Hard work and persistence paid off for Panthers’ Slade

Every Saturday during the fall, Lamar Slade steps onto the football field amidst cheers of… Every Saturday during the fall, Lamar Slade steps onto the football field amidst cheers of thousands of Panther fans. They yell like he is their best friend when he catches the ball and they boo on the rare occasion he doesn’t.

They might keep track of how many yards per catch the senior wide receiver averages or how many touchdowns he has this season, but many of them probably don’t know what goes on in Slade’s life during the other six days of the week.

While many of those days are spent concentrating on football, Slade claims that he is just like any other Pitt student who puts his or her pants on one leg at a time.

“I’m just a guy who plays football – I’m just like anybody else,” Slade said about how people might picture him as different because of his time spent in the spotlight.

But playing football at a Division I-A school requires so much time and effort that anyone who does play has to be different from other students. Between classes, practice and all the extra work that goes into being a successful athlete, it’s hard not to think of a football player as different from a normal student.

For Slade, a typical day begins when he wakes up around 6 a.m. Because of nagging injuries to his hamstring and hip, Slade has to get up that early to receive treatment for both injuries. After that, it’s off to class until 2 p.m. before heading over to the Panthers’ South Side practice facility.

“Most of the time after class, I’m up [on the South Side] until 8[p.m.] for practice and meetings and preparation,” Slade said. “Basically my whole day is gone.”

Also mixed into that schedule are the two or three hours per week that Slade spends in the weight room. However, during the off-season, that number jumps to two or three hours a day.

“I kind of limit that during the season because we have games on Saturdays, I don’t want to tire out,” he said. “I think to be a good football player you have to be able to keep your body up and stay strong throughout the season, because if you don’t lift and prepare your body, it’s going to eventually catch up to you in the end.”

But with the amount of work that is put in after the season is over, there really isn’t an off-season. For Slade, it’s the perfect time to get better for the upcoming season, both mentally and physically.

“You’re out running, conditioning, strength training, you can be in the film room preparing for what you got to do,” Slade said.

However, until this year, not too many people knew if Slade was capable of putting in the hard work needed to get to the next level.

During his first three years at Pitt, Slade picked up the reputation of not having a serious interest in football, which essentially led to the perception that he was lazy. For a player that was supposed to be Pitt’s most experienced wide receiver this season, it could have been disastrous for the team.

“Going into the year, that was one of the biggest things I wanted to change,” Slade said. “I don’t think too much that I was lazy, I just wasn’t into it like I needed to be. I mean, I love the game of football, it’s just that I always had some good receivers in front of me and I didn’t think that it was my job to work hard.”

“The thing that [Lamar] did this year is that he totally erased that from people’s minds,” fellow wide receiver Yogi Roth said about his teammate’s focus. “I don’t think people realize how hard that is to kind of shed a stereotype and to do it within six months is tremendous and it’s a credit to his work ethic.”

After deciding to work harder during the summer, Slade came to Roth, seeking someone to help him prepare for the season. Using some workout tactics that he learned from former Pitt players and creating new ones of his own, Roth helped Slade improve every aspect of his game.

“Over the summer [Roth] really worked with me and he brought to me the definition of hard work,” Slade said. “I think I always had the physical tools, but he brought to my attention that all the physical tools don’t mean nothing unless you put work in.”

And they both put in plenty of work, going through their workouts during the summer mornings before getting ready for the afternoon practice sessions. That work ethic has run over into the season and has helped them become better friends.

“After practice on Tuesday nights, we’ll stay to 8 or 8:30 [p.m.] and we’ll watch the practice film and we’ll go at each other,” Roth said. “If we’re slacking off in practice, he’s the first guy to yell at me and I’m the first guy to yell at him.”

Although it consumes much of his time, there are other things that Slade, majoring in communications with a concentration in theater, can find time for outside football.

“I’ve been doing theater since I was 8 years old,” Slade said. “It’s something I wouldn’t mind doing for the future.”

Despite his “jokester” personality, Slade prefers to be cast in a serious role when he does have the chance to participate in a play, which he feels is something that would surprise most people.

“I’m just the type of guy who like to act silly all the time,” Slade said. “I think it’s part of being a good actor, playing different roles than your own personality.”

No matter what he does, Slade is always trying to make the best of it.

“Lamar understands that this is a game and you have to have fun and if you prepare yourself during the week, Saturday is just a great time,” Roth said. “I guarantee if you look through [his] facemask every Saturday, he’s smiling the most because he’s having a blast and he loves what he’s doing.”