North Texas Gets Veteran Leadership

Iraq War Vet Rich Young, An Ex-Marine, Went From Iraq's Ambush Alley To The NCAA Tournament

(CBS)  The players who make up the Mean Green basketball team from the University of North Texas may be one of the biggest underdogs of the NCAA tournament, CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports.

But as they prepare to play this Friday, they have a secret weapon: No. 13, guard Rich Young.

Young isn't the star — he doesn't score the most points. But when the game is on the line, his fellow players say "he has ice water in his veins. nothing can shake him." In fact, he says that there is nothing he can think of that rattles him.

That's because before he was a Mean Green Eagle, he was a Marine. Young signed up straight out of high school, passing up two scholarships for military life.

"It was a challenge for me, and I didn't really feel mature enough for school at the time," Young says.

Instead, Young went to war in Iraq. A sergeant, he helped guard convoys from surprise attacks along a road known as Ambush Alley. But it wasn't just the fighting that changed him.

"The way people had to live and the suffering that was going on and people getting killed every day," Young says. "It made me more appreciative of what we have here in the U.S."

Young, 26, said it also made him a better basketball player. To the guys around him, he's more than that.

"A lot of us are still young and we look up to Rich as an example of how to lead our life," says one player.

Those same qualities that make a commander proud now help him keep his cool on the court.

"What you call pressure isn't really pressure. What you think you're nervous for isn't really a big deal. At the end of the day, it's just basketball," Young explains.

Maybe, but how many Marines do you know who don't like to win?

[arieke-2009]

Go Mean Green!

[ergosum3]

I think I'm making the University of North Texas my pick to win it all this year. Rich Young is the best that America has to offer the world, in so many ways.

G_d bless you, Rich!