SCC Blog
Nominate an Inspirational High School Football Player for This Year’s “Rudy Award”
November 13th, 2009This edition of SCC’s blog features content provided by guest blogger Andre Jensen of Trusted Sports, Inc. The focus this week is on inspiration. Inspiration can come from anywhere, yet sometimes it is easier to find when someone tells you where to look! Today’s post features an excellent source for stories of inspiration, hopefully in an arena that really resonates with you and your students. The information presented in today’s blog also features an incredible opportunity for those of you who are lucky enough to have home grown inspiration playing for your local high school football team. Read on to find out more about how one of your students could win a $10,000 scholarship and be recognized as this year’s winner of the Rudy Award!
Finding Inspiration
By Andre Jensen, Online Marketing Manager, Trusted Sports, Inc. (founders of the Rudy Awards)
Teachers, Coaches, Athletic Directors, and even teammates have been nominating inspirational football players for the High School Football Rudy Awards since its launch in mid September, 2009. Since then, the Trusted Sports team has been busy publishing great stories of High School students who work hard in order to excel in academics and have overcome all sorts of obstacles in order to play football. These kids are motivating to their classmates, teammates, and communities.
Kim Keeney, parent of 2009 Nominee Bobby Keeney emailed us a quick note:
“Bobby and I were standing in the road talking, and one of our neighbors pulled to the side of the road, got out of his car, ran over to Bobby and shook his hand to congratulate him!!! He said he was so proud of him!!! Thank you for bringing together a community!!!!”
If you’re looking for ways to motivate and inspire your students, team, and even fellow teachers and coaches, take a look at Calob Leindecker’s profile. Caleb’s profile includes a video of his story and many user submitted stories about how he’s inspired so many by his dedication to make it back onto the football field after an accident which took his left leg just below the knee. There are over 100 inspirational stories and videos available.
Kurt LeBlanc of Louisiana suffered two strokes that left him unable to speak. Steven Barber of Colorado was born deaf, yet he’s never allowed that to stop him from following his dream to play football. Anthony Braham of New York suffers from kidney failure. A.J. Bocchini of Wisconsin deals with Cerebral Palsy, but none of these kids allow their challenges to stop them from contributing to their teams!
The High School Rudy Awards is a search for the most inspirational high school football player of the 2009 season who will receive the inaugural “High School Rudy Award” and a $10,000 academic scholarship. This award is aimed at not only celebrating incredibly inspiring player stories, but also to motivate other kids to thrive in life through youth sports. A total of $20,000 in academic scholarships will be awarded.
If you have a Rudy in your classroom that is also on the football team, nominate him or her today! Nominations for the 2009 High School Rudy Awards will be accepted until November 30th. Anyone can nominate a “Rudy” on their team by visiting the Nominate a Rudy page.
About Trusted Sports
With more than 70% of kids dropping out of sports before they turn thirteen, Trusted Sports was created with the mission to motivate kids to thrive in life through sports by inspiring, educating, and uniting young athletes, parents, and coaches. “We know when our kids are engaged in youth sports it translates to a decrease in childhood and teenage obesity, lower levels of drug use, fewer cases of teenage pregnancy and an increase in their overall health and wellbeing,” said CJ Edmonds, CEO of Trusted Sports. Our Mission is to “Keep Kids in the Game” through such inspirational initiatives as the Rudy Awards program. Our hope is that someday soon we will celebrate the ‘Rudy’ on every team in America (boys, girls, and all sports) much like we celebrate the most valuable player or most improved player. Just as the film RUDY transcends playing football for the University of Notre Dame, we hope these awards transcend high school sports.
The High School Football Rudy Awards are produced and managed by Trusted Sports Inc., a Bend, Oregon based company. For more information about Trusted Sports, please visit www.TrustedSports.com and www.HighSchoolRudyAwards.com.
*** Questions for Classroom Discussion ***
1. What does inspiration mean to you?
2. Can you think of something that has inspired you in the last year? What was it?
3. Is there a football player at your high school with an inspirational story? If so, do you think you should nominate that student as a candidate for this year’s Rudy Award?
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