Labour

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Happy Labor Day. Or "Labour' for our British readers. It's hot and humid here in SoCal, not at all befitting the first day of September. There will be much beach traffic, and the sands will be clogged with all manner of bodies celebrating the somewhat ironic fact that the purpose of Labor Day is not to Labor At All.

One individual who could be laboring hard is something a personal hero, a poster child for Keep Pushing whose story I often share with friends. His name is Christian Yount, and he's the long snapper for the UCLA Bruins. You can watch him play on ESPN tonight at 5 p.m. PST. He's number 52 (not to be confused with another #52 for the Bruins, a defensive lineman). Whenever one of my young athletes talks to me about the seemingly insurmountable obstacle of becoming a successful athlete, I tell them about Christian.

Seven years ago he was just another geeky freshman trying to make the football team at Tesoro High School.

The program there, while young, showed a great deal of promise, which could not initially be said about Christian. The coaches disparaged him as slow and untalented, and openly wondered why he was out there at all. After one too many such practices, he went home and shared his frustrations with his father. Jim Yount, a former Marine Corps officer and a good friend of mine, is not the sort to give up easily. Rather than letting Christian walk away from football, he determined to find a way to make his son an athletic success. So together, father and son, the Younts took up long snapping. They got a video and learned the fundamentals of throwing a precision spiral backwards, between the legs. Christian took up the challenge, and it soon became a common sight on their street to see father and son long-snapping in all sorts of weather -- and with growing precision.

By his junior year in high school, Christian was one of the best high school long snappers in the nation, and a cornerstone of a championship football team. So great was his talent that UCLA took the extraordinary measure of offering him a full athletic scholarship. Now he's got his sights set on the NFL. It is not a glorious job, and the only time you are likely to hear Christian's name on television is if something goes wrong on a punt or point after. It doesn't matter. The point is that a young athlete took up a daunting challenge and, through hard work and perseverance, found a way to succeed.

So ask yourself today: what are you so afraid of? What steps are you taking to reach your own personal and athletic goals? Where there's a will there's  way. And while Jim Yount will be in the Rose Bowl this afternoon to see the game in person (just got off the phone with him... says the nervousness doesn't start until he's in the stadium), I'll be here at home, perfecting the art of not-labor, rooting for nobody but #52 from within the snug confines of my Buster Chair.

Go Christian.

Oh... and did anyone see that Navy game on Saturday? I think my favorite part was watching the Midshipmen march into the stadium as the Blue Angels flew overhead. Very cool.

Keep pushing... always.

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