They call him Little Tricky Preschooler skateboards with the big dogs By ELIZABETH GILLESPIE, Associated Press
writer
Mitchie Brusco
of Seattle, Wash., can't tie his shoes yet and won't start kindergarten
until next year, but he does a mean pop shove-it on his pint-sized
skateboard and is already competing with the big dogs. At 5 years old,
this kid they call "Little Tricky" was the youngest to compete in the
Gravity Games Amateur Skatepark Series in Cleveland. He weighs 43
pounds, stands 43 inches tall -- not quite twice the length of his board
-- and can land tricks that kids three times his age can't. "He's
phenomenal," said Peter Carlisle, director of Olympic and action sports
for Octagon, a sports agency. "It is incredible to see him put down a
sippie cup and then go do these incredible things on a skateboard."
Several
companies are already sponsoring Mitchie, who lives with his mom, dad and
four siblings in suburban Kirkland. Jones Soda Co.
gives him free drinks, stickers and fake tattoos. DC Shoes sends him a new
pair of sneakers every month. Termite gives him skateboards. Triple Eight
Protective Gear gives him pads for his elbows and knees. Each company is
listed on his business card: Mitchie Brusco, Amateur Skateboard Teams.
He's
appeared in magazine ads and skateboard videos. There's even a "Little
Tricky" skateboard sold out of The Skate Key, a shop run by a friend of
the Bruscos in Centralia, Wash. "When you have a
kid like Mitchie, you can only shield them so much," said Carlisle, who
represents Mitchie and the Bruscos pro bono, giving them advice on how to
handle the flood of offers they get week by week. "What you try to do, is
help them figure out how to navigate their way through it without
adversely affecting Mitchie. All they want is for Mitchie to be happy."
By the looks of
things, it's working. "We're really
being careful," said his mother, Jennifer Brusco, a former professional
baseball player with the Colorado Silver Bullets who's now a stay-at-home
mom. "We've turned down a bunch of offers just because he's 5, and it's
supposed to be fun." Paul Swangard,
managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center in the University
of Oregon's business school, says he sees more companies keeping a closer
eye on promising young athletes. "The way the
sports industry has evolved, it's like prospecting for the next great
stock," Swangard said. "You kind of hope this is the one who will be the
next Tony Hawk, but the reality is, the chances of that are very small.
"You
have to worry for our industry if this becomes a more common practice," he
added. "At what point can't we just simply enjoy the pureness of sport and
let these kids be kids?" Mitchie has four
siblings -- Jessica, 12; Mikie, 11; Alexandra, 8; and Nicole, 3 -- and
while all of them are athletic, he's the only one who's taken to
skateboarding. It all started
two years ago, when he spotted a row of skateboards while walking through
a department store with his mom and said he just had to have one. "I don't know if
he saw the Tasmanian devil or the skateboard, but it started and it hasn't
stopped," Jennifer Brusco said. He coasts up and
down ramps wearing a helmet plastered with pictures of his brothers,
sisters and grandparents. Sometimes he lands his tricks. Sometimes he
takes a spill. Either way, he's usually off his board only as long as it
takes to get right back on. His parents have
a video that shows him trying to land a jump off a flight of stairs. He
falls six times in a row, barely hangs on the seventh time, then nails it
solid on his eighth try. Those who know
him say the tenacity is all his. "His mom is very
cool and calm and not pushy," said Patty Seder, founder and director of
the 400-member Pacific Northwest Amateur Skateboard League. "She doesn't
demand that he get out and skate. They go when he wants to go. It's not
the soccer mom from hell type of thing, and I don't see that very often."
Every
now and then after a hard fall or getting whacked in the shin by an errant
skateboard, he does what most 5-year-olds do and cries -- a lot. "When he gets
banged up on something, it'll take him a while to try it again," said his
father, Mick, a salesman for a lumber company. But his
hesitation doesn't usually last long. "He's quite the
daredevil," said Sandy Seeger, owner of The Skate Key and mother of
Mitchie's 12-year-old best friend, Brandon. "Typically, a kid will stand
at the top of a ramp and say, 'Oh, that's too steep,' but he just hits
it."
He's made enough of a name for himself that he's grown used to signing
autographs. He showed his stuff on NBC's "Today" show in early August soon
after the fourth annual Gravity Games, paying more attention to the ramps
than to host Matt Lauer. He placed 13th
out of 14 who competed in the Gravity Games' amateur skatepark series,
which airs Sunday on NBC. The next oldest competitor was 12. Another
Seattle-area kid, 16-year-old Aaron Johnson of Tacoma, took first place
and says Mitchie's moves impress him. "Most kids start
skateboarding when they're 10 or 12 years old," Johnson said, "and he's
already doing big things."
Related Links:
Pacific Northwest Amateur Skateboard League:
Gravity Games:
This
story appeared on Page B4 of The Standard-Times on October 15,
2002.
Advertising highlights from Today's
Standard-Times
Mitchie Brusco
of Seattle, Wash., can't tie his shoes yet and won't start kindergarten
until next year, but he does a mean pop shove-it on his pint-sized
skateboard and is already competing with the big dogs. 
