MSU Coaches On The Road Makes Second Tour Stop
6/5/2009 12:00:00 AM | General
June 5, 2009
MSU Baseball Coach Jake | MSU Hockey Coach Rick | MSU Volleyball Coach Cathy
NOVI, Mich - The 2009 Michigan State Coaches on the Road tour made its second and final stop of the summer on Friday (June 5), as 14 MSU head coaches traveled to several destinations around the Metro Detroit area.
The coaches began the trip at Harding Elementary School (K-5th grade), in Detroit's Brightmoor Community, where each coach visited a classroom. The coaches answered questions and talked about the importance of education and setting goals.
"It was wonderful to see the kids and talk to them about growing up and their dreams and what they want to do for a living," said volleyball head coach Cathy George.
After the half hour classroom sessions, the coaches and students gathered in the school's gymnasium where they were greeted by Sparty. The students also received inspirational messages from men's golf coach Sam Puryear and women's basketball player Lykendra Johnson.
"With all of the coaches there, Michigan State probably meant a little bit more to them right now," said hockey coach Rick Comley. "They all had their pom-poms in the gym chanting `go green, go white.' Most places we go its either Tom Izzo or Mark Dantonio that are the king of the hill, but in this case it was Sparty."
Detroit Public Schools Superintendent Teresa Gueyser was also on hand at the event.
"We have a group called Conversations Across the Institutions for higher education to be involved, integrally, in K-12 education at an earlier stage than it has been in the past," said Gueyser. "We want to make sure that higher education is available and accessible to them and that it is a goal they try to achieve. Having MSU here today is a wonderful opportunity for our kids to see that in fact their dreams can come true."
Third grader Turrauhkul Pringle was one of the 340 students that had the opportunity to meet the coaches.
"We talked about sports and our favorite hobbies," Pringle said. "We learned that we can do better and to always try our best."
The coaches' next stop was Providence Park Hospital in Novi where they met with patients and briefly toured the new hospital units.
The final destination on the tour was the Rock Financial Showplace, also in Novi, where the coaches visited with fellow Spartans and signed autographs for approximately 90 minutes. Each of the 14 coaches on the tour, along with Athletics Director Mark Hollis, then had the opportunity to address the crowd of over 400.
"The amount of time that we got to spend together on the bus on the way down and on the way back along with the camaraderie of the group makes it a fun day for everybody," said baseball coach Jake Boss Jr. "It's a great thing to spend a lot of time with the Spartan fans down here." The Coaches on the Road tour is sponsored by the MSU Alumni Association, Spartan Fund and MSU Athletics Department.
