Power With A Purpose
By Jamie Morrison as told to Keri Collins Lewis
You can imagine the look on the cashier’s face when I put broken, bent, and half-destroyed items on the counter: blown-up hot water bottles, steel frying pans rolled up like burritos, broken 10-inch steel mill files. At hardware stores across America, the Power Team is always thinking up new feats of strength. You might’ve seen us—the big guys who break baseball bats with their bare hands or tear license plates in half. We have strength, but we use it to serve. Our message to young people: inspiration + motivation = personal achievement.
 I had a pretty good high school career in football, basketball, and baseball. I attended college on both football and baseball scholarships, but injuries marred my college career. I’ve had seven surgeries, which might seem sad, but I wouldn’t have ended up with the Power Team otherwise. Obviously, when I volunteered to help the Power Team when they visited my city 11 years ago, I had no idea I’d someday be in charge of their school assemblies. But at the end of our week together they asked me to try out for the team, and, shortly thereafter, I became a member. Each year I personally conduct about 200 school visits, and the team does 700 to 1,000, reaching nearly 1 million students.
The best part of my job is seeing the positive results from our efforts. We catch students’ attention with amazing feats of strength, and then we connect with them through our personal experiences in hopes of motivating them to pursue their dreams by making right choices. We aim to create an atmosphere of empowerment, to challenge young people toward greater personal achievement through education and positive choices. If nothing else, we challenge their thinking and attitude toward life and others. I’ve been handed razor blades, knives, suicide notes, and other items surrendered by students after assemblies. One boy stands out in my memory, though, because, immediately after a high school assembly, he marched down the bleachers, walked across the gym floor, and handed me a razor blade he’d hidden in a pen. The principal was standing next to me as he told me I had changed his life. He’d been cutting himself and said he knew he was working his way toward a suicide attempt. Other kids in his school had been telling him he was worthless and he should just kill himself. He told me he had started to believe them until we showed up and encouraged him. I’ll always remember his face and countenance.
Whenever I talk to athletes, I understand they want to be big, strong, fast, and powerful, just like the men of the Power Team. It just doesn’t happen overnight. Hard work and consistency will always yield positive results. Some kids think I’m in good shape simply because it’s my job, but my sports experiences, and my injuries, have taught me that I’ve been given one body to do my best with, so I try to treat it and use it thankfully and wisely. I don’t want my life, or enjoyment of life, to be cut short by poor choices or laziness. I exercise, eat smart, stay away from steroids and other illegal drugs, and do my best to get plenty of sleep (that last one is tough with four kids!).
When I first got involved in sports, I had no idea I would someday be crushing bricks with my head or breaking out of handcuffs. And while it’s pretty cool, there’s more to my life than strength and sports. I have a wonderful wife who has such a heart for America’s youth that she raises our kids by herself half the year. What I wish for my own children I wish for all of the young people I meet: make good choices all the days of your lives; save yourselves for marriage; stay away from drugs and alcohol; graduate from high school; pursue your career aspirations; and be an outstanding member of society. Above all else, be people of character and integrity, because that is true strength.
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