Yes, it’s cool to carry the rock in a championship football game. But want to be a boss? Then why settle for playing running back for Valor Christian High, when you can be an enchanted spoon?
This is the story of how Valor senior Tanner “Spoon” Tadra earned his nickname. It all happened because Tadra listened to his mother, overcame his fear of dancing and reminded that a winner is defined by far more than how many touchdowns he scores.
“I was a dancing spoon,” Tadra told me, proudly recalling his role in the Valor spring production of “Beauty and the Beast.” “I think the producer saw me as a spoon from Day One, probably because I was the big, strong kid who could lift the girl during a dance routine.”
Tadra is a running back who can bust a move. But rather than Todd Gurley, think Justin Timberlake. Tadra is No. 36 in your Valor football program and at center stage when the curtain rises.
“My mom was really pushing on me to do something other than football and get to know some new people,” Tadra explained. “At first, I was a little hesitant to try out for a play. I thought: ‘That’s a little goofy.’ I resisted. But my mom finally said: ‘Tanner, Valor is a great school, and you will take advantage of all it has to offer, or else you won’t be going there for your senior year.’ So I auditioned and got a part as an enchanted object: The Spoon. Now that’s the nickname everybody on the football team calls me.”
There’s a disturbing trend in youth sports. There’s too much specialization and not enough fun. By age 12, every kid is asked to pick a sport. One sport. And then, young athletes, male and female alike, are told they must focus on that single sport 365 days a year, at the expense of enjoying a family vacation, trying new things or just being a kid.
“Do you always eat chocolate ice cream all your life?” asked Windsor football coach Chris Jones, who believes one-sport trick ponies often break down or burn out at an early age. “There’s more than chocolate ice cream. So get a taste of it all.”
Tadra refused to be painted into the corner of being a single-sport jock, and with the prodding of his mom, stepped away from the stereotype that unfairly casts a football player as nothing more than a grinder at practice and a grunt in the weight room. That’s why, regardless whether Valor wins or loses against Pomona on Saturday in the Class 5A state championship game, Tadra deserves big props.
“You’re only young once. Life is all about experiences, and experiences are more than lifting in the weight room,” said Pomona coach Jay Madden, who encourages his players to participate in multiple sports. “(Despite) all the scholarship money out there that everyone thinks they’re going to get by specializing, great athletes are great athletes. You don’t create a great athlete, folks. It doesn’t happen. If you’ve got talent, you’ve got talent. Christian (McCaffrey, the Valor alum who’s now a Heisman Trophy candidate at Stanford) played three sports, didn’t he? And he’s probably going to make money playing sports some day. But most people are not. So why not play as many sports as you can while you’re young?”
Yes, I have two children who played prep sports, which gave the thrill only a parent can gain from watching a soccer match while shivering in an early autumn snowstorm, or sweating through a shirt in the dead of winter while camped on the bleachers inside a hot, muggy natatorium. So please forgive me for this pet peeve: The arrogance and greed of club teams are trying to kill the community created by cheering for your neighborhood high school.
When a teenage athlete plays for a club team at the exclusion of prep sports, it’s all about the individual quest, often fanciful, for scholarship money. I guess there’s nothing wrong with that. But representing your school is often more rewarding, because the touchdowns scored and friends a young running back makes on a prep field at age 17 are what last a lifetime.
“When I was dancing in the play, there were 10 to 15 of my teammates in the audience, holding spoons and yelling ‘Spoon!’ every time I was on stage,” Tadra said.
Maybe you never really know how much the guys have your back until they sneak silverware from the kitchen, smuggle spoons in the theater and cheer, as Tadra tried not to fumble Belle during his big dance number.
“At the end of the performance, they stood up, applauded and went real crazy,” he said.
That’s what friends are for.
It’s also how memories that last a lifetime are made.
Mark Kiszla: mkiszla@denverpost.com or @markkiszla
