Specialization isn't the only way to go
Sooners quarterback played basketball and golf while at Putnam City North
Specialization isn't the only way to go

By Berry Tramel

Published: September 13, 2007

Hey kids, pay attention. Listen up. You parents, too. These few paragraphs are more important than most.

Look at Sam Bradford, quarterback phenom of the Oklahoma Sooners. Sudden Sam played football, basketball and golf at Putnam City North. He played junior hockey at a high level.

In this age of specialization, this age, particularly in the big schools, of athletes migrating to one sport only, Bradford played anything that came his way. And it hasn't slowed him down. Sixteen months after leaving North, he's the toast of Sooner football.

"Everybody wants to specialize in one sport,” said OU offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson. "But if you're a gifted, upper-level athlete, shoot, you ought to play 'em all. Not only do you develop your athletic skills, you learn those competitive game situations. How to respond when I miss a critical shot or when I strike out.”

Even a college quarterback can get away with this. Oregon's Dennis Dixon, one of the more veteran QBs around, landed in the doghouse when he spent this summer playing baseball in the Atlanta Braves organization.

But Dixon kept his job — just ask Michigan — and the best athletes will keep theirs.

Wilson tells a story of his mentor, the late Northwestern coach Randy Walker. "We'd be watching a kid fight to catch the ball, he'd say, ‘That kid never played ball in the backyard; he was sitting playing Nintendo.'

"To me, you can tell guys that played ball. You can tell Reggie Smith played a lot of sports. His ball skills.

"It's hard for me to recruit a receiver that's not good enough to play on his high school basketball team.”

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