things go. I especially enjoyed the media portion of it as well where we discussed social media and what and what-not to post, plus learning how reporters will come to you in a certain manner–the pros and cons of those interactions as well.”
Holton knows that in order for her son not to experience the same sort of stress that she had to endure–especially with the financials, he needed (and so did she) about the pitfalls about credit cards. Although Congress did its best to protect students from predatory practices in 2006, there are still plenty of things that can go wrong.
“Financially, I always told Deedrick–don’t get yourself involved with credit cards. I did that going to just HCC and I paid for it out of ignorance, but I’m glad he now knows not to get out there and just get one to have one. That’s why I asked if it was even advisable for them to get a credit card in the first place. I’m just grateful to come here and pick up these things now. It’s a great jumpstart to him going off to college.”