An open letter to the Elon University community:

Just four years ago, you accepted our son Jack Isenbarger as a student athlete at Elon University. There are too many people to thank and not enough space here to complete my thoughts. The coaching staff, administration, student body, teachers, advisors, friends and supporters deserve mention by more specific names, but you know who you are. You are the people that have surrounded our son and family with love, support, encouragement, direction, hope and praise.

So many of you have said to me in one form or another, “Jack is a wonderful basketball player, but he is an even  better person.” You have commented that we, as parents, should take credit for that. In fact, Jack is a better basketball player and a better person than I ever was or ever will be. I can take no credit. Only his mother can compete with him on the “good person” side.

For all of this I am thankful to God. But my intention here is to express to the entire Elon University community my deepest gratitude for the way in which you have conducted your affairs. Because of the way you approach every aspect of the Elon experience, our son has benefitted in ways too numerous to count. The Elon University community has a passion for its mission that is palpable. You can feel it when you walk onto campus for the first time. You can see it in the eyes and smiles of its people. You can sense it in the words of those that are responsible for its future (and its past). You can swim in the stream of politeness and graciousness that flows from a student body that seems mature beyond its years. You can predict with confidence the future success of the school and its students.

I would like to thank every single person that has reached out to Jack during his undergraduate days. And to so many of you who have said to us, “We’re so glad Jack is here at Elon.” What could make a parent beam more than that? Only the realization that the words were in fact true. Only the understanding that Elon has given our family more than we could ever give it back in return.

Maybe it’s the fact that Jack had the college experience I always wanted for myself but didn’t find. Maybe it’s the fact that I could escape the trials of the real world and lose myself in following Elon basketball. Maybe it’s the fact that our kid got a free education while getting to play my favorite sport on the best of stages.

No — those things, while true, are all about me.

This is all about you. You, the Elon University community. You were the “apex of special” much in advance of our son’s arrival. I just felt compelled to tell You that I realize it and thank you from the bottom of my heart for it.

And in closing, I hope that this letter might also reach some of those who haven’t been so blessed to understand what an honor it is to be associated with the Elon University Community.

 

All the best to You,

Phil Isenbarger