5th Annual Team Focus Fundraiser Huge Success

Alabama coach Nick Saban is proud of a lot of things his 2011 Crimson Tide accomplished.

He's proud of the national championship they clinched with a 21-0 victory over LSU in the BCS title game. He's proud of the Disney Spirit Award they won for their community service after the tornadoes last April. He's proud of the SEC-high 38 players who made the SEC academic honor roll.

At the top of that list, Saban told a packed ballroom at the Mobile Convention Center on Monday night, was how the Tide responded to adversity.

"The thing that I was most proud of with this team was how they handled losing to LSU the first time," Saban said in his keybnote address at "An Evening of College Football with Nick Saban," a benefit for Team Focus. "We had a team meeting and we showed them all the plays and how the outcome of the game was completely controlled by what they did. . . . They were all convinced when they left the room that the better team really didn't win the game.

 "As big as that game was made out to be, they very easily could have changed what they had committed themselves to accomplish and thought they didn't have a chance to accomplish it. They never did that."

Saban told the audience that the Crimson Tide's preparation for its rematch with LSU was "almost a perfect storm," including an inspirational speech the week before the game from motivational speaker Kevin Elko and a private viewing of the movie "Red Tails" nearly two weeks before it was scheduled to be released.

Saban said he called director George Lucas to request the viewing and Lucas relented on one condition: "You've got to say something about it after the game."

In a meeting with media members before Monday's event, Saban said he believes this year's Alabama team has a better mindset toward defending its title than the 2010 squad, which finished 10-3 a year after the Tide won the national crown in 2009.

"Maybe there's enough guys on this team who experienced that a few years ago," he said. "Because the most important thing about your team is that your team improves. We're not where we need to be. We have to work to improve."

 Five members of Alabama's 2011 national championship team will be in New York on Thursday as potential first-round selections in the NFL draft, and Saban said Monday he plans to be there with them.

"This will be nine guys in the last two years if five guys do go in the first round," he said. "I think it's a tribute to the quality of players we've been able to attract, but also the great job our entire staff has done in helping develop these players."

Monday night, however, was about supporting Team Focus, a Mobile-based organization founded by former Pitt coach and ESPN analyst Mike Gottfried and his wife Mickey to provide positive male role models to fatherless boys.

Two boys in the program told the audience about the positive effect Team Focus has had in their lives, and Gottfied shared the stories of several others who have gone on to college or careers in the military.

Saban, whose father founded a youth football league in his West Virginia hometown, and Crimson Tide radio announcer Eli Gold, whose own father died when he was a young boy, praised the program and the work the Gottfrieds are doing.

"If you're going to be a good leader," Saban said, "you've got to have vision, you've got to have a plan, you've got to set a really good example for other people, you've got to hold people accountable, and you have to have some very defined principles in your organization so everybody can be accountable to them.

"The last thing you have got to do to be a good leader is, you have to serve other people. ... This guy over here (Gottfried) is a great leader in your community. He's doing great things. Please support him."

 Mike Herndon, Press-Register

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Team Focus Partners with Businesses to Help Young Men Get Jobs

Team Focus Partners with Businesses to Help Young Men Get Jobs Mike Gottfried announces that Team Focus is launching a career program for current members and graduates of the program during a press conference in Mobile, Ala. The Team Focus Career Achievement Program (CAP) will educate the young men using proven Team Focus practices and work ethics curriculum to prepare them for positive experiences and to address many of the issues of workplace readiness, while partnering with almost a dozen established local businesses. As part of CAP, youths will go through a 12-week Team Focus training program that will “teach them basic skills they will need in the workforce,” including how to interview for a job. Team Focus members will then get on-the-job training from the corporate partners. John Kirby, who with his son, David, owns Spectrum Collision Center, said he’s hoping to find youths interested in the collision repair business. “We can teach them how to do mechanical work and try to teach them paint and body work,” said Kirby. Terry Bell, owner and general manager of Eastern Shore Toyota & Hyundai, said his business has entry-level jobs for mechanics and in accounting and customer service. Bell sees the program as a positive for himself as well as the Team Focus members. “I get to be a part of a networking group of other businesses and be related to something positive in the community,” said Bell. Robert Greer, a vice president of the Prichard-based operator of Greer’s Food Tiger stores, said his company is “hoping to be able to hire and place some of these kids.” He said they would offer training in their retail stores, teaching youths how to stock groceries and work as cashiers. “It could lead to management positions,” said Greer. “I’m very excited about this program because we’ll be learning about business skills,” said 16-year-old Team Focus member Mario Butler. “It can help us succeed.” (Edited from Renee Busby's article in the Mobile Press-Register)

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Alabama coach Nick Saban will speak at Team Focus dinner in Mobile on April 23

 

MOBILE, Alabama -- Alabama coach Nick Saban is scheduled to appear at the annual Team Focus fundraising dinner April 23 at the Mobile Convention Center.

The event, which will also feature Alabama play-by-play announcer Eli Gold and Team Focus co-founders Mike and Mickey Gottfried, will begin at 5:30 p.m. and benefits Team Focus, which mentors young men without fathers.

"It's big for us," Mike Gottfried said of Saban's appearance. "It's our one fundraiser each year. I've known him for a long time. He's an excellent coach and he's a good man."

"He's helped through his Nick's Kids Foundation, which has been a big factor in helping us, and he and his wife Terry, they're just committed to helping different organizations in the state of Alabama. I really feel honored that he would select us as one of them. I appreciate it so much."

The banquet will include a dinner, silent auction and a live auction of sports memorabilia and other sports-related items. Among the items to be offered in the silent auction will be two tickets to the BCS national championship game and the SEC championship game.

"We're working on adding some others (to the speakers' list)," Gottfried said. "We've had a base of people who have always supported us and helped with the event and stayed with us, and we appreciate them too."

Gottfried said the Team Focus organization has grown from a local level to chapters in other cities. Summer camps sponsored by Team Focus are held across the country each year.

Tickets for the April 23 banquet are $75 per person and on sale now through the Team Focus office. To buy tickets, call (251) 635-1515.

Sponsor packages are also available. A Gold sponsorship ($5,000) features a table of 10, a meet-and-greet and photos with Saban, 10 autographed footballs, an ad in the program and signage at the event. A Silver sponsorship ($2,500) offers a table for 10, two autographed footballs, eight autographed photos of Saban, eight mini-footballs, an ad in the program and signage at the event.

By Tommy Hicks, Press-Register

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Coach Mike Gottfried Named Mobilian of The Year

The Cottage Hill Civitan Club has named Team Focus Founder Mike Gottfried as the 2010 Mobilian of the Year.

As Mobile’s most prestigious civic honor, the Mobilian of the Year award has been given annually since 1948 to an individual who has made an extraordinary, positive impact on the Mobile community.

Gottfried, who spent 12 successful seasons as a college football coach, is known as one of television’s most respected game analysts. Since 1990, he’s served as an ESPN college football analyst for ESPN’s Saturday Primetime telecasts. In 2000, Mike founded Team Focus, a comprehensive community outreach program for boys without fathers. Since then, more than 2,000 fatherless young men have been served, and the chapters have grown throughout the United States.

Read more: Coach Mike Gottfried Named Mobilian of The Year

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