TORONTO RAPTERS SPORTSCASTER

Jack Armstrong spoke at our January 25th meeting. He is a sportscaster for the Toronto Raptors NBA basketball team.  He had previosly been a coach for several colleges, including Niagara University, where he was the youngest head coach in college history. Jack provided us with a lot of witty anecdotes which were humorous, but also led into his discussion of sports and life.  Jack stated that the intesity of coaching changes a person.  He feels that kids today are being enabled by their parents, and as a result they can't make decisions on their own.  A perfect example is to take a look at local kids playing a sport.  Where years ago it was just a get together organized by the kids, today you can't see a sport of any kind played without having several adults running the show.  It even extends to professional atheletes who can't do things on their own, and even have their agents do the mundane things such as paying their bills.  He said that there is less and less inter-personal communication in today's electronic world.  People just don't get together anymore for a face to face discussion.  Everything is done today by email, fax, texting, twitter, and the host of other electronic communication methods.  People today won't even do something as simple as writing and mailing a hand written note, which has more impact than any other method of communication.Jack left us with a couple of things to ponder:  One is that sports not only builds character in an individual, it reveals it.  also, he said that success happens when the love for what you do overcomes the fatigue of doing it.

                                                                                   By Jim pawlicki