Strong family ties to Nebraska football certainly helped persuade Daniel Pearson to become a Husker himself.
Pearson, a junior on the Nebraska men’s golf team, is the great-grandson of Bill Jennings, head coach of the Nebraska football team from 1957-61. Pearson is also the grandson of Noel Martin, a fullback and linebacker whose senior season in 1962 coincided with the first season of coach Bob Devaney.
(In fact, Martin scored Nebraska’s first points in the first game of Memorial Stadium’s continuing NCAA record sellout streak, when he returned an interception 88 yards for a touchdown in a 16-7 loss to Missouri.)
“We have a lot of family tradition with Nebraska,” Pearson said, “which makes it really cool to be able to play there, be a golfer and be a student-athlete.”
Pearson, though, told himself he didn’t want to come to Nebraska for that sole reason. If the opportunity to blaze his own trail at another school presented itself, he would go to that school.
“But it was really hard to ignore the great athletic department we have and all the support for student-athletes,” Pearson said. “That was a huge piece for me, just going somewhere where they value their student-athletes and put them before anything else.
“At Nebraska, they do that better than anywhere else I looked.”
Among those pieces Pearson mentioned is Nebraska’s Life Skills Department, which helped him receive an invitation to the recent NCAA Career in Sports Forum, an annual event that helps prepare junior and senior student-athletes for a career after graduation.
Pearson and Sierra Hassel, who graduated in May after competing on the Nebraska women’s gymnastics team, represented Nebraska at this year’s three-day forum, held virtually through Zoom sessions. Hassel earned Female Student-Athlete of the Year honors in April
Some 400 student-athletes participated, and they came from all NCAA divisions, representing a variety of academic majors and sports. The NCAA expanded this year’s forum from its normal 200 participants to provide more guidance and education in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Forum sessions included how student-athletes can become more aware of their inner strengths, how to develop a career plan, practical approaches to the job search, how to navigate as a young professional in the athletics industry, the role of an athletics administrator and head coach, and other motivational and key messaging from speakers.
“It’s really amazing. A lot of the things we talked about in the forum we already discussed through Life Skills,” Pearson said. “I was involved in Inner Circle last year, so that was pretty cool, too, to help develop my leadership qualities and learn more about that.
“Those pieces we have at Nebraska to support student-athletes both while at Nebraska and moving forward in a career are pretty unique and special. I’m grateful for that even more so after the Career in Sports Forum.”
Two speakers who particularly impressed Pearson were Liz Reyes, manager of community and alumni relations for the Cleveland Browns, and Yolett McPhee-McCuin, head coach of the Mississippi women’s basketball team.
“She spoke about how she feels it’s her job to change people’s lives that she’s able to coach and come in contact with,” Pearson said of McPhee-McCuin. “She said she would do it for free, 100 percent, because she’s able to make an impact on young people. And help change their lives.”
After nearly a year and a half away from competitive action due to injury, Pearson returned to the scene in a big way at the Big Ten Match Play Championships. Pearson sank the match-clinching putt against the fourth-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes to give the Huskers the win and advance them to the quarterfinals.
Pearson, a finance major from Longmont, Colorado, is a five-time Nebraska Scholar Athlete Honor Roll member, earned Academic All-Big Ten honors in 2019 and is a member of the Tom Osborne Citizenship Team, as well as a Sam Foltz Hero 27 Leadership Award winner.
After college, Pearson is interested in joining a football department, perhaps in operations, or maybe coaching. Last summer, he interned at Oklahoma, where his cousin serves as director of football recruiting. Pearson helped with camps and organized recruiting visits.
“It’s been really fun,” Pearson said. “I’m really lucky.”
Jablonski Guest Teacher For The Packaged Deal
Former Nebraska softball player Kaylan Jablonski expanded her career horizons this spring when she presented an online course for softball players through a business called The Packaged Deal.
Labeling itself as the No. 1 softball clinic in the world, The Packaged Deal, founded by former UCLA softball player Jen Schroeder, has conducted more than 350 youth clinics across the country over the last six years.
Because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the business wanted to offer a unique training experience for softball players, coaches and parents, so it created an online at-home program featuring live classes on Facebook. It reached out to other former softball players, inviting them to teach. Jablonski learned of the opportunity through a former teammate who’s friends with Amanda Scarborough, one of The Packaged Deal’s four full-time instructors.
“It was pretty cool,” said Jablonski, who taught one course during the spring. “I talked about the power of positive self-talk, just going over my own experiences, and how I worked through them. Just helpful tools and ways that girls playing right now can talk to themselves, figure out ways to be nice to yourself.
“A lot of the time, you’re your own toughest critic. Ways to find the positives in a lot of the things you’re doing well playing softball.”
Jablonski, an Omaha native who played at Nebraska from 2015-18, was a three-time All-Big Ten Academic honoree. She is working as a recruiting coordinator for a select club softball program in Omaha, educating players, coaches and parents on what to expect while being recruited, and what steps to take.
Other guest instructors for The Packaged Deal have included Olympic pitcher Cat Osterman, and topics have ranged from yoga to mentality and wellness.
“They cover a lot,” Jablonski said.
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.
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