Our Town: What it takes to get to the top

The Island Now

Dr. Meredith Whitley, assistant professor at Adelphi University may well become the most important person in pro sports.  
She works in the Department of Exercise Science,  Health Studies, Physical Education and Sports Management in an area of research that every GM in sports has nightmares about.  
I found out about Whitley and her research through her student and research assistant  Monica Rosenberg.
Monica happens to be a personal trainer at Healthtrax in Garden City, which is where I met her.
Monica told me about  Whitley’s research  on the characteristics of urban city youth who make it to the top in the NBA or NFL.  
This is research that  matters and I decided to contact her to talk about it.  I made my way to the serene and beautiful campus of Adelphi University last week and we sat in her office and chatted.
Whitley  was at one time a college basketball player and believes that the world of sport can be a force of ultimate good in anyone’s  life.  
This hypothesis is in opposition to all the findings of Roger Rees a former sociology professor at Adelphi.  
Dr. Rees’ book “Lessons from the Locker Room: the myth of school sports” was a broad indictment of sport culture and emphasized how sports did little more than foster selfishness and anti-social behavior.   
Rees’ book is an extension of  John Hoberman’s book “Darwins Athletes: How sports had damaged Black America and preserved the myth of race.”
Both of these well-known authors presented  a very pessimistic and harsh view of the value of sports for today’s youth.
Whitley hypothesis challenges these negative views.
She decided to research this issue in depth and discovered that not all urban inner city youth are damaged by sports and in fact a third of them  benefit greatly from the social capital, the structure  and the values fostered in the world of sports.
She and her colleague William Massey, Ph.D.  interviewed a group of athletes who faced harsh challenges when younger.
Some were homeless, abused sexually, were from drug abusing home,  had mentally ill parents or no parents at all.  
Despite these challenges  a subset of her subjects rose to the top of the world of sports. She  interviewed  elite professional football and basketball players along with their parents, coaches and mentors and this is what she found:
1. Despite a childhood history of neglect, trauma or poverty, some of these athletes rose above the mire  if they had a key relationship with a caring and trustworthy coach or mentor.  
There are many examples of special coaches including John Wooden of UCLA, John Thompson of Georgetown,  Doc Counsilman of Indiana University, Clive Charles of University of Portland and Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers.
Finding a mentor is also a part of Whitley’s findings.  If the player is lucky enough to find a kind, wise and generous mentor this can also act to shield the athlete from some of the dangers of professional sports and fame.
2. Whitley also discovered that the early success and fame  for an inner city impoverished athlete can act like a magnet for exploitation where leeches come out to the urban woodwork, exploit and eventually ruin the athlete.
3. Whitley coined the phrase “tight positive feedback loops” which refers to the unique way that practicing a sport can provide encouragement and produce a sense of effectance and power.  
She told me everyday life can be filled with  confusion,  complexity and neglect and sport is one of the few areas in life where you get immediate feedback and positive feelings  as you practice and develop your craft.
4. Her research also created the phrase “embodied physicality,” which refers to the feeling of pride and pleasure the athlete feels when they begin to master their craft.
Each of these areas  hold promise for not only the impoverished young athlete but for every athlete that falls in love with their sport.
Rees and Hoberman were correct in pointing out that the dirty little secret of sports is that it can be detrimental to any athlete.  
One can become selfish, entitled, drug addicted  and violent.
Nearly every week we read headlines about the fall from grace of our sports heroes.  
Tiger Woods, Mike Tyson and Lance Armstrong are just a few that we know.
So it is encouraging to learn of a local researcher  who seeks out the good in sport and has the fortitude and determination to discover what special circumstances must be there for the talent to emerge.
One of the most famed characters in literature is Jean Valjean in the Victor Hugo novel  “Les Miserables.”  But the real hero of that novel was Bishop Myriel whose love  and charity converted Valjean from a hardened depressed thief into a saint.  
This really is what Whitley found in her research.   
No matter how disadvantaged and troubled a young athlete may be, if they find a mentor who will show love and faith and interest they can be converted into a champion.
It’s worth remembering that Mike Tyson was saved from the gutter by his trainer Cus D’Amato, but when Cus passed away it was not long before Tyson was in jail.  
And Tiger Woods was on top of the world until his father passed away and shortly thereafter Tiger wound up a ruined man.
It may come to pass that Whitley’s pioneering efforts in the field of talent development will lead the way for professional sports to discover how to find and foster healthy coaching, decent mentoring and a healthy sport culture.

By Dr. Tom Ferraro

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