Parents who want their children to achieve success in life usually encourage youngsters to choose role models for inspiration.
Sauk Valley families don’t have very far to look, as far as we’re concerned.
Just set their sights on Sean Considine of Byron.
By doing so, parents and kids will see how an area young man, through hard work and a true appreciation of the people in his life, thrived while achieving great things.
How great?
How about being a member of the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens?
Considine, 31, capped his 8-year NFL career as a member of the league’s very best team, where the veteran safety played on special teams.
How about being drafted by the NFL?
Considine was a fourth-round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2005 draft.
How about playing for the University of Iowa football team?
Considine made the all-Big Ten team as a safety for the Hawkeyes.
How about playing on a state championship high school football team?
Considine played on Byron’s 1999 state title team; he also made the all-state team twice.
But Considine’s athletic success did not come at the expense of academic success, as he recently told Oregon High School students during a Relay for Life assembly.
“I was committed to being the hardest worker I could,” he said. “Not just in football, or the weight room, but in the classroom.”
And when people get together for a common goal, Considine said, “The sky is the limit.”
Considine, who lives in Byron with his wife and children, continues to be living proof of his philosophy. Intrigued by the growing popularity of farmers markets, he joined forces with a Creston meat and catering shop to create a mobile market featuring fresh meat.
His idea is unique to the state of Illinois, Considine discovered as he dealt with state regulators.
His travels include visits to Dixon three times a week.
The best part, he says, is that each night he can go home to his family.
Hard work, teamwork, innovative thinking and devotion to family constitute the pillars of success for Sean Considine.
Let young people benefit by his example.
The (Sterling) Daily Gazette