Abdur-Ra’oof using social media to help athletes cope
The coronavirus pandemic has left a lot of unanswered questions for high school athletes. Sports were ripped away from them, seemingly in the blink of an eye, and the uncertain future and quarantining adds to the stress of a teenager.
That’s where Azizuddin Abdur-Ra’oof comes in. The former threesport star at Northeast High School in the early 1980s who went on to play wide receiver at the University of Maryland before being selected in the ninth round of the 1988 NFL draft by the Kansas City Chiefs has transitioned from the gridiron to a career in public speaking.
Nowadays, the Anne Arundel Sports Hall of Famer is giving back to his community by holding forums on social media — mainly Instagram and a website — for scholar-athletes that need someone to talk to in order to get through the crisis. He talks with student-athletes about what is bothering them, and he’s had goal-setting forums and open talks about ways high school students can handle their downtime while staying in shape both physically and mentally.
“This time has been really challenging
PANDEMIC ,
to a lot of the young people, so I pretty much just interact with them, talk, ask them what they are up to,” said Abdur-Ra’oof, who is a consultant for AACPS. “I just try to dig a little deeper because I think they are more apt to say more to me than their parents sometimes. I think this is a lesson, also … sometimes, the parents don’t know who they really are.”
Northeast senior tennis player Tony Woo, Jr. has used the forums to help himself and others build connections with the goal of getting a positive outlook, especially during a difficult time like this pandemic.
Woo Jr. started flying airplanes in November and has used this extra free time to attain additional hours toward becoming a pilot. Prior to the shutdown of schools, he had logged just eight hours of flying time but recently noted he has now accumulated 20 hours toward obtaining a pilot license. He credits Abdur-Ra’oof for helping him.
“Me, personally, [Abdur-Ra’oof ] has supported me a lot. He’s definitely on my side,” said Woo Jr., who flies out of the Navy Annapolis Flight Center at Lee Airport in Edgewater and inherited his passion for aviation from his father, whoalways wanted to be a pilot but was unable to fulfill that dream. “He’s told me that I’m inspiring students and him, which really meant a lot.
He has inspired me based on the sheer amount that he does. He has such a really positive outlook on everything. That really impresses me.”
Abdur-Ra’oof spoke in January to Northeast’s Captains Club, which caught the attention of junior field hockey and lacrosse player Julia Rafiq. Abdur-Ra’oof tasked the student-athletes to come up with a word he wanted the student-athletes to strive for, and he chose the word “build” and Rafiq selected the word “growth.” Every session, Abdur-Ra’oof asked each student for updates on the progress made toward that word.
“He’ll check in every week or so to see how we are doing with that one word. He wanted to know how I was growing each week, especially with this coronavirus going on,” Rafiq said. “I related how I was growing physically with working out more, growth with my family since we are spending more time with them, and spiritually since I am very faith-based. That exercise has helped me in a lot of ways, especially because I am so shy. I’ve never had a teacher, if I can even call him that, that has introduced that kind of philosophy and is so easy to talk to.
“… He puts things in a way we can see it from everyone’s perspective. Plus, because he’s had so many athletic accomplishments, he’s easy to talk to about the challenges we’re facing.”
Northeast volleyball and girls lacrosse coach Kim Kolarik is no stranger to success, as she starred at South River then the University of Virginia as a lacrosse goalkeeper. Kolarik has worked alongside Abdur-Ra’oof at Northeast over the past two years and encouraged her volleyball and lacrosse players to take advantage of his sessions.
Kolarik, who coached women’s lacrosse at Lehigh University and Virginia Tech before landing at Northeast, said AbdurRa’oof “has been a great asset to bringing a new perspective into my programs” and helps her teams communicate in a different way. She said working with him “would have had a tremendous effect on the success of my team this spring.”
“He’s just been a great asset to bringing a new perspective into my programs and to help the girls communicate in a different way,” Kolarik added. “I consider him a life-skills coach, not only for my students but for the students that he was meeting with before this pandemic. I know on social media he is working with a couple of my lacrosse players, but also with some of the standout Captains Club members as well. Great kids with really great mindsets but maybe just need some guidance and someone to listen.”
To Abdur-Ra’oof, it’s all in a day’s work. He has never shied away from giving back to not only the students where he grew up, but to others around the county as well as throughout the state. In fact, he is also guiding a young man from New Jersey, Dominion Ezechibueze, on his trials and tribulations to become a walk-on to the Towson University football team.
“He has definitely benefited me on the mental aspect. He knows the NFL is a dream of mine and now a goal,” said Ezechibueze, a running back who transferred from Stevenson University in the fall and sat out the 2019 season due to NCAA regulations. “He has been such a role model. He’s been at that level. He has a lot of experience, both physically and mentally. So just learning from him, who has been there, to walk the walk and talk the talk. He is such a great leader who is always trying to pull information to work on for my craft. He has been such a great help.”
Now that the spring sports season has been officially canceled, the opportunity for student-athletes is even greater if they want an unbiased third party to bounce ideas off.
“I think his influence could be very beneficial to all the students in the county, especially if he could make rounds to different schools each day when the pandemic is over,” Kolarik said.
Abdur-Ra’oof wants every student-athlete in the county to know they have a channel to communicate through if they have a problem or concern they want to talk about.
“I like to give them hope,” Abdur-Ra’oof said. “To me, that’s what’s really important.”
Athletes who would like to reach out to Abdur-Ra’oof can find him on Twitter (@ziz87) and Instagram at Ziz87_. His website is q-edup.com.