Scholar Athletes Lead by Giving Back to the Community

The end of the high school sports season is the perfect time to reflect and honor the student-athletes who grace our fields and sports pages for 10 months out of the year.

The Times-Dispatch will put the finishing touches on its 2008-09 high school sports coverage at the end of this month and in early July with the naming of the All-Metro spring sports teams.

On Monday, we honored the best student athletes at

The Times-Dispatch/Sports Backers Scholar Athletes of the Year banquet.

All of the honorees combined excellence in the classroom with athletic achievement. It is always a tough chore to narrow the field because there are so many quality young men and women in Richmond and its surrounding counties. This year was no exception.

Many of the candidates are members of the National Honor Society. Some are headed to Ivy League schools. Some will attend big-time Division I schools on athletic scholarships. But they all had a common thread: they give back to their respective communities.

Athletics teaches teamwork. This year's scholar athletes took their teamwork skills and applied them off the field as well. They volunteer at elementary schools and in their churches. Some volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. Some even run their own business.

University of Richmond football coach Mike London was the guest speaker at the banquet. He opened his presentation with a short video that focused on leadership and relationships. The video stressed that everybody is a leader to someone, whether or not it's a role a person wants. At the end, it asked a very important question.

"Who is your 'someone'?"

London talked about how his players learned to play for each other. It wasn't so much about the wins and losses, though Richmond won many more games than it lost and captured its first NCAA Football Championship Series title. London's speech was about relationships.

Respect. Sacrifice. Honesty. Doing the right thing.

At one point, London asked those in the audience to find at least one person in the room who that person needed to thank. Or appreciate. Or apologize to. It was about continuing to develop personal relationships. He asked the audience to take 30 seconds to seek out that one person and express themselves. Everybody participated. It took longer than 30 seconds. Nobody minded.

It was a terrific exercise and exemplified London's leadership abilities. No wonder UR's football team was so successful in his first year as head coach.

London's message was clear. Each of us is a leader to someone. It's a lesson not to be forgotten. The scholar athletes honored on Monday already have become the leaders of their own lives. It's only a matter of time before they join the leaders of our communities.

The only question is, who is your "someone"?

Steve Trosky is sports editor of The Times-Dispatch. Contact him at (804) 649-6456 or .