[Students] A&M-Commerce men's basketball team visits withstudents in Bartlesville
Joan Lawrence
Joan_Lawrence at tamu-commerce.edu
Fri Mar 6 15:39:50 CST 2009
Members of the Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team and
coaching staff visited with students at Madison Middle School on Friday
morning as a part of the Lone Star Conference's community activities in
Bartlesville, Okla.
While the students began packing the stands, many noticed the Lions
waiting on the sidelines and chants of "dunk it!" began to flourish.
A&M-Commerce guard Dallas Hunter obliged and jammed home a dunk to kick
off the event.
After Lions head coach Sam Walker found volunteers for a free throw
shootout to get the energy going, he introduced the team and began to
speak about the importance of academics.
Seniors DeUndrae Spraggins, Rashad Brown, Dominique Taylor and Cedric
Griffin stepped forward and Walker pointed out that each would be
graduating in the upcoming months.
"All these guys come this May or summer will have a college degree,"
said Walker. "It's what you do in the classroom."
The team then fielded various questions from which player is the best
dunker to who can sing the best, but the topic was always brought back
to the importance of academics and where it can take you in life.
"That is what school is all about...training to be a professional," said
Walker.
The other seven men's basketball teams participating in the LSC
Tournament also visited schools from around the area to "interact with
the children and spread a message of good sportsmanship, talk about the
importance of teamwork and to answer questions about college
basketball," according to the league.
Despite falling in the first round of the tourney Thursday night,
interacting with students and helping to brighten their day made the
Lions' loss a bit easier.
"Visiting with the kids today was a much-needed blessing," said
Spraggins. "I'm disappointed about the game last night, but being able
to be a positive influence on the lives of today's youth means more to
me than coming up short on the scoreboard."
Before wrapping up the event, Ronnie Morgan answered the question about
who can sing the best as he sang, "I Believe I Can Fly," before leaving
with a standing ovation.
"I just like seeing all the kids smile," said Morgan. "Anytime you can
touch someone's life that's younger than you...it's always special."
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