This one not by choice apparently...from footlocker's facebook page:
Foot Locker officials, associates, and fans,
Today Mark Anthony Blackmon did not board his flight to a trip that he was extremely excited about. He is in class right now wishing he could be with his fellow runners from the south. @9:30 pm I had never hear him more excited about and actual race, and he was honored to have achieved such high distinction in the cross country world.
Unfortunately athletes are sometimes not in control of their lives, they have parents that can sometimes be over bearing or complete control freaks. (athletes out there you know what this can be like!). Mark had decided very early that he was going to represent the south and do his best to run with this elite field of runners. Amid all of the stress he was facing from his senior project being due the day of his departure, his basketball coach threatening to keep him from starting on his championship team, and his father in his ear about not going, he had put his foot down and said he was ready for this experience, come what may.
When he called me @9:30 he told me his coach had just kicked him off his basketball team and that he didn't care and that he was ready to run. He had done the work to get his senior project rescheduled for another day. I advised him that his decision is his own and we talked about his prospects for college whether they are basketball or running all ready being in place, the ball is rolling so he shouldn't worry about the selfish feelings of adults that don't have your best interest in mind. It is his senior year! He got a call from our father while he was on the phone with me and clicked over.
By 10:30pm Mark said that dad is not letting me go! I told Mark that I would personally come to Charlotte and take him to the airport. I tried to talk to both parties and nothing was yielded. Mark is very sorry he could not make the trip and I have never seen him more upset.
I personally drove to Charlotte this morning to give my brother a hug, take him to breakfast, and tell him its OK. Sometimes life throws things your way that you have no control over, its not about how long you can pout and whine, its about what you do to over come your obstacles and if they knock you down how long its going to take for you to get back up. Take them as they come and keep moving!
Mark deeply wishes he could be there, you will see him in track, and if you are his friend leave some encouragement on his wall!
Good Luck to everyone else it is a great experience!
Angelina Blackmon
Another FL Finalist Staying Home
Report Thread
-
-
Angelina, you are an awesome sister and person.
Thank you for sharing and for being there for your brother. -
Couldn't believe I was reading this. This is messed up. Qualifying for FL nationals should be one of a family's happiest moments.
I don't understand this. If the family felt this way about the meet, why did the dad even let his son accept a finalist spot for San Diego? Didn't this deny another regional kid the chance to go?
And what kind of basketball coach would do this? The school was not proud to have a national level runner? -
To the great credit of the Foot Locker organization, it looks like the 11th place finisher will get to run today in San Diego, but because of this other family's actions, he will arrive at midnight or later, and missed out on all the prerace activities that the other kids got to participate in.
http://preps.gainesville.com/news/article/28060/godwin-to-run-in-footlocker-nationals-in-san-diego/
Looking further, it seems like this is not the first time this family has crossed paths with the Foot Locker South meet - the Blackmon kid was disqualified at Foot Locker South in the 7th grade after the father was apparently repeatedly warned to not register him for the high school races, but the boy ran in one of them anyway.
http://sc.milesplit.com/articles/11728
College coaches beware. -
Go Chris Godwin (the 11th place guy that now is going)! Can you imagine getting that call? "Get to the airport - you are running Foot Locker tomorrow" Seems like he'll be exhausted from the travel, but also hasn't been getting himself nervous about the race for the last few weeks. Hopefully he can squeak out a top 35 finish.
-
Yeah, be wary of the kid who is willing to sacrifice other things in his life in order to compete. He might actually be grateful for any chance he gets to run, and you certainly wouldn't want that...
-
Sometimes parents confuse the heck out of me. This is something he'll never forget- his father stealing an opportunity from him that he can never get back.
When he realizes he's wrong, the I'm sorry won't turn back the clock to let the kid run.
I'm a coach, I don't know how a coach could let an athlete down like that. Suck it up, realize that you have a great athlete on your team and be proud of his accomplishment.
I wonder how many of his "state championship" basketball team will be among the 10 best in a multi-state region?
Too bad for the kid. -
themanontherun wrote:
Yeah, be wary of the kid who is willing to sacrifice other things in his life in order to compete. He might actually be grateful for any chance he gets to run, and you certainly wouldn't want that...
