Golden Lessons
Basketball is no more realistic a ticket from the ghetto to the NBA than is winning the lottery. But encouraging sports as a way to learn self control, set goals and stay off the streets can help kids out of poverty, not by making them rich but by teaching them skills they can apply in every part of their lives. Today’s up-to-the-minute role models are Olympians Derek Parra and Apolo Anton Ohno.
A San Bernardino native son, the 31-year-old Parra won a silver medal last week and gold on Tuesday, becoming the first Mexican American to win an Olympic speedskating medal. Growing up, he could barely afford the $2.75 admission to the local Stardust Roller Rink, the neighborhood haven from gunshots and graffiti. He sold everything he had to afford a move to Florida to train with a renowned in-line speedskating coach. Between practice sessions, he works at a Home Depot.
Parra’s medals may win him some product endorsements, maybe a cereal box cover, but speedskating is not going to make him rich. The most important endorsement it earned him, money can’t buy. “My son,” says his dad, Gilbert Parra, “is my hero.” Judging from the frenzy in San Bernardino, he’s a hero to more than a few others.
Apolo Anton Ohno, 19, won silver and gold in two speedskating events before an audience full of fans, with two more races to come Saturday. Ohno’s father credits the discipline of skating--and a stint training in Lake Placid, N.Y.--for keeping the teenager from hanging out with gangbangers.
Granted, the boys and girls who played in a South Central basketball tournament this week sponsored by L.A. Bridges, the city’s gang intervention program, and the nonprofit Central Recovery Development Program, are about as likely to win Olympic gold as that spot on the NBA. But like the Stardust Roller Rink, these and other neighborhood sports programs provide at the very least a respite and a chance to dream. It’s something if they simply give kids an outlet for teenage energy. If they also teach the cooperation, discipline and pride needed to move ahead in the world, that’s worth more than any gold medal.