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Jumpstart's Luke Willson wants kids to be active, not obsessive

Luke Willson wants kids to be active, not obsessive.

At Downsview Park in Toronto this week to announce a $25,000 pledge to Canadian Tire’s Jumpstart program — an initiative which aims to provide the means for all children to be active — the Super Bowl 48 champion and new-Detroit Lions tight end stressed the importance of not just exercise, but balance in the pursuit of athletic excellence.

Because participating in multiple sports and activities, as Willson explains, breeds the most well-rounded and most successful athletes.

“I’m a huge, huge believer in it,” he said.

Willson says that far too often he sees aspiring athletes concentrating exclusively on a single sport or skill. He believes such laser focus is an impediment, not the necessary investment to specialize at an elite level.

It’s not just on parents or coaches to encourage an athlete to diversify its talent base and strive for balance, in Willson’s eyes. A complete culture change is needed across youth sport and athletics in general.

“When kids specialize at such a young age — which is kinda gross and it’s sad — people want to blame the parents. But I have spoken to so many parents that feel pressure, thinking they are shortchanging their kid if they don’t put them in these camps or don’t keep them in a certain sport all year round.

“I couldn’t disagree with that more.”

It’s a topic Willson is interested in enough to explore its science. But it’s his own experience, and the benefits he’s had from being the embodiment of a well-rounded athlete, that’s proof enough.

Willson was a standout at his high school in LaSalle, On., which is just a short drive from his new NFL home in Detroit. He excelled in football, obviously, and received a number of scholarship offers from Division I schools south of the border. At the same time, though, he was throwing discuss, running track, musing as a “meathead” soccer goaltender and playing baseball at a junior national level, even receiving a showcase tryout with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Like many Canadian kids, though, Willson’s first love was hockey. He excelled at that, too, playing at a high level in the Southwestern Ontario hotbed until it came the time for him to choose a direction as the next stage of his athletic career came to the fore.

Willson was fortunate to not have closed any doors; hockey didn’t end up offering the opportunities that football or baseball would.

Not only would his vast and diversified love of sport lead to an opportunity to advance his football career, but it, as he explains, is what allowed him to truly savour the experience when he began on his specialized path at Rice University.

As much as it provides an advantage physically, Willson has found that athletes that play multiple sports have the mental edge, too.

“Kids get burned out. I saw that when I was in college. I was fired up to be at Rice. I remember my first trip down there for camp, I saw freshman that looked so miserable and I was like, “why are you so miserable?

“One of them said to me, ‘listen, I’ve been doing this since I was six years old.’

Over his four years at Rice and five in the NFL, Willson found that athletes limited to one sport in childhood eventually fall out of love with it.

That might be fine for the one percent that can earn a profit catching passes, hitting home runs or scoring goals, but not for the kids he’s out to ensure lead active lives.