Recently, Chris Sain Jr., a native of Grand Rapids, was asked by SHU’s Sharese Mathis to come speak in front of Siena Heights’ student-athletes and hopefully enlighten and motivate them to become the best people they can possibly be.

Sain talked to the students about his story, and what he kept mentioning throughout the entire presentation is that everyone has their own story. Some are different, but some are similar.

Sain lost his best friend at the age of 13 due to gun violence, one of the many tragic things that he encountered growing up.

Not only did he lose his best friend at a young age, but Sain also explained that his childhood wasn’t as ordinary as everyone else’s. When he was growing up, on the weekends he spent his time in the Michigan Department of Corrections from age 8 to 24 visiting his brother.

Mathis, SHU’s Director of Diversity, knows Sain personally from their time spent at Michigan State University. Sain was also an athlete, having played football for the Spartans, and she said it was a good connection to have someone who was also a former athlete speak to the very diverse group of athletes.

“Knowing that he had a background in being an athlete and knowing that our campus is 60 percent athletes, I wanted him to come and talk about how he was able to transition from being an athlete to also being a businessman,” said Mathis.

Sain, who is the coordinator of Retention in the Student Success and Retention Services Department for Grand Rapid Community College, said he had to make a decision on whether to worry about his success before he wanted to party, seeing as he was on a major university campus.

A statement that Sain kept reiterating was how when you’re out partying, it feels a lot better knowing you have that paper done than going out with it incomplete, basically telling the group that college is meant for them to have fun, but they need to understand that they’re there to handle business, too.

Mathis, who said she had somewhat of a similar background, said she wanted Sain come to Adrian to share his story.

She said Sain impacted her in a way to where he was another example of how you can still be yourself and be “real,” but not be what they consider “higher ed fake,” where once you get certain types of degrees or certain position, people start to think that they don’t relate the same way.

A lot of what Sain had to talk about didn’t have much to do with sports. Most of the examples he used were life lessons more than what the athletes could take back to their teams. He said that’s what sports, from what was signified in his speech, are about.