TALLADEGA – With the 2010-2011 school year starting in less than a week, teachers employed with the Talladega City Schools got a pep talk on Wednesday morning.

Faculty and staff for the city schools were encouraged to embrace the attributes of a champion.

Former All-American Jeremiah Castille spoke to teachers, staff members and Talladega High School football players in Harwell Auditorium as part of Talladega City Schools’ teacher institute. Castille, who played football for Paul “Bear” Bryant at The University of Alabama and later for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Denver Broncos, challenged those present to “put your best foot forward” and make an impact in the lives of the students they teach and coach this year.

“We can get everybody motivated and excited about the challenge that you have,” Castille said. “It is a challenge. But all champions love a challenge.”

Castille talked about coming from a home life where alcohol and domestic violence were prevalent. While he couldn’t change where he came from, Castille said he worked to make sure he lived a different life. He equated the situations a person is born into to what fills a person’s backpack.

“I was born with certain things in my backpack in Columbus, Ga.,” Castille said. “One of those things that was in my backpack, there was alcoholism amongst my parents. Both my parents were alcoholics. In that backpack was domestic violence. In that backpack were two parents with a fourth-grade education. That’s what was in the backpack. I had no control of what was in the backpack. But what I did have control over was what I took out.

“It’s not about what’s in your backpack.”

Castille said teachers could be a positive influence on the children they educate. He added understanding a student’s home life can help explain how the people behave in the classroom.

“You need to know what’s going on at home,” he said. “Because what’s going on at home is acted out in the classroom. I was suspended, expelled, you name it, as a student. But there was potential in me. Coaches and teachers, that’s what you’ve got to know. There’s potential in each and every person that God puts in your presence.”

Castille encouraged teachers and the football players present to do their best at everything they attempted this year.

“Coaches, teachers, what is it that you’re trying to accomplish in the 2010-2011 school year,” Castille asked. “I believe regardless of what it is, you want to be the best. If you’re a science teacher, you (should) want to be the best. If you’re an assistant coach, you should want to be the best assistant coach. If you’re the librarian, you should say ‘this is going to be the best library in the whole state of Alabama, in the country.’ Because your name is on it. Everything that you sign out, you sign your name to that program.”

The football player-turned-motivational speaker also told the athletes to focus on work in the classroom as well as work on the gridiron.

“If you’re not competing in the classroom you need to put football down because you’re going to live more of your life without football than you will with it,” Castille said. “When my boys were coming along if they didn’t keep a B-average they couldn’t play. I didn’t care about football. I knew what my ticket was to get to where I wanted to go.”

Castille closed his presentation by telling those present the acronym for champion he uses when speaking to athletes and students. Using the letters making up the word, Castille said champions have character, honor, attitude, master their skills, passion, inspiration, optimism and they never give up.

“If you are involved with these students, you have a calling,” Castille said. “I pray this is not a profession for you. If this is a profession, you need to quit. Find something else to do. Because you are going to ruin a lot of people. It’s a calling. You put in whatever it takes to get it done.”

Contact Heather Baggett at hbaggett@dailyhome.com