One of the top goalies in all of professional lacrosse, Tim Troutner of the Redwoods, thrilled a youth goalie with a surprise phone call. Tim gave the goalie great advice on being the best athlete, student and leader he could be. Tim’s suggestions are applicable to any position on the lacrosse field.
The youth goalie’s dad, commercial real estate leader Rick Narkiewicz, notes that Tim made the offer to make the encouraging phone call. “Tim didn’t know me from a sack of potatoes. He heard about a goalie that could benefit from some encouraging words and contacted us through mutual friends. He extended a random act of kindness when no one was watching” stated Narkiewicz.
Narkiewicz recalls another wonderful lacrosse memory when 30 players and parents from their Wesley Chapel lacrosse team attended a University of Tampa game. It was Senior Day. After the game the UT players invited the boys onto the field where they signed balls, posed for photos and thoroughly entertained them. “It was an emotional moment seeing these young men take the time to interact with our players. My wife and I both had tears of joy in our eyes.” He further reminisces and stated that when he looked back into the stands he witnessed other parents with tears of pride in their eyes. This time it was the parents of the UT players that had an emotional moment of their own as they witnessed first hand their sons being the heroes to a group of boys they had never met. I thought “wow”! The sense of pride those parents are feeling has got to be awesome. When its our boys’ turns, I hope they will be as gracious has these UT players.
Once the call with Troutner was arranged Narkiewicz and his wife made a plan. “We were going to make any adjustments necessary to ensure we captured the conversation on video. I would have pulled him out of school if necessary.” Their reasons were less obvious than one may think…to share the video with Tim’s parents. “I wanted his parents to witness their son being kind to someone they had never met, without being asked or paid to do so and while no cameras were watching.”
“We made it a family project.” Narkiewicz, his wife and sons spent the weekended editing the footage. brotherhood/sisterhood of the lacrosse nation. Whoever is in charge of stocking Troutner jersey’s for sale had better multiply the order by 10. Demand will be high this holiday season.” Narkiewicz concluded.
The heartwarming video can be viewed on YouTube.