DON McCORMACK
Paying another visit to the variety store...
Worthwhile message
When professional football player and all-around good guy Joe Zelenka speaks at Lakeside on Saturday morning, he will be doing so armed with a new contract.
Zelenka has signed a two-year contract with the Atlanta Falcons. The announcement of the agreement was made a week ago today, but the deal was actually reached the previous Friday, March 5.
Zelenka will be in town to speak at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes special event. It will be held from 10:30 a.m. to noon in the large group instructional room at the high school.
His wife, Rebekah, is an Ashtabula High School graduate. Her parents, Paul and Jennifer Demshar, are pillars in the community.
Joe and Rebekah met one another while both were attending Wake Forest University and shared a ride home to Northeast Ohio. Zelenka is from Cleveland, having graduated from Benedictine High School, where he was a star player for the Bengals.
Zelenka was signed by the Falcons last season on Dec. 1, 2009 and he handled the long-snapping duties for the squad the final five games of the season. He had spent the majority of his 11-year NFL career with the Jacksonville Jaguars, playing for them from 2001 through 2008.
He is a true iron man. In 11 seasons, he has missed only three games, all during his rookie season with the San Francisco 49ers back in 1999. Zelenka has played in 133 consecutive games.
Having had the opportunity to speak with Zelenka for a feature story two years ago, I can tell you the first hand that the message he has to deliver is one worth hearing.
The fact there is no charge for his special event Saturday makes it something not to be missed.
In search of...
We are still in need of high school spring sports schedules from the following institutions of learning:
n Jefferson.
n Madison.
n Perry.
n Riverside.
Athletic directors from those five schools are asked to please fax copies of their spring skeds ASAP to us at 998-7938.
Calling all parents
A reminder, if you have a son or daughter playing a spring sport at the collegiate level, please take a moment and drop me a line at the email address listed at the end of this column and let me know.
McCormack is the sports editor of the Star Beacon. Reach him at donmac@suite224.net.
