BATON ROUGE — Members of the LSU baseball team visited the children’s ward at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center on Monday as part of the Shaquille O’Neal CHAMPS/Life Skills program.
Senior catcher Nick Stavinoha, senior outfielder Rhett Buteau, junior outfielder Bruce Sprowl, freshman outfielder Kade Keowen and freshman pitcher Ryan Byrd made visits to the children in the hospital. The players spoke with the children and signed autographs.
The hospital visits are sponsored by the Shaquille O’Neal CHAMPS/Life Skills program. The CHAMPS (Challenging Athletes Minds for Personal Success)/Life Skills Program was designed by the NCAA to help student-athletes realize higher academic achievement, increase likelihood of graduation and enter a chosen profession with a higher level of vision, knowledge, motivation, self-responsibility and greater overall success. In Spring 2003, the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program at LSU honored one of the Tigers’ most memorable graduates, Shaquille O’Neal, by naming the program after him.