Oklahoma State University Athletics
Best of America
February 26, 2004 | General
The Oklahoma State Athletics Department held its 7th annual Best of America event on April 9th. The event started at
Best of America is an event held for all fifth graders in the state of
Due to budget cuts within public schools, we expected a decrease in attendance. Toya Releford, Sports Marketing Coordinator for OSU said. We received many phone calls from teachers explaining why they were unable to attend this year. However, we also received many calls telling us that no matter what, these schools would be in attendance because they have been coming since the very beginning.
The guest speakers included OSU student-athletes and representatives from Golden Key, an honors group here at OSU. The student-athlete speakers represented the sports of softball, soccer, wrestling, football, equestrian, women's basketball and men's track. These speakers talked about staying in school, teamwork, adversity and becoming good role models.
Among the student-athletes were two coaches. Coach Julie Goodenough, in her first year as the Cowgirl Basketball head coach, spoke with Lori Allen, women's basketball freshman, about staying in school. Head football coach Les Miles spoke about how to become successful.
Along with speaking to the fifth graders, some of the student-athletes played interactive games with them and taught motivational chants. The student-athletes were also available to sign autographs before and after the program on the concourse level of Gallagher-Iba Arena. There was about 60 student-athletes in attendance throughout the day.
