Students converge on Bangor > PVC Summit attracts 200

BANGOR – At some point in their lives, both Dean Smith and Steve Coleman were told they’d never achieve their aspirations.

But Smith, who grew up in Monson and attended Foxcroft Academy, played Division I basketball at the University of Maine from 1986-89 and became an electrical engineer, just like he knew he would.

And Coleman, who played on the Bangor football team and started to go blind shortly after his graduation from high school in 1977, is now a physical education teacher, just like he wanted.

Both men, as Smith puts it, proved their critics 100 percent, pie-in-their-face wrong. Through hard work both men achieved their goals – the theme of their speeches to more than 200 student-athletes at the Penobscot Valley Conference Student-Athlete Summit Wednesday morning.

Students, athletic directors and coaches from 27 PVC schools attended the second annual summit, which was held at Husson College’s Newman Gymnasium, to talk about a variety of academic and athletic issues.

In between speakers – also featured were University of Maine women’s basketball coach Sharon Versyp and John Winkin of Husson’s Sports Leadership Institute – the students told athletic directors and coaches what they thought of substance abuse and academic eligibility policies and whether the PVC needs league-wide policies.

Eight students from each school (two from each class year) attended. Students were mixed up at the tables so that different age groups, genders and classifications were represented at each table.

For Dexter junior Kristy Veazie the summit was more than an excused day from school.

“I think it’s really good because you get to talk to kids from other schools about their policies,” she said. “You kind of see how your school is compared to other schools in your area.”

The students and administrators talked about whether students should have to pass core subjects like English and math and not electives; whether students should be allowed to make up credits in probation or summer school; and if students should have to pass all their subjects or be allowed to fail only one class.

Some groups came to the agreement that students should have to pass all classes. Veazie disagreed with that.

“If you can’t fail a class, most people will tend to take easy classes,” she said.

As for a substance abuse policy, the groups discussed differences in punishment for drugs, alcohol, and tobacco; whether a drug policy would affect the offseason or preseason; and if offenses carry over from year to year.

While there were a variety of opinions and suggestions about leaguewide policies, the student-athletes agreed on at least one point – a policy should be meant for students who participate in all extracurricular activities, not just sports.

Coleman began to suffer from a rare optic nerve disorder at the age of 19 and is nearly blind except for some peripheral vision. He decided to go to college and was nearly finished with his degree in kinesiology and physical education when he was told no Maine school superintendent would ever hire him.

It was discouraging to hear, Coleman said, but he didn’t take the warning to heart. In 1998 he was hired to teach physical education at Glenburn Elementary School.

“If I can leave you with any kind of message at all, it’s the idea of believing in yourself,” Coleman said. “That strong work ethic of working hard for your goals and your dreams is so important.”

Smith, a multiple honoree for both athletics and academics and the winner of the NCAA Walter Byers Post Graduate Fellowship as the top student-athlete honor in the country, took the morning off from his work at Sensor Research and Development Corporation in Orono to talk to the PVC students.

“I never had a chance to talk with people that were my idols, that participated in college athletics and had been through things,” Smith said after his speech. “It would have been nice to have that, and for that reason it’s extremely important that I come.”