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A whole new ballgame: many former athletes say skills learned during college athletics have carried over into their careers.

Article Excerpt
Every business professional has learned the benefits of leadership, competitiveness, desire, vision, goal setting, teamwork, time management, chemistry, selflessness, work ethic, discipline and focus--qualifies that can build a path toward great success, both individually and collectively.

But the same can be said for every great athlete. And among those who have been successful in both endeavors, most say the correlation is undeniable. Some of the skills that made them successful in athletics, they say, also played a part in making them successful in business.

"I don't think there's any way that anyone can underestimate the value athletics plays in terms of developing a person's character and their values system and work ethic," said Al Lorenzen, senior vice president of Fidelity Bank in West Des Moines and a former University of Iowa basketball player. "They've had a huge impact on me, and a lot of folks would say the same thing."

But these professionals aren't "has-beens" who spend their days basking in the glory of big victories, national championships and personal awards. They savor those memories while focusing on their professional accomplishments. And most of them are keenly aware that the intangible skills they picked up on the playing field have played a major role in reaching those achievements.

"The beauty of sports is that you have to have a certain inherent talent," said Mark Poole, managing partner of The Real Estate Book of Greater Des Moines and a former three-sport athlete at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. "But if you work hard, you can make yourself better. And that applies to business. If you're willing to put in the hours and pay your dues, I think you're going to be successful."

Rick Wanamaker

As a collegiate athlete, Rick Wanamaker competed against his Drake University teammates for a starting spot on the basketball team and for individual medals in track and field competitions. But he and those teammates had to come together to win games and meets and achieve great things.

Some things never change.

"Real estate is really competitive, and it has the same relationships as team sports and individual sports," said Wanamaker, a real estate agent for Iowa Realty in West Des Moines. "By cooperating with fellow Realtors, you can help sell their (properties) and they can help you sell yours. But at the same time, they're the same Realtors you're competing with for the same buyers."

Wanamaker, a Marengo native, is like many other athletes-turned-business professionals, comparing the intricacies of his profession to those of athletics, and vice versa. In his case, he compares the team focus of basketball and the individuality of track and field to "working for an employer rather than being self-employed."

But he managed to do both equally well. Drake achieved some of its greatest basketball successes during Wanamaker's tenure as the team's starting center. The highlight was the team's 1969 NCAA Final Four appearance that pitted it against national power-house UCLA. The Bulldogs' scrappy play against the heavily favored Bruins--they scored eight straight points to cut the UCLA lead to one point with 9 seconds...

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