Finding the Good in Sports Not as Hard as You Think

A 60-year-old woman, tired of feeling her value had slipped in the world, readies to swim 103 miles in shark-infested waters, from Cuba to Florida, a journey she tried and failed when she was 29. A 16-year-old girl, chatting on her cell phone at the mall, spots a running would-be thief and tackles the clod, then flips him on his stomach until security guards arrive, proving again that cheerleaders aren't all delicate flowers worried about messing their nails.

A Yale graduate with a hardly unusual American background -- raised by Mexican-American and Anglo parents, a convert to Islam, preacher of peace – eschews high-paying jobs to coach high school football and, more important, help raise a village of young men. Another American success story -- a former Olympian who taught millions of young girls that sweat isn't a dirty word -- embarks on a new dream of nursing ailing horses back to health.

An Ironman triathlete refuses to allow his four broken ribs to keep him from the starting line. A catcher-turned-pitcher who speaks five different languages dazzles in his major league debut. A football player, still in his prime, leaves his profession behind to become a firefighter. Another football player, imprisoned for more than three years, returns to the university where he once won a national championship to pursue his degree. In his spare time, an Indy 500 champion kneads sticky sourdough and coaxes it into mouth-watering bread, where it will be added to special care packages for U.S. troops serving overseas.

Good news in the world of sports is everywhere if you squint hard enough. Actually, you barely have to look for it, once you get beyond the spirit squelching tedium of athletes behaving badly.

Just for a moment, shove aside reports of players causing minor, silly uproars by refusing to carry their teammates' shoulder pads, or provoking major disruptions that end in a courtroom. And those coaches, those small, easily seduced creatures who are meant to lead by example? Pay no attention to the charlatans behind the curtain, the Rick Pitinos and Lane Kiffins and the band of rogues who hog the headlines for all the wrong reasons.



Instead, take a peek into Diane Nyad's closet, which no doubt is filled with hundreds of swimsuits and something called a shark shield. She figures the new device will protect her from blood-thirsty creatures when, assuming the weather plays fair, she dives into the waters off Havana in a few weeks. Optimism might just be her top training tool.

"They put a bloody leg of a cow on a surfboard and then watched from a helicopter. Within minutes, hundreds of sharks came and just tore the thing apart. Then they did the same thing with the shark shield device. Nearly 5,000 sharks were in the area, but none touched it," Nyad (photo above) told the Los Angeles Times.

"I get e-mails from people saying they are shark experts," she added. "They say I will be like a dinner bell out there. I've started deleting those immediately.

"Whether it is true that the shield works or not, I've decided to believe it will."

Nyad, who will be 61 next month, had a long hiatus to her open water swimming career – her last attempt was in 1978, when wild, mammoth waves forced her to abort a Cuba-to-Florida swim after some 42 hours. Turning 60, and losing her mother a few months later, jarred Nyad's sense of adventure, her need to shake the nagging thought of feeling "disenfranchised, of being no longer valued."

She discovered she's still an athlete, something age can never erase.

Just for a moment, shove aside reports of players causing minor, silly uproars by refusing to carry their teammates' shoulder pads, or provoking major disruptions that end in a courtroom.
Kealey Oliver, a junior cheerleader at Moore High School in Oklahoma, tackled and subdued an alleged shoplifter at the Penn Square Mall last weekend. Debate all you wish about whether cheerleading is a sport or an activity. In a moment when many of us would freeze or look the other way, Oliver's athletic background kicked in, and pity the fool who made the mistake of running her way.

"I was like 'Hang on Mom,' and I put the phone down. When he got close to me, I just got in his way and grabbed him and he kept trying to run so I just slammed him on the ground," she told a local TV station. Oliver ended up with a scratch on her arm and a bruise on her knee, and likely a new-found admiration from those who never knew a 16-year-old girl in a sundress could be so tough and brave.

And what of James Soza, the 27-year-old rookie football coach for Chamblee High in Georgia? There are thousands of men built from the same mold scattered across the country, men determined to make a difference in the way young boys are raised. These coaches quietly go about their business teaching life lessons along with Xs and Os, all for a stingy paycheck and the satisfaction of doing well.

Soza, an Ivy League graduate, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he believes "in discipline, conditioning, structure, fundamentals." But he also talked about "the holistic importance of coaching" and said "I don't know that there is anything bigger than empowering young men. Particularly for those from single-parent homes, there are so few rites of passage. Society cannot function if boys do not assume the role of responsible adult men."

Every coach, from Pee Wee on up to USC, ought to have those words affixed to their bathroom mirror and repeat them as daily affirmations.

Remember Michelle Akers, a legend in U.S soccer circles who competed and won on the highest levels despite her battles with chronic fatigue syndrome and creaky knees? The AJC recently detailed her struggles to rebuild her life and the lives of her rescued horses after catastrophic floods nearly broke her. She, too, is like millions of ordinary Americans who face despair and destruction, and then chose to get out of bed and soldier on.

Barely six week ago, Larry Kutler of Plantation, Fla., was struck from behind by a van while training for the Ford Ironman in Lake Placid, N.Y. Along with suffering broken ribs, Kutler's left side looked as if it had been beaten with a bat, and doctors told him to stay still for two weeks, and expect another six before he could renew training in earnest.

Last Sunday, Kutler, 57, conquered the torturous inclines of the Adirondacks and his own screeching body to complete the 140.6-mile course -- 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, 26.2-mile run -- in 15 hours, 28 minutes. Ironmen are a rare mix of determination and extreme craziness, but there was a simplistic innocence to Kutler' drive that stirred even the couch potatoes among us.

He had the words "gratitude" and "reverence" sketched on his arms. He said the energy he drew from the trees and the mountains kept him moving. He also dropped more nuggets of wisdom that ought to be posted on all our bathroom mirrors: "There was never a time that I thought I couldn't do it. I think it's been an important lesson that my kids observed. I had to do it for them, show that adversity can be put to your advantage."

Raise a glass to all of the athletes who made us smile throughout a steamy July. Here's to the Dodgers' Kenley Jansen (right), a former catcher from Curacao in the Netherlands Antilles who last week pitched a perfect inning, and then did it again the next day to earn a save, and conducted his post-game interviews in five different languages.

Good for you Sandy Beveridge, a safety for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats who announced his retirement so he could pursue his boyhood dream of being a firefighter.

Best of luck Maurice Clarett as you return to Ohio State University, not to play football but to get a degree, after serving 3 1/2 years in a Toledo prison time on charges of aggravated robbery and carrying a concealed weapon. Thank you Dan Wheldon, one of the countless number of athletes who, during their odd off hours, prepare care packages and entertain the troops.

Seriously, turn the newspaper page or click another link. Good news isn't hard to find. Let's just hope the shark shield works.