adoniijahsooner
12/27/2009, 10:08 AM
How he fought to earn his degree. I love stories like this.
http://www.newsok.com/ous-adron-tennell-caught-the-one-that-counts/article/3427624?custom_click=lead_story_title
Jenni Carlson: OU’s Adron Tennell caught the one that counts
NORMAN — Adron Tennell has been amazing during his time at Oklahoma.
Yes, that Adron Tennell.
The senior receiver is best known by the Sooner Nation for dropping passes. He’s dropped short slants. He’s dropped long bombs. He’s dropped passes when he’s been covered and when he’s been wide open.
After arriving as a ballyhooed recruit, big things were expected from Tennell. Yet with only the Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve remaining in his Sooner career, some may see his years at OU as a failure.
They’ve been anything but.
Tennell is on the verge of earning his bachelor’s degree, an accomplishment that seemed impossible when he first arrived in Norman. He was at risk of becoming academically ineligible. He was in jeopardy of falling by the wayside. But now, he is only a semester from earning his degree.
His improvement has been so striking that he recently received the Academic Momentum Award, a national honor given to college athletes who’ve made dramatic strides in the classroom.
What has Tennell improved?
"Everything,” he said.
Academically, college was a whole new world to Tennell. It was so different, so unlike anything he’d experienced in high school. The work load was bigger. The basic comprehension was higher.
The academic advisers in the athletic department recognized right away that Tennell would need a significant amount of tutoring to survive. He would need to spend an hour or two a day, six or seven days a week, working with them. They had the resources. They had the know-how.
But like a fat guy with a gym membership, Tennell had to decide what he was going to do with the things he had at his disposal. He had to make the effort. He had to do the work.
"I know I used that to my full advantage,” he said of the academic support center, "and I still am using it.”
Even as a senior — a stage when most athletes curtail their time in the academic support center — Tennell remains a regular. He spends anywhere from 10 to 12 hours a week there. He receives tutoring. He writes papers. He reads. He studies.
And still, it isn’t always easy.
"Whoo,” he said. "It’s a battle in all my classes, but I just go in there and attack it like I do on the field.”
Sooner fans wish Tennell would’ve attacked a little better on the football field. After a solid spring, he was expected to be a major contributor this fall, but like much this season, that didn’t turn out as planned.
But sometimes in the world of big-time, high-stakes college athletics, we forget that what happens in the games isn’t everything. Granted, it’s important to the players. They care about their performance. They celebrate the good and lament the bad.
Tennell is proof of that. He rarely granted interviews this season amid his struggles.
This fall, though, wasn’t all bad. Getting another semester closer to that degree as well as winning a national academic award has been a great source of pride.
"It’s putting a smile on my face and my mom and dad’s faces,” he said.
Neither his father nor his mother went to college. His older brother was the first in Tennell’s immediate family to attend college, but he left before he got his degree.
"I’m going to be the first to stick it through,” Tennell said.
That makes him a success, a champion, a star, no matter what happened on the field.
Read more: http://www.newsok.com/ous-adron-tennell-caught-the-one-that-counts/article/3427624?custom_click=lead_story_title#ixzz0atzBmKS K
http://www.newsok.com/ous-adron-tennell-caught-the-one-that-counts/article/3427624?custom_click=lead_story_title
Jenni Carlson: OU’s Adron Tennell caught the one that counts
NORMAN — Adron Tennell has been amazing during his time at Oklahoma.
Yes, that Adron Tennell.
The senior receiver is best known by the Sooner Nation for dropping passes. He’s dropped short slants. He’s dropped long bombs. He’s dropped passes when he’s been covered and when he’s been wide open.
After arriving as a ballyhooed recruit, big things were expected from Tennell. Yet with only the Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve remaining in his Sooner career, some may see his years at OU as a failure.
They’ve been anything but.
Tennell is on the verge of earning his bachelor’s degree, an accomplishment that seemed impossible when he first arrived in Norman. He was at risk of becoming academically ineligible. He was in jeopardy of falling by the wayside. But now, he is only a semester from earning his degree.
His improvement has been so striking that he recently received the Academic Momentum Award, a national honor given to college athletes who’ve made dramatic strides in the classroom.
What has Tennell improved?
"Everything,” he said.
Academically, college was a whole new world to Tennell. It was so different, so unlike anything he’d experienced in high school. The work load was bigger. The basic comprehension was higher.
The academic advisers in the athletic department recognized right away that Tennell would need a significant amount of tutoring to survive. He would need to spend an hour or two a day, six or seven days a week, working with them. They had the resources. They had the know-how.
But like a fat guy with a gym membership, Tennell had to decide what he was going to do with the things he had at his disposal. He had to make the effort. He had to do the work.
"I know I used that to my full advantage,” he said of the academic support center, "and I still am using it.”
Even as a senior — a stage when most athletes curtail their time in the academic support center — Tennell remains a regular. He spends anywhere from 10 to 12 hours a week there. He receives tutoring. He writes papers. He reads. He studies.
And still, it isn’t always easy.
"Whoo,” he said. "It’s a battle in all my classes, but I just go in there and attack it like I do on the field.”
Sooner fans wish Tennell would’ve attacked a little better on the football field. After a solid spring, he was expected to be a major contributor this fall, but like much this season, that didn’t turn out as planned.
But sometimes in the world of big-time, high-stakes college athletics, we forget that what happens in the games isn’t everything. Granted, it’s important to the players. They care about their performance. They celebrate the good and lament the bad.
Tennell is proof of that. He rarely granted interviews this season amid his struggles.
This fall, though, wasn’t all bad. Getting another semester closer to that degree as well as winning a national academic award has been a great source of pride.
"It’s putting a smile on my face and my mom and dad’s faces,” he said.
Neither his father nor his mother went to college. His older brother was the first in Tennell’s immediate family to attend college, but he left before he got his degree.
"I’m going to be the first to stick it through,” Tennell said.
That makes him a success, a champion, a star, no matter what happened on the field.
Read more: http://www.newsok.com/ous-adron-tennell-caught-the-one-that-counts/article/3427624?custom_click=lead_story_title#ixzz0atzBmKS K