Padecky: SSU program pitches hope

ROHNERT PARK - The fury of life, it makes it easy for us adults to overlook, ignore or otherwise be oblivious to those moments of wonder, to the possibility we could still be amazed at something, that something could take our breath away.

'We are like hamsters on a wheel, going around in circles,' said Mark Rigby, SSU's women's basketball coach. 'We get so caught up in careers, raising a family, paying bills. That takes a lot of mystery out of life. As adults we don't get a lot of goosebumps.'

Unless we are forced to slow down.

Like last Friday at SSU.

Of all things, it was the kids who did it, about 100 of them. The fifth- and sixth-grade classes of Lincoln Elementary were taking tours of the SSU campus. It was part of the school's 'Ticket To Success,' a program designed to create awareness of a life after high school to kids who had not been previously exposed to it.

One of the four tours approached Stevenson Hall, a three-story building in the center of campus.

'Do people go to school there?' a kid asked Mike Ogg, SSU's senior associate athletic director.

Yes, they do, Ogg replied. On all three floors.

'Do you get to ride an elevator to the top?'

Yes, you do.

'And there's actual stores on campus?'

Yes, there is.

'Can we drink as much soda as we want?'

Sure. I guess. Check with your parents on that one.

That's when Ogg got his goosebumps. He saw the kid's face. It was awash in wonder. The kid just stared and stared, the way a kid would if Buster Posey suddenly appeared in front of him, reaching out to shake his hand. Elevators? Stores? This may have been the tallest building this kid had ever seen.

Ogg had just opened the metaphorical door and this child walked through it. That's at the center of 'Ticket To Success.' The future with possibilities, not roadblocks. The future with hope, not despair. The future to thrive, not just to survive.

Wonderment, just like laughter, is contagious. Other kids started having the same reaction. Soon it wasn't just four or five Seawolves athletes leading each tour. Soon it was 50-60 student-athletes, coming out of the dorms, lining hallways, shaking hands.

'When you see something like this,' said Tanner Adams, a point guard on the women's team, 'it kinda makes you grow up a lot. You see how they look at you. You have a responsibility to them. It also makes you realize how lucky you have it.'

Not every kid is born with a silver basketball in her hand. Life can be a struggle, even to the point of figuring out where to sleep, what to eat. College? That could seem like a moonwalk to those under the severe weight of survival. The future? The view may extend only to tomorrow.

That's what 'Ticket to Success' seeks to change. It's in its second year, and approximately 1,500 kids from Santa Rosa-area elementary schools have toured the SSU campus. They tour the Green Music Center, the dorms, the library and, eventually, always end up in the gym. The tours are led mostly by coaches and athletes. Parents are welcome. At the end of each tour the kids and parents are given free tickets to the SSU sporting event of their choice.

The program is not designed to sell kids on SSU as much as to sell kids on a college education. The university is certainly not begging for students. For the 2013-14 school year, 26,000 kids applied either as freshmen or transfers. Only 2,600 were accepted.

With the world a diverse and complicated place, 'Ticket to Success' is designed to reduce such complexity to a single word — hope.

'The greatest motivation in life is hope,' said Emiria Salzmann Dunn, the women's soccer coach at SSU.

Some of the elementary school kids come from large families, the size of which create a daunting financial task.

'When I talk to them,' Salzmann Dunn said, 'I tell them I came from a family of eight children. All four of my brothers were born in Holland. My dad worked two jobs. We didn't have a lot of money.'

It's a lot easier, however, to sell ambition to boys and men. We're supposed to be the alpha dogs, after all. In her quest to establish respect and equality among the sexes, Salzmann Dunn has found her experiences as a child to be a convincing and persuasive story to the women she coaches.

'I think it helps them feel comfortable with their own ambitions,' the coach said.

Yes, nothing sells better and is more compelling than a relevant story. A fifth grader could easily dismiss a story of hope from a 57-year-old man — like listening to grandpa talk about black-and-white television — but Rigby has a story that bridges the years and gets their attention.

'I was a sixth grader at Doyle Park Elementary in 1968,' Rigby said. 'I had no interest in basketball. My dad was a custodian and we were invited by someone he worked with to go to a Montgomery basketball game. I saw Tom Fitchie and Steve Tiedemann play. They blew my mind with how good they were. It changed everything. My goal was to play basketball and play for Montgomery.'

Which led — 46 years later — to Rigby entering his 18th season as SSU's women's coach, owner of both bachelor's and master's degrees and a Montgomery playing career.

'So when I see the look of wonder on these kids' faces,' Rigby said, 'I know what they are feeling.'

A door has opened. Will the kids walk through? Will they just peek around the corner and walk away? Or will they see possibilities? After all, 'Ticket to Success' is a tour, not an induction. They can go nowhere or everywhere.

Which is the whole point. They have choices to make, not scripts to follow. They should be curious about that. It's the only way they can find and have hope. Be curious. Give in to that. Accept curiosity for what it is, the most fascinating stimulant of them all. And you can get it so easily. Just stand in front of Stevenson Hall, having just been told an elevator is in there somewhere.

To contact Bob Padecky email him at bobpadecky@gmail.com.