‘Major’ experience

Many of the kids at Al Rollins Park on Saturday were too young to remember Brian Jordan the player.

Fortunately, they were privileged enough to meet the teacher version.

Thirty-eight kids from ages 6 to 15 showed up for the MVP baseball camp hosted by Jordan, who played 15 years of pro baseball, and Everett Sports Marketing. The day-long event included instruction on fielding, hitting, and baserunning, plus lessons on growing up from Jordan and assistants.

The event originally scheduled a lunch break around noon followed by a 30-minute lecture from Jordan to the kids, but rain caused the eating and talk to take place around an hour early.

“For me, it started around a lot of these guys’ ages, 6 years old and dreaming big,” Jordan said. “I just wanted to encourage these kids to dream big. No. 1 believe in yourself, and No. 2 set your goals and work hard. Education is always important. I was one to play two professional sports, but I finished college, which was the most important thing.”

Jordan, who retired in 2006 before half the kids at the camp were in kindergarten, is one of a few who made a name for himself as a two-sport pro athlete — two other notable stars being Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders. He played for the Braves and also starred on Sundays for the Atlanta Falcons.

Jordan was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the first round of the 1988 draft. He was predicted as a top-round football draft pick, too, but an injury put him back to the seventh round when the Buffalo Bills took him. The franchise released him and he played for three years with the Falcons before signing a contract with the Cardinals in 1992 that required him to play baseball exclusively.

“(My speech) was about overcoming obstacles, breaking my leg and dislocating my ankle in the Senior Bowl,” Jordan said. “I was drafted in the first round by the St. Louis Cardinals and was supposed to be drafted in the first round of the NFL before I broke my leg and dislocated my ankle, but I believed in myself and didn’t give up on my dreams.”

Carson Weaver, 8, of Chatsworth, only knew Jordan was “a really good baseball player,” but still got some tips to take with him.

“Putting your elbow back when you swing,” Weaver said of the things he learned.

Jordan said a lot of the kids put their hands in the air when he asked who wanted to play professional baseball.

“Everybody has that dream, but I was trying to get them to understand how hard that is,” he said.

Dan Everett, majority owner of Everett Sports Marketing, said there were 38 kids who showed up for the event. Rachel Rudolph, the company’s event director, said the non-profit company planned to return in the spring with another baseball camp headed by a different star and possibly a football camp, too.

On Saturday, the kids ages 6 to 10 were on one field and ages 11 to 15 were on another as coaches switched throughout the day between the two diamonds to give all players a chance with Jordan.

“He’s been really hands on,” said Jason Rogers, a father from Cohutta who also coaches an 8-and-under travel team in Whitfield County. “They’re not trying to correct swings. They’re just teaching fundamentals, which is good. If a kid has a good swing, then they would leave him alone, but if there are some things to fix, then he will step in and correct it.”

Jordan said a main focus is to teach kids to find their own swing.

“A lot of kids go in there and think they can hit like Chipper Jones,” he said. “You’ve got to find your own way. I just try to encourage kids to go back to the basics, find the fundamentals and then learn the right way. You always hear, ‘practice makes perfect.’ Perfect practice makes perfect. It’s easy to pull a ball, so learn how to go the other way. If you can do that, the game will slow down for you. So that’s what I encourage to learn: the hard things, not the easy things.”

Kris Sutton, 9, of Calhoun, was one who got some pointers on his swing.

“On hitting, (he told me) to keep my head back and keep driving my hips,” Sutton said.

And Dalton-resident Josiah Chiesa, 8, got a piece of advice Jordan was heard giving to many of the kids and another he gave to all of them.

“To relax when I hit,” he said, followed by a paraphrased excerpt from the late-morning talk.

“He was dreaming about playing a lot of sports, and when he was on football he broke his leg. Three months later he was back on it and had his dream back.”

Said Jordan, “A lot of doctors told me what I couldn’t do and that I couldn’t play in the NFL, but I proved them wrong. … A lot of these kids will be challenged with (overcoming obstacles) and they should keep moving forward.”

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