Yes, you are right - I didn't express that very well. I was referring to the dad, not the kid. Sounds like the boy very much wanted to compete, and was willing, or forced, to sacrifice basketball to do it. If I were a recruiting coach, though, I would make very sure dad wasn't calling all the shots. -
if he makes it to the nba...its safe to say he's probably the fastest distance runner there.
-
i didn't know he was african american. its rare seeing a black who is not of East African descent doing well in XC like this.
-
He is legit as a player. I was readin thread about him, he is the number 4 ranked 3 point shooter in the state, and has received letters from Florida.
runn wrote:
Sometimes parents confuse the heck out of me. This is something he'll never forget- his father stealing an opportunity from him that he can never get back.
When he realizes he's wrong, the I'm sorry won't turn back the clock to let the kid run.
I'm a coach, I don't know how a coach could let an athlete down like that. Suck it up, realize that you have a great athlete on your team and be proud of his accomplishment.
I wonder how many of his "state championship" basketball team will be among the 10 best in a multi-state region?
Too bad for the kid. -
[quote]bguyj20009 wrote:
He is legit as a player. I was readin thread about him, he is the number 4 ranked 3 point shooter in the state, and has received letters from Florida.
[quote]runn wrote:
That's fine, but I guess my point is that he if wanted to go the adults in his life should have supported him.
His memories 10, 15, years from now will be that the most influential and important adults in his teenage life( his father and a coach) let him down. -
The basketball coach should be fired! Totally unacceptable consequences for missing some practice time and maybe one game out of what, 20? I bet this same coach wants this runner at all "open gym sessions" during the fall cross country season. Has the father had a change of heart and thinks his son now has more potential in BB than CC? You would think after sneaking a 7th grader into a high school regional meet that he would allow his son to sneak off for a few days and enjoy his last season of HS CC in style!
-
this is really really sad. Qualifying for Foot Locker Finals turned into what I can only imagine is the most stressful and disappointing situation in this young man's life. Kicked off what seems to be a very high caliber basketball team, parental pressures and additional stress, the senior project debacle, and in the end he doesn't even get to go to FL Finals. This is really a shame.
And what makes it worse is I remember watching the replay of the FL South regional, and coming down the homestretch you could tell that this kid who so many people were cheering for knew he was in the top 10, and he could not have looked any happier sprinting to the finish.
Best wishes to Mark and his future, as well as his loving sister. -
Here is an article from dyestat that was from two years ago. Great article and talks about how his sister (the one who wrote the letter) was a footlocker finalist and how he likes basketball more. Remember this is from two years ago, so things could have changed. His dad seems to be pretty supportive of his running. Don't know what went wrong here, but this is very sad and the high school basketball coach should be ashamed.
http://archive.dyestat.com/?pg=us-Star-Squad-Spotlight-SS04-IndBoy-MBlackmonSC -
This is absurd. The basketball coach should be fired for incompetency alone. Kick your best player off of the team because he's going to California for free to run a race? You kick kids off of teams when they're caught drinking, doing drugs, failing classes, committing crimes, etc. His achievements, and the achievements of any young man or woman, should be lauded by the school and the community.
Kudos to footlocker for handling the situation & to his sister for being a good older sister. -
its obviously more to the situation that meets the eye. the team might have talked trash like a lot of guys do whe they are jealous, putting pressure on the coach to say you either do basketball, or run.
a heated argument, words exchange, and in frustration guy says something coach takes real offense to so he kicks himoff the team. -
The name wasn't a hint?
bguyj20009 wrote:
i didn't know he was african american. its rare seeing a black who is not of East African descent doing well in XC like this. -
Maximus wrote:
Here is an article from dyestat that was from two years ago. Great article and talks about how his sister (the one who wrote the letter) was a footlocker finalist
http://archive.dyestat.com/?pg=us-Star-Squad-Spotlight-SS04-IndBoy-MBlackmonSC
http://www.dyestat.com/3us/3xc/FL/final/album-photorun-girls/pages/Blackmon_Angelina_JPG.htm -
This is absurd. The basketball coach should be fired for incompetency alone. Kick your best player off of the team because he's going to California for free to run a race? You kick kids off of teams when they're caught drinking, doing drugs, failing classes, committing crimes, etc. His achievements, and the achievements of any young man or woman, should be lauded by the school and the community.
___________________________________________________________
You are dead right on this. We need to start a letter writing campaign to the AD at that school to get the basketball coach fired.The ego on these high school coaches are completely out of control.
