My name is Tom Flynn and I am a recent Hall of Fame Inductee to the Palm Beach County Florida Sports Hall of Fame; a former member of the 1977 National Championship Notre Dame Football Team; a Free Agent Rookie, 1 of 86, tryout on the 1979 Dallas Cowboys of which I made it to the last 6 rookies before being released; a Graduate Assistant Coach at The University of Notre Dame from 1982 through 1986 working with the defensive backs, special teams and strength coaches.
I was enrolled in the Notre Dame Law School and Graduate Business Schools while a GA for Notre Dame graduating with both degrees in 1986 and joined the preeminent Wall Street Investment Banking Firm, Morgan Stanley & Co upon my graduation in business.
Recently I returned to athletics as the athletic director of a catholic high school in Florida and got an up close and personal first-hand view of the many complicated challenges that today’s parents, athletes, coaches and school administrators face. It was a true eye opener which has motivated me to take action to help, in any way I can, all of the moving parts involved in youth sports in the USA, after leaving that athletic director’s position.
I believe that my sports background, experiences and lessons learned therein can be helpful to parents, athletic youths, coaches and school administrators. Moreover, being the parent of a young and talented 14 year old athletic daughter, I am also experiencing youth sports personally and what I see and have experienced is not what I believe to be in the best interests of all youth participants. In fact, I strongly believe that many athletic youths in the USA today are not being developed by their athletic mentors in the same fundamentally sound manner as have past youths. There are many contributing factors to my above assessment. Much of the developmental shortcomings are the result of a new and widely accepted model growing in the USA of non-school based amateur sports league teams which are becoming a perceived necessary course to participate in to gain collegiate coaching exposure for youths.
The most alarming development in High School athletics I experienced and learned about was the “Free Agency” market that has appeared to not be a fact of life at the Florida High School level that I was exposed to. This development has the potential to destroy the development of the very fundamental traits inherently developed by skillful and respected athletic mentors. The greatest trait being totally ignored is the trait of LOYALTY TO A TEAM and the strength that this fundamental trait can instill in the character of an athletic youth which would normally carry-over into their personality and personal efforts socially and professionally for the remainder of their lives.
It is alarming to me to see youth athlete’s forum shopping and seeing how some athletes may actually, in the extreme example, participate on 3 to 4 different high school teams during the course of their 4 year high school athletic career. This breeds into athletic
youngsters a “me first” perception and grows an athlete up without the concept of being loyal to their team, a dynamic which contributes greatly to the makeup of a positive contributing member of our society. I am fearful of the long term consequences may have on the future of our society in the USA.
I am developing a Football Mentorship Consulting Website with the objective to assist parent, youths, coaches and administrators develop athletic youths in a truly positive and long term beneficial manner. I believe that it will give them a leg up on obtaining college scholarships, become positive contributors to society and be future leaders of our country.
Feel free to contact me at tflynn4857@gmail.com.
