It’s another sad day in our country as a school shooting in Georgia shocks us for a second before the powers that be return to nonsense. So let’s find a sensible pivot. A revisit and an update on good.
The worries we have about our children may ebb and flow, but they never really disappear, always below the surface. It’s part of parenting. When we hear of unspeakable tragedy we often wonder what good can come out of senselessness, how can someone find light in a rainstorm. We have a friend who found such light, and while that it is not always a healing force for what lurks below the surface, it is noteworthy, noble and certainly worth championing.
Our friend Steve Panus, now runs his own agency called Twisted Hairs and is the former President of Communications for The Jockey Club Media Ventures and America’s Best Racing and in August 2020, his family lost their son Jake, a 16-year-old resident of Southport, Ct in a DUI accident. Jake grew up sporting a South Carolina jersey at a young age and dreamed of one day playing for the Gamecocks, and his dream, as those of his family and friends, were tragically taken away that day.
But Steve, his family and a growing legion of supporters have found a way to properly honor Jake’s life through a series of scholarships which will reward not just football players, but members of the Indigenous community which Jake had gotten to know well through his church work. In late August the latest example of passing it forward took place, as South Carolina kicker Alex Herrera became the fourth Jake Panus Walk On Scholarship recipient.
The Jake Panus Walk-on Football Endowed Scholarship provides a walk-on football player who, through hard work and perseverance, earns an athletic scholarship and contributes toward the success of the Gamecock football team, the University and the community at large. The student-athlete will share Jake’s leadership attributes while demonstrating a motivated work ethic, fierce determination, team-first mentality, and grit on the football field.
Herrera graduated with a sport and entertainment management degree and is working towards a Master’s in that same program. He was recognized with the President’s Outstanding Student-Athlete Award at the 2024 Garnet & Black Spring Game.
That means that in just three years the family has handed multiple college scholarships, all earned through hard work, perseverance, commitment to their program, university and community, and grit. Also not to be overlooked, Steve authored a book, Walk On, that goes through the unimaginable process and provides light and inspiration to those who need it most.
The other scholarships will and are happening far away from the gridiron, all linked through the aura of Jake Panus. The reservation’s small Red Cloud High School educates any of the reservation’s students that chose to attend.
As we all know, the world we live in has short memories. The buzz, positive, or negative, gets swept away like the tide as we move on to the next challenge, drama or opportunity. Sustaining memory is very difficult and fleeting. However in building a legacy, The Panus family has found a way to envelope hope and good out of the unspeakable. That is virtuous beauty personified, and worthy not just of support, but of praise and acknowledgement for decades to come. There are few better at crafting a story than Steve Panus, and while this is one he would surely pass off and return if possible, its positive endings will keep bearing fruit, probably as Jake would have wanted. Sustaining good, in a world that doesn’t always seek the light.
For more information on the Jake Panus Walk On Football Scholarship at the University of South Carolina: https://donate.sc.edu/AG/sfp/ath/jake-panus-walk-on-football-endowed-scholarship
It’s worth your time.
