Purnell: In his words

Oliver Purnell's speech at Daniel High School:

The thing that always impresses me - and scares me a little bit - is the number of decisions that you have to make every day as you grow up that we did not have to make when I grew up. You've got things out there now that you have to navigate that just weren't around. I'm talking about drugs and cults and gangs, even the Internet, where you've got texting and sexting.

The choices that you make affect not only you, but other people who are important around you. It affects people you don't even know who look up to you.

(I have spent) 35 years in coaching and 35 years of dealing with folks like yourself. One thing that occurs to me that I see as I travel around recruiting and as I deal with our student-athletes on a daily basis is that I believe there is a war going on around you every day. I'm not talking about Afghanistan, and I'm not talking about Iraq.

I'm talking about a war for your soul, and a war for your character. I'm talking about right vs. wrong. I'm talking about good vs. evil, God vs. Satan, if you will. If I was to take a poll right now, right now this second and I would ask you which side do you want to be on? I think 100 percent of you would say I want to be on the right side. I want to be on God's side. I want to be on that good side.

The problem is that the wrong side, the evil side, has tremendous weapons, whether it be gangs, cults or this or that. But the No. 1 weapon - the weapon of mass destruction, the WMD of the wrong side - is peer pressure.

Young people have a tendency sometimes to be like caterpillars. I know you think the coach has gone crazy. What are you talking about: caterpillars? True story, a scientist many years ago did a study about caterpillars, and he took about 15-20 caterpillars and put them on a big circle and didn't give them food or water or anything. What he found was that caterpillars will follow the ones in front of them. They will follow the one in front of them until they die.

Isn't it true that sometimes to be well-liked, to be cool, to be a part of the group that we, as young people, will follow that person in front of us, that person who is perceived as being the leader, even to our detriment?

Let me tell you a quick story, a true life story, a story that has affected me for some 25 years now that really illustrates this point about choices.

The story is about a young man by the name of Len Bias. Some of you in here, and certainly all of those near my age, know who Len Bias was. For those of you who haven't heard of Len Bias, he was perhaps - along with Michael Jordan - the greatest player ever in the ACC. He was one of the greatest to ever play college basketball.

I coached Len Bias as an assistant at the University of Maryland for one year. It was his senior year. While he was in high school, just like you guys here, he wasn't a great prospect, but he was a good prospect. What he had was unbelievable body, and unbelievable world-class, athleticism. The thing that probably distinguished him from the other really good athletes was his work ethic. Here was a guy who worked out three times a day, a workout in the morning, play in the afternoon and come back in the evening and lift weights. At that time, this was kind of unheard of.

As a result of that work ethic, as he went to the University of Maryland as a raw freshman, he got better and better and better every year, until his final year he was voted the No. 1 player in the country.

After his senior year, in June, all of the dreams from a basketball standpoint came true. He was drafted not only No. 1 in the first round of the NBA draft, he was drafted by his all-time favorite team, the Boston Celtics. Some of you have probably seen that NBA draft show where young men are called and they come up to the podium with their suits on and put on the hat of the team. He put on his white Boston Celtics hat. He had on a white suit, his parents were sitting and watching the whole show, and he was interviewed on national TV. David Stern talked to him.

That afternoon, the Boston Celtics sent a Lear jet to pick him up at Washington National Airport along with his father. They flew up to Boston and went to the Reebock Shoe Company, and he signed a million-dollar contract. Back in those days, a million dollars was a lot of money. That was like $30 million today, just to wear their shoes.

They went to the Boston Celtics training camp and did media interviews, took his physical, got back on the plane and went back to Washington, all in three hours. When he got to the airport, he and his father were met by one of his so-called friends, a guy named Brian Tribble.

Lenny had a reputation of not even drinking a beer. This was how much he was into his training. They called Lenny "horse" because of his physical stature. He was 6-foot-8, just a perfect basketball body.

Tribble said, "Horse, we're going to party tonight."

Lenny was also the kind of guy who was very humble and did not want his friends or anyone he knew to think, hey, I'm cocky now, I've made it and I don't want to have anything else to do with you. I'm just part of the gang.

So, he said, OK.

They went around Washington D.C. that night, hanging out, going from this club to that club, drinking and generally partying as hard as they could. About 3:30 in the morning, they went back to Lenny's apartment just off the campus of the University of Maryland.

When they got there, Brian Tribble pulled out a vile of cocaine. He lined it up on the table and took a couple of snorts, and he said, "Horse, the rest of these are for you."

Lenny took two snorts of cocaine, fell back on the couch, his heart exploded and died instantly.

The moral of the story is that Lenny made a choice based on the fact that he didn't want anybody to think that he was special. You tell me, was this guy special? Was this guy special? But he didn't want anybody to think he was special, so he made the decision based on that.

As I look around this room after 35 years of coaching, I believe all of you are special. You've been given a God-given special talent. Many of you have no idea what it is. Do you think, when Barack Obama was your age that he knew he was going to be President of the United States and leader of the free world? Of course he didn't. He didn't even know the special talent that he had. In fact, he was messing around with drugs, he was just kind of out there.

Please understand that each and every one of you has a special talent.

The Len Bias story is one I've told to thousands and thousands of kids. If you understand that you are special and you make a choice based on that, then Lenny's death is not in vain.