SJ Sports: Work Before Play

Brian Czekanski is the definition of a student-athlete. The Lenape High School senior was one of the top linebackers in South Jersey last fall as he helped the Indians earn a Group 4 playoff berth.

Czekanski spent the winter with the basketball team and was a valuable player off the bench for a squad that went 22-3 and captured the Olympic Conference American Division crown. But all of Czekanski’s accomplishments in sports take a back seat to his success in the classroom.

“One play can end your career on the football field,” said Czekanski. “Guys get injured and they never play again.

Academics will always take you further in life than football and that’s why academics will always be my first priority.”

Czekanski will have the chance to continue to play football while receiving an Ivy League education. The senior has made a commitment to attend Brown University next fall. He will join a football team that is usually among the list of contenders in the Ivy League each season. The chance to play and study at an Ivy League school is an opportunity that was too good to pass up for Czekanski.

“Brown gives you the best of both worlds,” Czekanski said. “Academically, they’re one of the top eight schools in the country. For football, you get a chance to face tough competition. I’ll get a great education while I’m playing the sport I love.”

Bucky Mitchell, who recently resigned as Lenape’s head football coach, isn’t surprised to see his top linebacker receive an opportunity to play at an Ivy League institution.

“He is a quiet and studious kid on the field,” said Mitchell. “He has that kind of approach to the game. A lot of Ivy League schools pursued him, but it was Brown that showed the most interest.”

Czekanski drew plenty of interest from a number of recruiters with a host of strong performances this season. He was a big reason why the Indians rolled through the early portion of their schedule before suffering several narrow defeats at the end of the fall campaign. Despite missing out on a championship, Czekanski is still proud of what he and his teammates accomplished.

“I was really happy with a lot of things,” said Czekanski. “We had a really strong team this year and we got off to that 6-0 start. We lost a close game to Washington Township (14-13) and lost some of our momentum from earlier in the season. Everybody worked hard, but it just didn’t come out our way at the end.”

Czekanski gave credit to Mitchell and the rest of the Lenape staff for helping him become an outstanding player. He earned the starting spot his junior year and came back even stronger this season.

“They really taught me how to be a tougher player,” Czekanski said. “They showed me how to play the right way in terms of showing respect for teammates and competitors.”

According to Mitchell, Czekanski has all the tools needed to continue with his development as a football player at Brown.

“I’ve watched grow up as both an athlete and a student,” said Mitchell. “But I think his best football is probably ahead of him. He played well for us, but he hadn’t played a ton of football before he came to high school. He’s great in the weight room and should be able to fill into his frame in college.”

Czekanski’s grade point average is 3.6. He takes several challenging courses in high school, a statistic that may have been even more important to Brown than the number of tackles Czekanski compiled on the football field. Czekanski isn’t the only former Indian that has earned the right to play in the Ivy League. Former Lenape quarterback Greg Smith recently finished his tenure at Dartmouth as the school’s fifth-leading passer of all-time. Four other Indians that played at Lenape in the late 1990’s moved on to Penn.

“Kids who have played for us are getting better college opportunities because of their grades,” said Mitchell. “They’ve always had a sense of what’s really important. They know that academics is what determines their future.”

The demands of practice time in sports combined with the pressure of schoolwork can often be too overwhelming for some students. However, Czekanski’s calm and focussed demeanor has kept him on top of both his studies and opposing players.

“My schedule helps me out in some ways,” said Czekanski. “My time management is better. I know I have to get right into my schoolwork when I get back from practice. I get a lot of motivation from that when practice is over.”

Czekanski will head to Providence to join a Brown squad that finished 2-8 last Fall. However, the Bears were decimated by injuries and lost five of their games by seven points or less. Don’t expect Brown to finish with two wins again in 2003.

“The seniors were really disappointed about of the losses they had last year,” Czekanski said. “I think there’s already a lot of excitement about the upcoming season. We want to get the program turned around and get back into contention. Everyone sort of has a bad taste in their mouths.”

Czekanski will major in economics at Brown. He has big dreams of one day working on Wall Street. Considering what this outstanding student athlete has already accomplished, the sky’s the limit.

Content provided by South Jersey Sports Club.

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Author: SJ Sports Club-Ed Benkin